After reading about SMSFs and Esuperfund here I've taken the plunge and setup my own SMSF. My investment aim is mid to long term with 90% of my super going into Silver (80%) and Gold (20%). The remaining original 10% is split between cash retention and small market share investments. I have a very small personal stack (seperate from the super) for any SHTF scenario. My question is about the method of investment for the PM portion of the super. With the storage costs and associated toe-cutter risks I am not looking to have physical bullion. I am looking at the Perth Mint Certificate or Depositary programs as the best of both worlds. I was leaning towards the certificate program until speaking with Perth Mint today when I was told you may as well go with the depositary instead and save the certificate cost as otherwise they were exactly the same. This didn't seem to gel with my understanding of how sales work in the certificate program. My understanding is that should I choose to liquidate my unallocated PM Perth Mint holdings (100% for the sake of argument) then I will be receiving a price (in whatever relation to spot) and cash will be winged my way. I did not believe that on checking out I would have to pay for the fabrication costs as the metal was unallocated and would remain that way. This makes a large difference to my strategy as I am keen to avoid the fabrication and storage costs but still reap the benefits of investing in PM. Any advice or feedback would really be appreciated. Cheers, Owen
Silver unallocated was recently closed, with only existing accounts prior to the cutoff (back in April?) allowed to retain holdings. The new silver program is "pool allocated", which incurs a 50% upfront fabrication fee I believe. Bummer for SMSF that never intend to take physical delivery.
I'm confused. Has their web site not caught up? ***Don't Worry I found it - buried in the News section***
Yep GP is on the money here - I loaded on this unallocated before the cut off in April/May to avoid storage/Fabrication fees even through I knew the spot was going to drop - basically 'free storage over 30 years' won out in the end for me. Bron (member here) would be the best to give you Perth Mint details 'current to date'. Sorry to say but what you mention is the deal as I understand it - really not worth getting allocated account for the additional fabrication and storage cost. For what it's worth, would look into buying physical and storing it at a local private vault - all costs can be covered by the SMSF and you have access 24/7...
I chose to go with ABC Bullion (Sydney) and chose premium allocated silver with storage and insurance. Yes, there are fees and the like. But after research and a lot of thinking, it works for my SMSF. I also like having it away from my home which suits the ATO and sorts out security issues. Anyway, I can't have any access until I am retired.... so I am happy to pay the annual charges and while it will add up over the very long term, I like having my money under my control. That means a lot to me!! Plus, while I like Perth Mint, I like being able to go and speak to ABC Bullion in person as I am in Syd. If I was in Perth I probably would have gone with them.
This is my reply before I got cut off mid sentence by the internet police who choose to actively monitor what intelligent people have to say. Don't know why they were reading what I was typing then? @Ag, it depends on where you live. For me, the nearest private vault is Brisbane. That is a full day's travel down and back with 2 flights and I only live about 600km away. The beauty of the PMDS is that buying and selling is a phone call away - and if selling, you've always got a willing buyer on the other end of the line. The private vault in Brissie has a limit of 30kg in each of it's trays. A SMSF investing some of it's $ in Ag would easily exceed one of these trays, so you would have to rent a safe, which is about $700 a year. Then you would need to insure it (reserve vault doesn't insure the contents of it's vaults because it doesn't know what's in them). So we've got yearly costs, insurance, travel costs, not to mention if you want to sell your stash you have to get there, take the goods out and get them to a seller without getting jumped. The PMDS just looks a whole lot more attractive doesn't it?
