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GoldCore Secure Storage

There are several key benefits that differentiate GoldCore Secure Storage from other forms of gold investment including gold ETFs, digital gold platforms and other storage providers. These key benefits make GoldCore Secure Storage a safer and frequently a more cost-effective way to invest in gold and silver.

Hence for investors, first time buyers of gold and silver bullion or indeed those looking to select a new storage partner, GoldCore Secure Storage is the prudent choice when seeking to protect and grow wealth. The degree of transparency, safety and accessibility is unparalleled and the costs are low due to the security and value provided.

UK investors (those tax resident in the UK) have the added advantage of being able to invest in gold and silver capital gains tax (CGT) free with legal tender gold coins – Britannias and Sovereigns. This makes these gold and silver investments the most cost effective when considered in terms of total expenses including all taxes.

Key Benefits of GoldCore Secure Storage:

  • Safest Vaults and Jurisdictions Globally
  • Outright Legal Ownership – Fully Segregated & Allocated Coins and Bars
  • Competitive Storage Rates
  • Independent Verification and Full Audits by Inspectorate International
  • Ability to Inspect Vault and Bullion Holding in Vaults
  • Ability to Take Delivery of Coins and Bars Directly from Vaults
  • Real Transparency, Liquidity, Competitive Pricing and Accessibility

At GoldCore, our mission statement since 2003 has been to protect and grow our client's wealth.

We have done this through the provision of precious metals ownership in the safest ways possible – insured delivery and the securest vaults internationally. We assist our UK and international clients with the purchase, sale and secure storage of allocated gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion.

We have built a global network of storage, logistics and insurance partners that work with us in safeguarding the gold and silver bullion securely stored for our clients.

We have developed a global secure storage solution since international storage is vital as a prudent geopolitical diversification strategy. GoldCore offers insured delivery and secure precious metal storage in the safest vaults in London and internationally. We encourage our clients in the UK to own gold domestically and internationally as this should help mitigate future risks that clients’ liquidity and or ownership could be impacted by exchange controls, capital controls and confiscation.

We view gold bullion confiscation as low risk although ETF gold holdings (many have banks as custodians and sub custodians) may be vulnerable in this regard. Levies on and confiscation of pensions and bank deposits in bail-ins is a far greater risk than gold bullion confiscation given the tiny amount of investment grade gold bullion coins and bars vis-a-vis debts in the global banking sector and massive government debts in the UK and globally.

Our partner vaulting facilities are in some of the safest locations globally including Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. The economies of these countries are strong, they are politically stable and independent, and they have built up global reputations for discretion, confidentiality and financial property rights.

Safest Storage Locations Globally

The most important decisions for those seeking to invest in and own precious metals is how to and where to store their bullion.

Gold and silver investors and buyers should diversify across storage locations to minimise event risks such as theft, capital and exchange controls, government levies and confiscation, terrorism, war and natural disasters that might affect one location or jurisdiction.

This may mean keeping a small quantity of gold at home or in our liquid and ultra-secure London vaults, while also storing some of your gold bullion in a secure international precious metals storage facility or vault, in a financially stable and politically stable jurisdiction.

GoldCore has partnered with Loomis and Brink’s, world leaders in precious and valuable storage solutions, to provide fully insured storage services to our UK clients across a number of international jurisdictions in Switzerland (Zurich), Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.S. and the UK.

Given the very real systemic risks of today, ETF, unallocated and pool allocated gold should be avoided and gold and silver should be owned fully segregated and fully allocated.

Competitive Storage Rates

GoldCore Secure Storage annual storage fees start at 1% per annum and storage fees of less than 1% are available for larger values of gold and silver bullion stored:

Gold Storage Rates
1.00% <$100,000
0.79% $100,000 – $250,000
0.69% $250,000 – $500,000
0.59% $500,000 – $750,000
0.49% $750,000+
Silver Storage Rates
1.00% <$100,000
0.95% $100,000 – $250,000
0.85% $250,000 – $750,000
0.75% $750,000+

Storage charges are calculated and accrued daily based on a daily valuation of the client’s bullion holdings, and then billed three months in arrears at the start of February, May, August and November.

