Custodial Accounts
The key points to this silver ownership strategy are to simplify the purchase and storage of your silver to a highly trusted and financially stable entity. I have listed a few of the most recognized providers below for your convenience. Whom you select is a personal decision to make after weighing their services and fees. I have personally two of these providers, Goldmoney and OneGold, I set up my Goldmoney several years ago and used it to dollar cost average the purchase of gold (they also sell silver) over time by allotting $200/month to it and then leave it alone. Last year I opened an account with OneGold, this is now my favorite method of putting silver away there are many benefits that will be covered below.
Disclaimer: Everything contained on this website are my opinions on how someone with little to no previous exposure to investing in silver can buy physical silver. My opinions have been developed over several years of investing in silver in various forms and have been my own experience your experience may differ. Nothing that is written or displayed should be taken as investment advice, I am not an investment professional. Please do your own due diligence and speak with a qualified advisor about your personal situation before making any investment decisions.
Custodial Accounts for Physical Silver
There are a few of these companies, you want the one with the strongest financial stability as your #1 concern. The two I have listed below are leaders in the field and I have accounts at both of these companies. The third is similar but is exclusively for use in an IRA, was not a good experience for me.
OneGold is my number one pick because of two things: Sprott and APMEX
OneGold has these two industry giants partnered together offering unparalleled financial stability and integrity that made them the companies they are today. This is a true best of both worlds option for physical custodial account w/option of physical delivery: The PSLV Sprott Physical Trust, though a different and unrelated product requires a minimum of 10,000 ounces of silver for physical redemption. OneGold has a minimum requirement of 0.5 troy ounces for redemption. My strategy is to invest in silver via OneGold which allows you to purchase silver (as well as gold, and platinum) at spot plus a small premium which varies by metal. Since premiums on silver coins, rounds, and bars are high due to the squeeze on supply, I will leave my silver allocated in 1000 oz bars in their vaults until silver supply catches up with unprecedented demand. If I desire to withdrawal some of my holdings for physical bars, coins, or rounds, or more, I can select from the industry's widest selection at APMEX. If that weren't enough, APMEX extends best-tier pricing on all the products listed in the Redeem section, normally you need to order the highest quantity shown to get that pricing. OneGold is my preferred source. Do your own due diligence and see if their services fit your needs. If you click the link and sign up, they'll deposit $5 in your account so you can check it out. If you do decide to make a deposit and purchase $100 or more in silver, gold, or platinum OneGold will deposit $5 to my account for showing you the way; and they'll deposit another $5 into your account on your next visit. Win-Win!!!
As I mentioned in the "Custodial Accounts" description, I have an account with
Goldmoney for about 5 years now and was initially focused on buying a couple of hundred dollars a month of gold. Without any thinking about anything I was purchasing a few grams of gold monthly and it adds up over time. I have had no issues with Goldmoney over this time and continue to maintain that account though I am not still buying monthly gold anymore. Goldmoney also sells silver, platinum, and palladium. Goldmoney offers physical redemption for silver, their website shows a minimum of 1000 ounces. They also cite bar and coin redemption is available via SchiffGold but doesn't provide information on any minimum amount of silver to qualify, a phone call would be required. This has been a good place for me but changes I wasn't aware of because I wasn't monitoring the account for a few years have made it less hospitable. Beginning 01/2020 they began charging a $10/month minimum storage fee, prior to that if you held something like 10oz gold or less there was no fee. My holds are small and the fees are high in relation to the account value. I will be looking at transferring my holding to OneGold as their fees are much lower. A 5-ounce gold holding is charged $10/month for storage at Goldmoney, OneGold's fee for 5-ounces of gold is just $20 a year, an annual savings of $100 for switching to OneGold. As my 11-year-old daughter likes to say now, "it's a no-brainer".
There are so many companies offering precious metals IRAs that it is incredibly daunting to even compare this particular vehicle in the scope of this site. I once considered a Precious Metals IRA, but after speaking with one of the largest companies and getting their recommendations I opened the account and just had to transfer funds from my old 401K. I didn't have a good feeling so I opted to put it off for a few months and do my own research instead of taking the salesman's word. Six years ago about I knew about gold and silver were that they were precious metals, King Midas had the golden touch, there was the goose that laid golden eggs, Goldfinger from 007, you get the point. What I discovered by not rushing into that Precious Metal IRA was the prices I was quoted were inflated about 25% over the market prices on the same coins I could purchase from APMEX, JM Bullion, etc. Even more suspect the salesman was very insistent I get it done ASAP before prices take off and I miss out. Well, I decided against that entirely and opted to purchase a variety of the Sprott Physical Bullion Trusts within my IRA. I got a good balance of PSLV (Silver), PHYS (Gold), SPPP (Platinum & Palladium), and CEF (Gold & Silver, which wasn't a Sprott product at the time but Sprott later acquired them). I know there were a lot of issues and controversy about the actual tax legality or PM IRAs back then which must've been resolved as the market has since exploded. In any case, I can't give any recommendations on those except what I say about everything you read here and anywhere about investments. Do your own due diligence, glad I did.