Hard Asset Reserve
§PRPricing

Two transparent line items. Everything else included.

What you pay

Two line items.

A competitive metal spread at acquisition and exit, plus a vaulting rate at the chosen facility. Both named in writing before any metal is purchased.

What is included

The brief is the deliverable.

Reviewed eight-section Strategy Brief, founder-led implementation, custody coordination, complete documentation, and the first year of review.

What you see at exit

Round-trip on the page.

Sell-side spreads and exit pathways are written before the buy. No surprise at exit; nothing material discovered after engagement.

The Office charges in two places: a competitive spread on the metal at acquisition and exit, and a vaulting rate at the chosen facility, negotiated at company level and passed to the client at a discount to retail. Both are named in writing before any metal is purchased.

The reviewed eight-section Physical Reserve Strategy Brief, founder-led advisory through implementation, custody coordination, complete documentation chain, titling coordination, and the first year of review are included with every qualified engagement. There is no separate brief fee, no advisory or consulting charge, no AUM percentage, no performance fee. The pricing is the pricing.

§01Metal pricing

Bullion at competitive wholesale spreads. Buy and sell, by format.

The Office sources investment-grade gold, silver, platinum, and palladium through direct counterparty relationships — bars from the top-tier Swiss refiners (Argor-Heraeus, MKS PAMP, Valcambi) and sovereign bullion coinage from the major government mints (US Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, Perth Mint, Austrian Mint, Royal Mint, South African Mint, and others). The same wholesale market that supplies the major institutional buyers. Buy and sell spread ranges are published below by format and named in writing in the brief. The specific figure on either side firms at the time of that transaction — buy at purchase, sell at sale — against the then-current LBMA fix and market conditions.

Gold

1kg gold bars

Standard private-client investment format. Refined at Argor-Heraeus, MKS PAMP, or Valcambi. The most common base format for Strategic and Private Reserve engagements.

Buy — acquisition
Spot + 0.75% to 1.50%
Sell — exit
Spot − 0.50% to 0.75%

100g gold bars

A step smaller than the kilo — popular for divisibility within a kilo allocation. Same Swiss refiners; per-ounce premium scales up at the smaller format.

Buy — acquisition
Spot + 1.50% to 3.00%
Sell — exit
Spot − 0.75% to 1.00%

400 ozt Good Delivery gold bars

Institutional Good Delivery format — the tightest spread; preferred for Family Reserve and large Private Reserve engagements.

Buy — acquisition
Spot + 0.30% to 0.60%
Sell — exit
Spot − 0.30% to 0.50%

Sovereign gold coinage

Investment-grade gold coins from the major sovereign mints: American Eagles and Buffalos (US Mint), Canadian Maple Leafs (Royal Canadian Mint), Australian Kangaroos (Perth Mint), Austrian Philharmonics (Austrian Mint), British Britannias and Sovereigns (Royal Mint), South African Krugerrands (South African Mint). Coin-format premium applies and varies by mint and design.

Buy — acquisition
Quoted on engagement
Sell — exit
Quoted on engagement
Silver

1000 ozt Good Delivery silver bars

Lowest purchase premium per ounce for silver. Institutional Good Delivery format; preferred when the silver allocation is sized for a Private or Family Reserve engagement.

Buy — acquisition
Spot + 3.00% to 6.00%
Sell — exit
Spot − 1.50% to 2.20%

Other silver bar formats

Covers 100 ozt institutional brand bars, 1kg (~32 ozt) silver from the Swiss refiners, and retail-grade formats from 1 ozt through 10 ozt. Per-ounce premium varies materially within the range; the specific figure firms at the time of that transaction by format.

Buy — acquisition
Spot + 4.00% to 7.00%
Sell — exit
Spot − 1.80% to 2.50%

Sovereign silver coinage

Investment-grade silver coins from the major sovereign mints: American Silver Eagles (US Mint), Canadian Silver Maple Leafs (Royal Canadian Mint), Australian Kookaburras and Kangaroos (Perth Mint), Austrian Silver Philharmonics (Austrian Mint), British Silver Britannias (Royal Mint), South African Silver Krugerrands (South African Mint).

Buy — acquisition
Quoted on engagement
Sell — exit
Quoted on engagement
Platinum & palladium

Platinum & palladium

Sourced on client request; pricing reflects the platinum-group metals market and is named in writing at engagement.

Buy — acquisition
Quoted on engagement
Sell — exit
Quoted on engagement

Buy and sell spreads can both change due to fluctuating market conditions. Specific figures firm at the time of each transaction — buy at purchase, sell at sale — against the then-current LBMA fix.

Worked through

What this looks like at $500K, $1M, and $2M.

