Question One — Allocated, Segregated, or Neither?

Allocated means specific identified bars are recorded as yours. Segregated means your metal is stored physically apart from other clients'. Unallocated or pooled means you hold a claim for a quantity, not title to anything specific. A provider can be allocated but commingled, or neither, and the marketing rarely distinguishes.

The distinction also determines what happens if the storage provider fails. Allocated metal recorded as your specific property sits outside the provider's assets; a claim against a pool is a claim, and its standing depends entirely on the arrangement's terms and the circumstances of the failure.

• Is my metal allocated to me by serial number?
• Is it stored physically separately from other clients' metal?
• Will you put both answers in writing in the agreement?
• May I inspect my specific holding?
• What exactly do I own if you fail tomorrow?

Specific items, identified by serial number or by an equivalent record, segregated physically from other clients' holdings and from the provider's own, and recorded as your property rather than as a balance.

All four elements matter. An arrangement with three of them is not allocated storage, and the gap tends to be the one that becomes relevant at the worst possible moment.

1. 01Our answer: allocated and segregated, recorded by serial where bars carry them.
2. 02It is in the agreement, not just on the website.
3. 03You may inspect your specific holding by appointment.
4. 04Independent audit, which you may attend.

If a provider answers this question with a paragraph rather than two words, that is itself the answer. It is a yes-or-no question twice over, and any custodian who cannot answer it plainly has arranged things you should understand before joining them.

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