Segregated storage means the buyer’s specific bars or coins — named by serial number — sit in a vault compartment that holds nothing else. No other buyer’s metal shares the space. When the buyer withdraws, the same pieces come back. This is the plainest form of vault ownership.

Allocated storage means the buyer owns specific, named metal — the ownership is set down in writing and the holdings aren’t part of a shared pool — but the physical storage may not be walled off from other buyers’ holdings. The records are specific. The vault space may overlap. The buyer’s account statement will show the serial numbers or the description of the metal set to the account. The labels can be used loosely by different houses, which is why reading the actual vault agreement matters more than trusting the word on the brochure.

Segregated is the clearest line. Allocated is the next. Commingled is a different thing altogether.

Commingled or pooled storage is a third path and shouldn't be confused with either of the first two. In a pool the buyer owns a share of a larger lot — not specific, named pieces. If the pool runs into trouble, the claim is against the pool, not against a marked coin in a marked box. That's the widest counterparty gap of the three.

In a worst case — a vault insolvency — the gap between the labels matters most. Segregated metal sits in a ring-fenced compartment and stands outside the vault company’s balance sheet. It's the clearest claim in a court. Allocated metal is also the buyer’s own, but proving it in a proceeding may ask for more paperwork and more steps. Commingled metal is documented, but the recovery follows a claims process rather than a direct reach for a box.

Segregated storage runs roughly a hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars a year more than allocated for comparable holdings. For smaller positions that cost may weigh heavily. For larger positions the added clarity is usually worth the line. Both paths are IRA-legal. The IRS doesn't require one over the other — it asks that the depository be approved and that the custodian keep clean records. We work with Delaware Depository, Brink’s, and IDS, each of which offers both paths. The buyer should ask which path the account sits on, read the vault receipt, and keep the answer in the letter. That's the plain rule of the house.