Reason number one for why storing all of your gold in an allocated or unallocated bank account is a bad idea:
A client of a major Swiss bank was recently refused access to his physical gold and had to hire attorneys and threaten to expose the bank publicly before finally getting it back in his own hands, according to Jim Rickards of Omnis.
“My inference is that that gold was not there,” Rickards told King World News. “The bank had to scramble, go out and find it somewhere before they could make good delivery.”
Rickards expects the world will eventually go to a gold standard-backed currency.
“To me, the big issue is, is it going to be intelligent or is it going to be ugly?” Rickards says. “Is it going to be something we think about, we have a public debate, hearing in Congress … we give some thought to, and then, over time … we do it in stages” so that markets can adjust.
Unfortunately, says Rickards, we’re on “the other path,” ignoring the issue and acting as if gold plays no role in finance, “which, of course, it does, keep printing money until almost spontaneous collapse of the dollar and then, in the midst of chaos, on an emergency basis, have the president announce that we’re back on the gold standard.”
Rickards’ advice? Get your gold out now before other banks begin following suit.
Source: Money News
When it hits the fan, and you really need access to that allocated gold you bought through a bank broker, you can be assured that it won’t be available. Imagine a scenario where the US dollar completely collapses causing panic across the world. Everyone with physical gold holdings is going to head straight to their local banker to claim and take physical delivery of their precious metals. But, like paper gold assets (i.e. commodity ETFs), the chances are slim that your trusted bank will be able to make delivery, especially if the majority of PM holders are asking to make physical withdrawals.
We’re not suggesting that you take allocated/unallocated storage completely out of your wealth preservation strategy, we’re simply suggesting that you consider diversifying even your precious metals holdings:
- Don’t keep everything at one bank
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- If possible, keep your assets in different regions, countries
- Secure your gold in a personal safe deposit box (or two). Take note that safe deposit boxes aren’t always the safest way to store so keep this in mind.
- Consider leaving some of your holdings with a trusted family member. We hesitate to make this recommendation, but there is a little bit of risk involved in all methods of gold storage. It may even be possible for one to store reserve gold or other monetary instruments with a family member without necessarily telling them you’re doing so, but this also has its risks – so think long and hard before you consider this avenue.
- Get a shovel and start digging
The key, in our opinion, is diversification in all aspects. Consider Murphy’s Law and plan for worst case scenarios. When the SHTF, be prepared to lose some of your reserves and preps, including PM’s, food, and other items which you may be depending on to see you through an emergency or disaster.
Plan A is great. Plan B is even better. Plans C, D, and E will give you peace of mind.
Reprinted from SHTF Plan.
December 11, 2010
