The Fee Question: Pricing Sophisticated Gold Ownership & Service
It is entirely normal to consider pricing factors in any investment, and this is especially true of serious precious metal ownership, which is no place for cutting corners. That said, one should indeed “get what one pays for,” and at VG, we back our fees with an objectively deep and essential level of expertise and service.
Expertise Matters
With a management team sharing senior level banking experience, leadership of a FTSE 100 enterprise, personal knowledge of family office needs, decades of global market experience and Partners qualified in law, our managerial expertise is industry leading.
VG clients deserve and expect this level of advisory knowledge and perspective.
Crucially, they also demand direct ownership of their assets rather than holding the same as a sub-account of an intermediary/counterparty. Although other well-known vaults can provide such ownership options, none can also deliver VG’s level of service and advisory support.
Infrastructure Matters
Vault, jurisdiction and liquidity infrastructure are critical considerations for clients.
VG boasts vault options in the premier jurisdictions for legal protection and privacy rights, including the most secure private vault in the world.
Our in-house trading desk enjoys direct access to the most respected refiners, ensuring clients not only the finest metals, but the most competitive premiums and immediate liquidity in all major currencies.
These core advantages and relationships, built from years of trust, are essential, but they demand a premium.
Solutions Matter
From VG’s inception, Egon von Greyerz prioritised addressing and solving client needs, a priority underscored by the fact that his own family and circle of friends were his first clients.
This same level of service is now shared with clients in over 90 countries around the world.
Focus Matters
VG takes pride in providing the highest level of personal service which includes guiding clients through every stage of the acquisition, insurance, transportation and liquidity of only the finest precious metals. Fully insured at Lloyd’s of London, we only source metals directly from the most trusted refineries and held within the highest security vaults.
Free of debt, counterparty risks or complexity, VG has an aversion to high-margin gold derivative instruments and leverage.
We focus solely on advising clients as to the optimal means of direct precious metal ownership, security and liquidity.
Similar to some commercial banks, many competitors promote lower storage fees but they are passing the savings through inferior service and considerably higher (and less obvious) operational and market risk exposures.
Details Matter
As alluded above, VG has created a highly sophisticated service model which provides our clients with a detailed menu of personal support advantages not otherwise available at even the most reputable private and commercial banks or vaulting operations.
Knowledge Matters
Known throughout the world for our macro-economic insights and transparent risk assessments, we are neither timid nor modest in sharing our well-earned knowledge and expertise in precious metal and commodity markets as well as in global currency and risk asset markets–all of which greatly inform gold’s essential role in generational wealth preservation.
Nor are we reticent to point out the industry-ignored yet otherwise material risks of “owning” gold within a fractured banking system.
The case histories of commercial banks in their: 1) failed delivery of metals when needed most (Morgan Stanley, UBS etc.); 2) unlawful price manipulation (JP Morgan); or 3) even caving to the pressure of tax authorities at the expense of client privacy rights (UBS), makes them, in our view, an unacceptable “vaulting” option.
Given the fact that risky paper-gold ETF vehicles are inherently embedded within this banking system, ETF instruments are an equally poor option for sophisticated gold ownership.
Stated simply: Why would precious metal investors store their assets within the very banking system from which gold was intended to protect them?
Vaults Matter
We see immense risks to personal and financial safety in storing gold in one’s actual home, and even within one’s own country of residence.
Gold should be legally held in jurisdictions with an extensive history of democratic stability, rule of law and a uniquely protected gold industry, which includes a respect for privacy and investor rights. This legal firewall between one’s gold and government adds to costs, but rightfully so.
Superior vault options are equally critical and equally worthy of extra cost. Reputable and household vaulting competitors, for example, are US-owned and hence vulnerable to potential US interference in worst-case scenarios.
Even competitors that are not US-entities, but when based within the US, are vulnerable to such potential interference.
Reputation Matters
VG’s coveted management team and service model reveal a deep history and understanding of both the why and how of precious metal ownership.
This explains why world-renown experts within the gold industry (and VG advisors) like Ronald Stoeferle and Grant Williams rate and recommend VG’s services above all others.
Choice Matters
Again, there are less expensive alternatives to VG which will deliver a very different service and offer less protection.
Unfortunately, most are usually silent as to their heightened counterparty and financial risks; and none offer our level of expertise and direct support.
We do not compromise on our fees for the simple reason that we never compromise on solving for such risks and directly/personally advising our clients.
Given the size and wealth preservation role of client investments at VG, the cost of storing those assets should not be a primary consideration. The range, quality and safety of our services are compelling factors which support the premium of protecting such a critical investment.
VG’s impressive management and services go far beyond those of “warehouse managers” and have combined over the last quarter of a century to make VG the largest precious metal enterprise for HNW clients outside of the commercial banking system.
Although the tangible and intangible qualities which comprise the VG premium are impossible to measure in fees alone, there is a cost to ignoring such expertise and advantages when making a serious investment in gold or silver.