Three illustrative reserve sizes composed from the ranges above. Indicative within the published bands; the specific figure on either side firms at the time of that transaction against the then-current LBMA fix and market conditions. Pass-through logistics (insured shipping, cross-jurisdictional movement) are named separately at intake.

Strategic Reserve
$500,000

Gold-dominant, predominantly 100g and 1kg bars; sovereign coinage as needed for divisibility.

Buy spread
$3,750 – $15,000
Sell spread, at exit
$2,500 – $5,000
Vaulting, year 1
$2,000 – $3,000 / yr (40–60 bps)
Brief & implementation
Included
Private Reserve
$1,000,000

Mix of 1kg gold and Good Delivery; silver allocation in 1000 ozt bars where the brief specifies it.

Buy spread
$5,000 – $20,000
Sell spread, at exit
$4,000 – $10,000
Vaulting, year 1
$4,000 – $6,000 / yr (40–60 bps)
Brief & implementation
Included
Private / Family Reserve
$2,000,000

Good Delivery–leaning composition with kilo bars; silver in Good Delivery format for liquidity layering at exit.

Buy spread
$7,000 – $17,000
Sell spread, at exit
$6,000 – $12,000
Vaulting, year 1
$8,000 – $12,000 / yr (40–60 bps)
Brief & implementation
Included
Foundation Reserve

$250,000 – $499,000

The same eight-section Strategy Brief, the same architectural commitments, and the same two-line-item pricing — in a smaller envelope, with a single-facility custody default at the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault. A $250,000 reserve at this tier composes mostly to kilo gold and sovereign coinage, with worked-through buy / sell / vault bands published on the Foundation Reserve page.

Read the Foundation Reserve →
Round-trip economics on the page

Buy AND sell spread ranges are published together, by format, so the round-trip economics are visible before any metal is purchased. The exit pathway, counterparties, and expected sell-side spreads are named in §07 of the brief alongside the buy-side. Both buy and sell spreads move with market conditions — the actual figure on either side firms at the time of that transaction. No exit-liquidity surprise — the plan to sell is written before the plan to buy.

§02Vaulting

Negotiated at company level. Passed to the client at a discount.

Storage across the three-facility panel — the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault, Brinks, and IDS — is priced at a wholesale rate negotiated at company level across aggregate engagement volume. The client receives that rate at a discount to what they would obtain going directly to the depository at retail. All metals at all three facilities are fully insured under all-risk coverage (typically Lloyd’s-underwritten); the rate the client pays is named in writing at engagement, scaled to the chosen facility and the size of the holding.

Utah-based Precious Metals Vault

Faster execution, better rate, fully insured

Classed, US-domestic vaulting with all metals fully insured under all-risk coverage. Two practical advantages over the external depositories: typically a better storage rate, and faster sale execution because the metal is already held at the facility — sells can be settled without inter-facility movement. The most cost-efficient and operationally responsive option for most engagements.

Brinks

Institutional-tier US depository

Fully allocated and segregated; all metals fully insured under all-risk coverage underwritten at Lloyd’s of London.

IDS · International Depository Services

US-domestic operations

Fully allocated and segregated; all metals fully insured. Competitive rate at a negotiated wholesale tier.

The pricing is named. The brief is included.

The Office accepts a small number of new engagements each quarter. The reviewed eight-section Strategy Brief is delivered within five business days of intake.

§03Included with every qualified engagement

The brief is the deliverable. It is included.

The reviewed eight-section Strategy Brief and the end-to-end implementation that follows are HAR’s signature deliverable. They are not separately billed. They are how the Office earns the engagement and how the client receives a written, structured answer to a question that most operators reduce to a sales-floor pitch.

  • Reviewed eight-section Physical Reserve Strategy Brief, written and reviewed by a founding partner
  • Metal sourced in your name through direct counterparty relationships with the top-tier Swiss refiners (Argor-Heraeus, MKS PAMP, Valcambi)
  • Allocated and segregated custody coordination at the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault, Brinks, or IDS
  • Titling coordination with your attorney
  • Complete documentation chain (invoices, depository holdings statement, storage agreements, summary of all-risk coverage)
  • First year of written review (semi-annual cadence available at the Family Reserve tier)
Pass-through line items, named at intake

Logistics that vary materially by engagement size, jurisdiction, and product format are passed through at cost — named in the brief at intake, not absorbed into the headline rate. This keeps small engagements from subsidizing larger ones and keeps larger engagements from under-pricing the actual logistics required.

  • Insured shipping and armored transport from refiner / source to depository
  • Cross-jurisdictional logistics where the engagement crosses borders or jurisdictions
  • Specialized handling for Good Delivery or larger bar formats requiring multi-leg insured movement
§04The architectural commitments

Seven structural choices. Every one a cost. Every one a protection.

