Five kinds of fees
- Dealer premium: the selling price of the particular bar or coin above its metal spot-value reference. This may include dealer compensation.
- Buyback discount: what the dealer would pay below spot for the same metal when you sell. The full round-trip spread depends on both purchase and sale prices.
- Custody / administration: the fee for maintaining and reporting the self-directed IRA.
- Storage / insurance: fees for storing IRA-eligible metal in an authorized custody arrangement. Segregated and commingled storage may differ.
- Transaction, setup and closure: charges for buying, moving, selling, funding, wiring, and closing accounts.
One published schedule: STRATA Trust
STRATA currently publishes a specific Precious Metals Tier. We use this as a transparent example because the primary source is available publicly. These are custodian charges, not all-in dealer quotes.
| Official published line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Precious Metals Tier annual IRA fee | $150 |
| Commingled storage | $115 / year |
| Segregated storage | $175 / year |
| Electronic setup | Waived |
| Paper setup | $50 |
| Precious-metal purchase, sale or exchange | $40 per transaction |
| Depository handling / processing | $35 |
| Account closure | $250 |
Source: STRATA Trust Company official fees, retrieved October 29, 2026. Some exceptions or other third-party costs may apply; schedules can change. Not an endorsement.
What cannot honestly be estimated from a custodian schedule
The custodian generally doesn't specify the precise retail metal product the dealer will sell you or at what price. Dealer pricing can differ by product, inventory, sales channel and customer quotation. A generic provider “annual fee” table cannot tell you the full cost of the transaction.
What about free silver or waived first-year fees?
Evaluate the total price of the entire package. If you receive a “free” promotion, ask whether the metal purchase premium changes or the dealer has embedded the promotion in the quoted price. Do not assume an offer is free in economic terms without price comparisons.
Three current custodian fee disclosures
Our comparison table includes STRATA Trust, Equity Trust and The Entrust Group, and recalculates known public fee components by balance, number of metal asset types and storage choice. We only present a combined known annual amount where both administration and storage figures are public; otherwise the result is clearly incomplete. Official sources: STRATA, Equity Trust, Entrust.
How we compare providers
- Record each published line and the source link.
- Keep dealer prices separate from custodian charges.
- Mark unpublished figures as not disclosed, not zero.
- Compare products of the same purity, weight and type.
- Show the verification date and changes to any fee schedule.
- Never present a sponsorship or lead payout as a cheaper price.
For broader investor protections, review the CFTC and FINRA investor guidance.
Educational content. Fees are not fixed guarantees; request current written terms directly from the provider.