A daily billing calculation means that the storage fee is accurately applied to the changing value of the precious metals and reflects the changing gold price over the billing period. This calculation approach prevents large movements in the gold price affecting the bi-annual storage fee, which could occur if the fee was calculated based on just one day’s price.

When our clients buy bullion coins and bars, the initial purchase price does not include a storage fee.

The client is charged storage from the date their bullion assets are stocked into their sub account until the end of that storage cycle. Currently the storage periods are November to January, February to April, May to July and August to October. If a client buys mid cycle they are charged from that date up to the end of that storage period and then subsequently every 3 months until liquidation.

Therefore the client avoids an upfront storage fee and pays their storage fees in arrears.

Direct and Outright Legal Ownership

Direct ownership of gold means owning actual individual gold bullion coins and or bars either in your possession or in fully segregated, allocated and fully insured accounts that you can access easily and quickly take delivery of your gold and silver bullion from.

There is no counterparty risk with direct ownership since the gold bullion is the legal property of you the investor, and should the provider go out of business this does not impact your ownership of, or your access to the gold bullion.

By having direct ownership of physical coins and bars you can sell your bullion back to any number of international bullion dealers. This reduces your dependence on one single provider and also means that you are not dependent on an online digital bullion platform where the gold has to be sold back within that platform.

Full Precious Metal Storage Account Audits

Client precious metals stored by GoldCore at our partner vaults are audited via a tri-party auditing procedure. On a daily basis, GoldCore reconcile client precious metal storage holdings against the vault holding records of our storage partners. If discrepancies are found in the records, these are fully investigated and quickly resolved.

On an annual basis, GoldCore directs independent auditor Inspectorate International Limited to audit GoldCore client precious metal inventory stored at our storage vaults. This involves a physical inventory of all physical coin and bar records and an audit of the weights of a sample of the precious metals holdings held in accounts. Discrepancies, if found, are brought to the attention of GoldCore and the storage provider and investigated and quickly corrected.

Transparency, Portability and Accessibility

Clients with GoldCore Secure Storage accounts enjoy full transparency and accessibility over their holdings. Customers using Loomis’ storage vaults in Dublin, Zurich, Hong Kong or London, and our Brink’s vaults in Singapore, can log on to the respective vault storage providers’ websites and view their holdings in an inventory reporting application. With a phone call or signed communication, clients can visit and inspect their holdings or instruct GoldCore to move their bullion to another jurisdiction or deliver to a location of their choice.

Key Partners

GoldCore has retained some of the most professional and well-known precious metals storage and vaulting companies in the world to act as GoldCore’s custodians in offering external precious metals vaulting solutions to our UK clients in a number of international locations throughout the world.

Storage Partner – Loomis International

GoldCore has partnered with Loomis International since 2009 to offer GoldCore’s UK clients a choice of secure precious metals storage in Loomis’s vaults in Zurich, Hong Kong, Dublin and London.

Loomis International was originally a member company of the Via Mat Group, founded in 1945. Loomis acquired Via Mat Group in April 2014. Loomis has 23,000 employees in 20 countries. It is quoted on the Swedish stock exchange via its parent company Securitas AB and has over 400 offices worldwide.

Loomis International itself is one of the world’s leading global logistics and storage companies for valuables such as precious metals, banknotes and fine art. Loomis International offers its clients custom-bonded or inland (domestic) storage at high security storage and vaulting facilities in many international locations. Regular audits are undertaken and facilitated by Loomis, and the company operates with comprehensive specialist insurance cover.

GoldCore offers its UK clients long-term precious metals vault storage at four Loomis vault locations Zurich in Switzerland, London, Dublin and Hong Kong. Loomis recently added a high security 600m sq. precious metals vaulting facility in the Kloten area near Zurich international airport.

Loomis is a member of the Association of European Safety Carriers (ESTA), a member of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) and the LBMA in London. In New York, Loomis is NYMEX commodity exchange-authorised for the transportation of precious metals and is a member of the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), and the Independent Armored Car Operators Association (IACOC).

Storage Partner – Brink’s

GoldCore has partnered with Brink’s to offer GoldCore’s clients secure precious metals storage in its state-of-the-art secure vaults in Singapore.

