Two transparent line items. Everything else included.
Two line items.
A competitive metal spread at acquisition and exit, plus the vaulting rate at the chosen facility. Both are disclosed in writing before any metal is purchased.
Strategy and implementation included.
Reviewed Strategy Brief, founder-led implementation, custody coordination, complete documentation, and the first year of review.
No surprises at exit.
Sell-side spreads and exit pathways are disclosed before the buy. Nothing material is discovered after engagement.
The Office charges in only two places: a competitive spread on the metal at acquisition and exit, and the vaulting rate at the chosen facility. Both are disclosed in writing before any purchase.
The reviewed Physical Reserve Strategy Brief, founder-led implementation, custody coordination, complete documentation, titling coordination, and the first year of review are included with every qualified engagement. There is no separate brief fee, advisory charge, AUM percentage, or performance fee.
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. Worked examples follow at $500K, $1.25M, and $5M+; the format-by-format spread ranges are tabulated further down. 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, and is named in writing in the brief.
On the architectural reasoning for which metal does which job inside a private reserve, see Office Note 05 — Silver vs. gold in a reserve.
What this looks like at $500K, $1.25M, and $5M+.
Three illustrative reserve sizes composed from the published spread ranges (tabulated by format further down). Indicative within those 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.
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
Mix of 1kg gold and Good Delivery; silver allocation in 1000 ozt bars where the brief specifies it.
- Buy spread
- $6,000 – $18,000
- Sell spread, at exit
- $5,000 – $10,000
- Vaulting, year 1
- $4,500 – $7,000 / yr (36–56 bps)
- Brief & implementation
- Included
Good Delivery–dominant composition with kilo bars; silver in Good Delivery format for liquidity layering at exit.
- Buy spread
- $15,000 – $35,000
- Sell spread, at exit
- $12,500 – $25,000
- Vaulting, year 1
- $16,500 – $25,000 / yr (33–50 bps)
- Brief & implementation
- Included
The economics are on the page. The brief writes them to your situation.
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.
Spread ranges by metal and format.
The published bands behind the worked examples above. Reading the detail alongside the examples gives the full picture; the specific figure on either side firms at the time of each transaction.
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.
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.
400 ozt Good Delivery gold bars
Institutional Good Delivery format — the tightest spread; preferred for Family Reserve and large Private Reserve engagements.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Platinum & palladium
Sourced on client request; pricing reflects the platinum-group metals market and is named in writing at 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.
Foundation Reserve · $250K–$499KSame Strategy Brief, same architectural commitments, same two-line-item pricing — in a smaller envelope. Worked-through buy / sell / vault bands for this tier are published on the Foundation Reserve page.
Negotiated at company level. Passed through without markup.
Storage across the three-facility panel — the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault, IDS, and Brinks — is priced at a wholesale rate negotiated at company level across aggregate engagement volume. The Office passes that rate through to the client without markup; vaulting is not a revenue line for the Office. 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.
Faster execution, fully insured
Classed, US-domestic vaulting with all metals fully insured under all-risk coverage. The practical advantage at this facility is execution speed: because the metal is already held there, sells can be settled without inter-facility movement. The negotiated wholesale rate is passed through to the client without markup.
US-domestic operations
Fully allocated and segregated; all metals fully insured under all-risk coverage. The negotiated wholesale rate is passed through to the client without markup.
On request
Available on client request. Fully allocated and segregated; all metals fully insured.
The strategy is written. The implementation is included.
The reviewed Strategy Brief and the end-to-end implementation that follows are the Office’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 too often reduced to a sales-floor pitch.
- Reviewed 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, IDS, or Brinks
- 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)
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
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.
Transparent pricing
Round-trip metal spreads and vaulting rates are named in writing — no hidden charges, no separately-billed advisory fees.
No surprise costs. Round-trip economics visible before purchase. Benchmarkable at exit against the metal at market.
