Why does physical metal need its own plan?
Because bullion is tangible personal property rather than a registered security. Brokerage accounts carry beneficiary forms that move assets on death without a court. A bar in a box does not. Ownership of metal follows title and possession, so the plan has to address both.
Most people arrive at this question having already solved it once, on paper. Their brokerage account has beneficiaries. Their retirement account has beneficiaries. They assume the coins in the safe are covered by the same machinery, and they are not.
Bullion is property. If it is titled to one person, it passes under that person’s will, through probate, at whatever pace that state’s courts move. If it is held jointly in the right form, it passes to the survivor without a court. If it is held by a trust or an entity, the trust or entity keeps owning it after the person who set it up dies, which is the entire point.
There is a second, unglamorous problem. Paper assets are discoverable because a statement arrives. Metal is not. An heir cannot inherit what nobody knows exists, cannot find, or cannot open. Every structure below fails the same way, through an unrecorded holding and a depository account nobody can name.
What happens with individual ownership?
Metal held in one person’s name passes under that person’s will and generally goes through probate, which is public and takes months. With no will, state intestacy rules decide who receives it. The advantage is simplicity; the cost is delay and disclosure.
Individual ownership is the default and, for a modest holding, often the right answer. You buy it, you hold it, it appears in your estate, and your will directs it. A specific bequest in the will, described well enough to be identified, does most of the work.
The friction is probate. It is a court process, the inventory is generally a matter of public record, and in some states personal property above a threshold has to be inventoried and appraised before it is distributed. Those rules are state law and they are not uniform.
Several states allow a separate personal property memorandum, a list you can update without amending the will. Read that provision carefully, because some state versions cover household and personal effects and exclude investment-type property, which can put bullion outside the list you carefully wrote.
Does joint ownership move metal automatically?
Only in the right form. Joint tenancy with rights of survivorship passes the whole holding to the surviving owner by operation of law, outside probate. Tenancy in common does not; each owner’s share passes through that owner’s estate. The form of the title decides the outcome.
For metal, “title” usually means the storage or depository account, and sometimes a written bill of sale or assignment. Two names on a safe deposit box lease is a lease term about access, not necessarily a statement about who owns the contents, and that distinction has produced a great deal of litigation.
Joint ownership with a child is the most common informal plan and the one with the most side effects. It can be a taxable gift of a fractional interest when it is created, it exposes the metal to that child’s creditors and divorce, and it may change the basis treatment the survivor receives.
| Form | What happens at death | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Sole individual | Passes by will, generally through probate | Simplest to run, slowest and most public to transfer |
| Joint with rights of survivorship | Passes to the surviving owner by operation of law | Immediate transfer, but shared control and creditor exposure now |
| Tenancy in common | Each share passes through that owner's estate | Clear fractional shares, no probate avoidance |
| Revocable living trust | Trust keeps owning it; successor trustee distributes | Avoids probate, still in your taxable estate, only works if funded |
| Irrevocable trust | Governed by the trust terms, outside your control | Protection and possible estate exclusion, control is given up |
| LLC | Membership interests transfer; the LLC still owns the metal | Co-ownership and charging-order protection, filings and formality |
Can you name a transfer-on-death beneficiary on bullion?
Rarely by statute. Transfer-on-death registration comes from state adoptions of the Uniform TOD Security Registration Act, which is written for registered securities and securities accounts, not for bars and coins. Some depositories offer a beneficiary designation in their own account agreement, which is a contract right rather than a statutory one.
This is the single most useful thing on this page, because it is the assumption that quietly breaks plans. People believe they added a beneficiary to their metal. What they usually added was a beneficiary to a brokerage account that happens to hold a metals fund, which is a completely different asset.
If your depository or storage provider does offer a beneficiary designation or successor designation, use it with your eyes open. Read who it binds, what proof the provider requires, and whether it conflicts with your will or trust. Conflicting instructions are worse than no instructions. Our page on how allocated storage works explains why the account agreement matters this much.
How does a revocable living trust hold metal?
The trust becomes the owner of the metal during your lifetime, you stay in control as trustee, and at death a successor trustee distributes it without probate. A revocable trust is a grantor trust for income tax, so nothing changes on your return, and the assets remain in your taxable estate.
For most families with a meaningful metals position, this is the workhorse. It is private, it survives incapacity as well as death, and it gives one named person clear authority to deal with a depository without a court order.
It only works if the trust is funded. Funding metal means the depository account or storage agreement is retitled in the name of the trust, or a written assignment transfers the described items to the trust and the metal is delivered to a location the trust controls. A schedule of property attached to the trust, with weights, forms and bar or serial numbers where they exist, is what makes the transfer provable later. The drafting is your estate planning attorney’s work; the funding is paperwork at the depository, and it is the half that gets skipped.
Because a revocable trust is a grantor trust under IRC sections 671 to 677, you report as though you held the metal yourself, and there is no new tax return while you are alive. The assets get the same date-of-death treatment described below.
When does an irrevocable trust make sense?
When the goal is protection or removing value from a taxable estate, and you are willing to give up control permanently. An irrevocable trust can be drafted as a grantor trust or a separate taxpayer, and the choice changes who pays tax on gains and whether assets receive a basis adjustment at death.
The trade is real and it should feel uncomfortable. Metal moved into a properly structured irrevocable trust is no longer yours to sell on a whim. In exchange, depending on the drafting and on state law, it may be shielded from later creditors and may sit outside your estate.