Brink’s is one of the largest and best-known security companies in the world, providing a range of security services including armoured transport and logistics, and precious metals vaulting facilities. Founded in 1859 in the U.S., Brink’s employs over 70,000 people in over 100 countries.

Brink’s is synonymous with the security industry. It is involved in precious metals vaulting and transport, other secure transportation, cash handling for banks, and a variety of corporate security operations.

In the provision of precious metals services, Brink’s provides services throughout the gold and silver supply chains, moving precious metals on behalf of miners, central banks, and other participants in the global gold market, and weighing, assaying and storing gold and silver on behalf of its clients.

Brink’s operates high security precious metals vaults in a number of cities around the world. In Asia, Brink’s maintain precious metals vaults in Singapore and Hong Kong, while in Australia Brink’s operates a precious metals vault in Melbourne.

The company maintains metals vaults in New York City, and Salt Lake City, Utah. In New York, Brink’s is the only precious metals storage provider to have been appointed as a Nymex/Comex authorised depository for gold, the other Comex authorised gold depositories being the New York vault facilities of investment banks JP Morgan, HSBC and Scotia Mocatta.

Salt Lake City is home to the giant Johnson Matthey gold and silver refinery, where most newly-minted U.S. gold is processed, hence the Brink’s facility is located nearby.

In Canada, Brink’s also operates two precious metals vaults in Ontario, one of which is in Toronto, again very close to Johnson Matthey’s Canadian gold and silver refinery is in Brampton, just outside Toronto.

In London, Brink’s is a key member of the LBMA, where it operates a number of precious metals vaults near the City, making it the third largest precious metals vaulting provider in the London market behind HSBC and JP Morgan.

As with the other large storage providers, Brink’s precious metals vaults around the world are covered by specialist insurance, so GoldCore’s UK clients can rest assured that their precious metals holdings stored with Brink’s in Singapore are fully insured, securely covered and protected.

Certificate Programme Partner – Perth Mint

Since 2005, GoldCore has partnered with the Perth Mint of Western Australia to offer GoldCore clients access to the Perth Mint’s highly regarded, government backed precious metals certificate programme.

GoldCore is an authorised dealer for the Perth Mint Certificate Programme (PMCP) and the only authorised dealer in the UK and the EU and one of a select few providers of this service internationally. The PMCP allows UK investors, savers and pension funds to own investment grade gold, silver and platinum bullion stored in the vaults of the Perth Mint.

The Perth Mint is fully-owned by the State Government of Western Australia. The company operates Australia’s only gold refinery and also produces legal tender gold and silver coins behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Government, and a range of silver and gold bar products.

The Perth Mint is the trading name of Gold Corporation, which is the successor organisation of the Royal Mint’s Perth branch founded in 1899. The certificate programme is guaranteed by the Government of Western Australia, which has a very high credit rating from credit rating agencies.

The Perth Mint’s precious metals refinery is on the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) good delivery list for both gold and silver good delivery bars, and on the US CME Comex exchange’s approved refinery list for gold bars.

Storage Audit Partner – Inspectorate International

GoldCore has partnered with independent auditor Inspectorate International to audit GoldCore clients’ precious metals inventory stored at GoldCore custodians’ precious metals vaults. On an annual basis, Inspectorate International visit the vaults and conduct physical audits of precious metals holdings. These are then reconciled with the vault’s own records and with our records. UK clients can therefore be reassured that this tri-party auditing procedure is of the highest international standards.

Inspectorate International is one of the leading auditors of vault and storage facilities in the world and auditors the precious metals held by many entities including banks, bullion dealers and investment funds in the world’s largest precious metals vaults. Inspectorate also supervisors the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) good delivery system and is an associate member of the LBMA. Inspectorate also monitors precious metals refineries to ensure that the precious metals that they produce meet the LBMA’s quality standards, or what is called “good delivery status”.

Since it was acquired in 2010, Inspectorate International has been of the Bureau Veritas Commodities Division, which is one of the world’s leading providers of commodities inspection and testing.

