Situation
An $85 million position was held at home
The client accumulated physical American Gold Eagles over several years. The position grew to more than 17,000 coins, worth more than $85 million at transfer. It was held at home: not on the advisor’s reporting platform, not insured at full replacement value, and not generating advisory fees. For the advisor this meant no visibility across reporting systems, no fee on a significant share of the client’s wealth, and no clear way to liquidate when the client wanted to start drawing down. Retail spreads on a position this size would have been large, and selling through traditional channels would have lost value to bid-ask spreads on every transaction.
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result
The outcome
The position is now on the advisor’s book as billable AUM. The client draws down at his own pace, currently about $5M a month, and the rest stays vaulted, insured and billable. GBI executes each sale across 10+ market makers [verify: the program overview says 12+]. GBI states this gives spreads the client could not get at retail.
68 accounts. $54M in AUM. Zero new clients required.
THE APPROACH
The client kept full ownership throughout. GBI’s transition team coordinated directly with the client’s existing custody and moved the coins in kind. No liquidation was needed to migrate the position.
Process
Three stages
$54M in physical precious metals, moved on-platform across one RIA book. No new
clients. No new money. No liquidations forced. Just assets that already existed, sitting in
home safes, safety deposit boxes, and private vaults, now brought above-the-line into
the firm's existing reporting stack.
01
Transfer
The coins moved by insured, secured transport (AuSecure LLC). They were counted, weighed, verified and titled FBO the client.
02
Custody
Holdings sit in allocated FBO accounts across GBI’s global vault network. Inspectorate audits the physical inventory. Holdings are insured at market prices for full replacement value.
03
Reporting integration
Each position landed in allocated FBO accounts, feeding the avisor's existing reporting stack as standard billable assets. Daily pricing. Unified client statements. Inspectorate-audited.
0.22%
INSTITUTIONAL GOLD ALLOCATION
This is not a one-firm phenomenon.
The median HNW household holds 3-5% of total wealth in unmanaged physical precious metals. Yet the value-weighted average institutional gold allocation sits at just 0.22% (Q3 2025 13F filings). The gap between what clients already own and what their advisors manage is the largest underdiscussed opportunity in private wealth.