Two details matter more than people expect. First, transfers made when a claim is already foreseeable are the ones courts unwind, so timing is part of the substance. Second, if assets are outside the estate they may not receive the date-of-death basis adjustment, which for appreciated metal can cost the heirs more than the estate tax it was meant to address. That arithmetic is specific to a family and belongs with an estate planning attorney and a CPA.
What does an LLC for precious metals actually do?
An LLC is an ownership and protection wrapper, not a tax saving. It lets several family members hold fractional interests, keeps individual names off some records, and in Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware offers charging-order protection. A single-member LLC is generally disregarded for federal income tax, so gains are reported as if you owned the metal directly.
The useful cases are concrete. Siblings buying together want defined percentages and a written operating agreement about when metal can be sold. A family wants one entity to sign the depository agreement so the account does not have to be redone every time a person changes. A holder wants ownership recorded to an entity rather than a name.
What an LLC does not do is change the character of the gain. Bullion is treated as a collectible for capital-gains purposes, and long-term collectibles gain carries a maximum federal rate of 28 percent under IRC section 1(h). In a disregarded single-member LLC the gain is computed as though you held the metal yourself. In a multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership, the collectible character flows through to the members.
The cost is upkeep: filings, a registered agent, separate records, separate funds, and actually following the operating agreement. Protection comes from maintained formality. An entity treated as a personal pocket tends to be treated that way by a court as well.
Can an LLC hold your IRA metal?
Not in your own possession. In McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10 (2021), the Tax Court held that IRA metal bought through an owner-controlled LLC and stored at home was a taxable distribution, because IRC 408(m)(3)(B) requires the coins or bullion to be in the physical possession of a trustee.
This matters here because the same words, trust and LLC, get used in two very different conversations. Structuring metal you own personally is an estate-planning question with real answers. Structuring metal your IRA owns is a tax-code question with a narrow one, and the checkbook-LLC pitch has already been tested and rejected.
The IRS page on collectibles in individually directed accounts states the possession requirement in a paragraph. We cover the sales version of this in detail on the home storage myth.
What do heirs actually pay?
Inheriting metal is not itself a federal income-tax event. Under IRC 1014 the heir’s basis is generally fair market value on the date of death, so only later appreciation is taxed on sale, at the 28 percent collectibles maximum for long-term gain. Federal estate tax applies only above the basic exclusion, which is 15 million dollars per decedent for 2026.
The basis step-up under IRC section 1014 is usually the largest number in this entire discussion. Metal bought decades ago and held to death passes to heirs with its gain reset. The same metal gifted during life carries your original basis to the recipient, which can turn a generous gift into a large tax bill for a child who sells it.
Lifetime gifting still has a place, and the annual exclusion is the simple version of it: 19,000 dollars per recipient for 2026, measured at fair market value on the date of the gift, with amounts above that reported on Form 709 against the lifetime exclusion. Both figures adjust, so verify them against the IRS inflation adjustments for 2026 rather than a dealer page, including this one.
Valuation is where estates get untidy. Widely traded bullion can usually be valued from published prices on the valuation date, with the source documented. Numismatic and unusual items commonly need a professional appraisal. Ask the estate attorney or the relevant probate court which inventory and appraisal requirements apply before relying on a market-price estimate. Our page on inheriting a gold IRA covers the retirement-account version of the same handoff.
How does this fit alongside a Gold IRA?
They are separate systems and should be planned separately. IRA metal passes by the account’s beneficiary designation, held at a custodian and depository, and the heir inherits an account with distribution deadlines. Personally owned metal passes by title, trust or entity, and the heir inherits property with a stepped-up basis.
In practice most clients end up with both, and the split is deliberate. The IRA side gets the tax deferral and the custodial structure described in our pillar guide on the self-directed Gold IRA. The personal side gets the flexibility, the direct possession or allocated storage, and the basis step-up that a retirement account cannot offer.
Two mistakes recur. The first is a beneficiary designation that contradicts the trust, because the account form always controls the account. The second is naming a trust as IRA beneficiary without confirming how the distribution rules apply to that trust, which is a drafting question with consequences measured in tax years. The IRS Publication 590-B rules on inherited accounts are the starting point, and this is one of the places where paying an attorney is cheaper than not.
Where Dormy’s role starts and stops
Dormy sources and prices metal, discusses ownership structures generally as they relate to physical metal specifically, and coordinates with a client’s existing attorney or CPA. Dormy does not draft trust or LLC documents, form entities, or provide legal or tax advice.
That boundary is not modesty, it is the correct division of labor. Titling and entity questions turn on state law and on facts about your family that belong in a privileged conversation. What a dealer can genuinely add is the part the documents never address: how the metal is described, how the storage account is titled, what the inventory record looks like, and how a successor trustee would actually liquidate or take delivery.
When a client asks us to, we will talk directly with an attorney or CPA about those mechanics. If you do not have one, we will tell you to get one before we will help structure anything. You can read more about how we work on why Dormy is different.
Where can you verify all of this?
Read the primary material. IRC 1014 covers basis at death, IRC 1(h) covers the collectibles rate, IRC 408(m) covers what a retirement account may hold, and the IRS inflation adjustments publish the current estate and gift figures. State trust, probate and LLC law is separate and local.
Federal rules are citable and stable enough to read yourself. State rules are where the real variation lives: whether a personal property memorandum reaches bullion, what a probate inventory requires, how charging-order protection works, and whether any transfer-on-death mechanism could apply to tangible property at all. No page written for a national audience, ours included, can answer those for your state.
That is why this page describes mechanics rather than recommending a structure. We do not promise outcomes, and we do not present any structure as being without risk.