Many family offices maintain a strategic asset allocation to gold

A Financial Times and World Gold Council survey of the investment strategies of 120 single and multi-family offices highlighted that the main concerns of family offices are capital preservation, portfolio concentration and portfolio volatility. The survey found that most offices employed a strategic asset allocation framework and nearly 50% had a specific allocation to gold, and overall, gold comprised 3.1% of portfolio assets.

Amongst those surveyed, the investment rationales given by family offices for holding gold was as a portfolio diversifier, a hedge against inflation, a safe haven asset, and a hedge against currency risk. This diversity of motivations indicates that gold can play a number of different roles in a portfolio simultaneously.

Why gold acts a safe haven, an inflation hedge, a portfolio diversifier and a currency hedge

Gold is less affected by economic cycles than other financial assets and so has a low to negative correlation with other portfolio assets. Therefore, an allocation to gold by U.S.-based family offices can help portfolio diversification since the favourable correlation relationship helps reduce portfolio risk and enhance portfolio returns.

Because of its use as a currency, its rarity, large above ground stocks and traditional use as a store of value, gold’s purchasing power is not easily eroded and the gold price has been shown to rise as inflation rises. Gold is therefore a useful portfolio hedge against inflation.

In times of crisis there is a flight to quality assets and gold benefits because it’s perceived as a safe haven. The gold price therefore performs well in times of financial crisis and extreme market events and its correlation benefits become even more important, so it can provide portfolio insurance since it minimises portfolio losses.

Gold has also recently been found to be beneficial for managing currency risk in multi-asset portfolios that have an emerging market equity allocation. This is in addition to gold’s well accepted role as a hedge against the U.S. dollar, a relationship that has been shown to exist over long periods of time.

Gold helps preserve multi-generational family wealth

Real assets have been a part of family wealth preservation strategies for generations. These assets include land holdings, artworks, antiques and precious metals. Multi-generational investment strategies take a very long term view, and contain real assets, since over the long-term, the true value of real assets is recognised.

This is particularly true of gold with its proven history as the ultimate store of value over the long term and also during periods of market crisis. Professor Roy Jastram termed this the Golden Constant in his well-known book of the same title. Taking hundreds of years of gold price data and general price level data for England (1560-1976) and the US (1800-1976), Jastram calculated an index of gold’s purchasing power and found that it was constant over long periods of time and was maintained throughout periods of monetary upheaval. In contrast paper currencies became essentially valueless over the same time periods.

Prominent families invest in gold, now and throughout history

Some well-known family offices have recently allocated to gold as part of their investment strategies. Fleming Family & Partners recently stating that gold represented the best hedge against currency debasement, given that in its view, governments were willing to accept higher inflation, and that gold has a long history of tracking inflation. RIT Capital Partners, the investment trust chaired by Lord Rothschild, recently described gold as a key portfolio holding due to its role as a hedge against the prospect of currency wars and the risk of heightened inflationary pressures. Many wealthy families throughout history and into the modern era have used gold as a store of wealth and as a method of inter-generational wealth transfer by accumulating and holding gold over long periods of time.

Gold is known to have occupied a central position in the investment portfolios of the Sultans of Brunei. In the 1980s the former Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III had a gold bullion fund valued at “many hundreds of millions of dollars”, managed on his behalf by Sir Peter Tapsell of London stockbrokers James Capel. The current Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is also known for his fascination with gold.

The ruling monarchs of Saudi Arabia are notable for the emphasis that they place on gold as an enduring wealth preserver and store of value. In the 1970s, the significant oil price increases underpinned the gold price appreciation due to recycled Saudi oil wealth, and a lot of IMF auctioned gold was also said to have been purchased by wealthy Saudi royalty via German and Swiss banks who bid at the auctions on the Saudis’ behalf.

The dynastic House of Rothschild has been synonymous with the gold trade in London for nearly 200 years, and although NM Rothschild officially departed the gold trading business in 2004, it is true to say that the family understand the value of gold as a store of wealth in an inter-generational wealth portfolio, having been closely involved in all aspects of the gold trade for hundreds of years.

A must read for family offices seeking wealth preservation:

Essential Family Office Guide to Investing In Gold

For those seeking to understand the benefits of Secure Storage versus ETFs, digital gold and other forms of gold investment and ownership:

7 Real Risks to Your Gold Ownership