Named refiner provenance
Higher acquisition cost than opaque sourcing through intermediaries.
Refined at Argor-Heraeus, MKS PAMP, or Valcambi — named on the bar and in the chain.
Allocated and segregated custody
Higher storage cost than pooled or fractional models.
Specific bars designated to the client at the Utah-based Precious Metals Vault, IDS, or Brinks — not a share of a pool, not a net-asset claim.
Form named before execution
No room for opportunistic inventory placement at purchase time.
The brief specifies Good Delivery, kilo, or sovereign bullion coin — and the reasoning — before any metal is purchased.
Exit posture written before entry
Sell-side spreads and exit pathways are disclosed up-front in the brief.
No exit-liquidity surprise. The plan to sell is written before the plan to buy.
No national paid media for the metals product itself
Slower growth. No national-scale demand generation.
The margin required to fund a national-media footprint is the margin the client would pay. The Office does not run that math.
No predictions, no fear-marketing
Smaller content audience. Narrower SEO surface.
The client is never asked to decide under manufactured fear. History and structure only.
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-media advertising at the $15M–$40M-plus annual footprint — primetime spots, regional and digital retargeting, spokesperson fees, production and agency overhead — cannot be funded on bullion-grade margin. The arithmetic does not permit it. At 3% gross margin on bullion, a firm would need $500M to $1.3B in annual bullion sales to cover the media. At 30–50% gross margin on premium-product placement, the same footprint is covered by a fraction of the volume — with the difference extracted from the client.
The arithmetic leaves very little room for a third path. A firm running national-media advertising 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’s commitments are the architectural answer: no national paid media for the metals product, no premium-product placement, no manufactured urgency. 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.
Three documents. One defensible packet for your advisor.
Clients considering the Office regularly share three URLs with their attorney, CPA, or trustee 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.
This document.
The pricing, the architectural commitments that enforce it, and the industry arithmetic that governs the categories.
You are reading it →What the deliverable looks like.
A composite rendering of a Private Reserve Strategy Brief for a $1M–$5M engagement. Composite content on the left; annotation on the right.
Read the annotated brief →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 →Three additional public-facing references answer the operational questions an advisor doing diligence raises before recommending an engagement: Custody, Documentation & Insurance (operational custody mechanics); Titling & Ownership (sophisticated ownership structures, attorney-readable); Exit Architecture (the operational exit pathway, sell-side spreads, the buyback counterparty structure).
Three additional advisor-reference pages address the brief from the seat of the professional reading alongside the client: For Attorneys, For CPAs, and For Trustees. The operational rhythm of year one is on Engagement Timeline.
The eight architectural commitments and the standing rules under which the Office operates — the role line, the four “nots,” the conflicts posture, the standing engagement commitment — are the Standards of Practice. Where the Office sits relative to the adjacent categories of physical precious-metals access is on The Comparison Class.
The Office is not a registered investment adviser, not a fiduciary, not a law firm, and not a tax adviser. The Office’s scope is procurement, custody coordination, documentation, and exit pathway for a directly-titled physical precious-metals reserve. Legal, tax, and fiduciary decisions sit with the client’s attorney, CPA, and trustee under their respective retainers. The standing engagement commitment is operational and verifiable: two transparent line items in writing in the brief before any metal is purchased, the vaulting rate passed through to the client without markup, and the named-counterparty exit pathway. Written so a client’s attorney, CPA, or trustee can read it alongside the brief and verify the Office’s commitments independently.
Two transparent line items. The strategy is written. The implementation is included.
The brief is what turns a decision into a position.
The Office accepts a small number of new engagements each quarter. The reviewed brief reads the household’s situation against the structural argument and writes the position — bars, titling, depository, exit — into a document a successor can read.
The metal is yours — not a fund’s, not a claim on any counterparty.
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.
The Office accepts a small number of new engagements each quarter. Selection is by considered fit, not by pace of inbound.