Each row below is a structural decision the Office has made that a less principled operator would not. Each costs the Office a margin, a growth channel, or an operational shortcut. Each protects the client from a documented mechanism of harm.

01
Architectural choice

Transparent pricing

Cost to the Office

Round-trip metal spreads and vaulting rates are named in writing — no hidden charges, no separately-billed advisory fees.

Protection to the client

No surprise costs. Round-trip economics visible before purchase. Benchmarkable at exit against the metal at market.

02
Architectural choice

Named refiner provenance

Cost to the Office

Higher acquisition cost than opaque sourcing through intermediaries.

Protection to the client

Refined at Argor-Heraeus, MKS PAMP, or Valcambi — named on the bar and in the chain.

03
Architectural choice

Allocated and segregated custody

Cost to the Office

Higher storage cost than pooled or fractional models.

Protection to the client

Specific bars designated to the client at the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault, Brinks, or IDS — not a share of a pool, not a net-asset claim.

04
Architectural choice

Form named before execution

Cost to the Office

No room for opportunistic inventory placement at purchase time.

Protection to the client

The brief specifies Good Delivery, kilo, or sovereign bullion coin — and the reasoning — before any metal is purchased.

05
Architectural choice

Exit posture written before entry

Cost to the Office

Sell-side spreads and exit pathways are disclosed up-front in the brief.

Protection to the client

No exit-liquidity surprise. The plan to sell is written before the plan to buy.

06
Architectural choice

No celebrity endorsement, no paid media

Cost to the Office

Slower growth. No national-scale demand generation.

Protection to the client

The margin required to fund a celebrity media footprint is the margin the client pays. The Office does not run that math.

07
Architectural choice

No predictions, no fear-marketing

Cost to the Office

Smaller content audience. Narrower SEO surface.

Protection to the client

The client is never asked to decide under manufactured fear. History and structure only.

§05The arithmetic of the industry

The math decides which side of the line a firm operates on.

Bullion-grade metal carries tight margins. A 1 ozt sovereign bullion coin trades at 2–5% over the London spot fix. A 400 ozt Good Delivery bar trades at fractions of a percent above spot at institutional wholesale. Allocated storage runs 0.12–1.5% annual, most of which is consumed by vault, insurance, and audit cost.

National celebrity-endorsed cable-television advertising costs a $15M–$40M-plus annual footprint — primetime spots, regional and digital retargeting, celebrity spokesperson fees, production and agency overhead. A firm funding that footprint cannot do so on the margin of bullion-grade metal. The arithmetic does not permit it. At 3% gross margin on bullion, the firm would need $500M to $1.3B in annual bullion sales to cover the media. At 30–50% gross margin on numismatic or “semi-numismatic” coinage marketed under “rare” or “exclusive” framing, the same footprint is covered by a tenth of the volume — with the difference extracted from the client.

There is no third path. A celebrity-endorsed gold firm running national media is, as an accounting reality, funding that media out of the gap between what the client paid and what the metal is worth at exit. That gap is the structural definition of what the Federal Trade Commission has been prosecuting.

The Office has elected the inverse commitment: no celebrity, no national paid media, no numismatic product, no manufactured fear. The Office absorbs the smaller growth rate. The client absorbs no hidden premium structure. A firm that could not afford to make those choices could not make them.

§06Read this alongside the brief

Three documents. One defensible packet for your advisor.

Clients considering the Office regularly share three URLs with their attorney, CPA, or fiduciary advisor before engaging. Each document is designed to be read independently; together they are the complete picture of how the Office operates and what it produces.

Pricing

This document.

The pricing, the architectural commitments that enforce it, and the industry arithmetic that governs the categories.

You are reading it
The brief, annotated

What the deliverable looks like.

A composite rendering of an eight-section Private Reserve Strategy Brief for a $1M–$5M engagement. Composite content on the left; annotation on the right.

Read the annotated brief
The brief, printed

The document a client holds.

A 24-page print-ready rendering of the same composite brief — front and back matter, section spreads, and closing documentation. The deliverable exactly as a real client receives it.

Open the 24-page document
§AXStandard

Two transparent line items. The brief is the deliverable. It is included.

Hard Asset Reserve
§CXBegin

The reserve is not in place until it is in place.

The Office accepts a small number of new engagements each quarter. Every month of delay is a month the foundation of the stack is missing.

Structural

The metal is yours — not a fund’s, not a claim on any counterparty.

Service

Reviewed brief delivered in five business days of intake. The engagement structure is named in the brief — you proceed only if both fit your situation.

Capacity

The Office accepts a small number of new engagements each quarter. Selection is by considered fit, not by pace of inbound.