Diamond State Depository, America’s Newest Precious Metals Depository, Announces Its Opening For Business in Delaware

Diamond State Depository, LLC, a private precious metals depository, has formally opened for business in New Castle, Delaware, storing, transferring, and shipping precious metals bullion and coins, and providing an array of complementary accounting services to individual and commercial customers across the nation and worldwide.

“We're set up to meet the insured custody and delivery needs of high-volume commercial accounts and private individuals alike, with state-of-the-art security,” says Mike Clark, President and General Manager at Diamond State. “Our depository operates with a secure warehouse and a Class-three vault -- the highest possible vault rating -- and our facilities are monitored by security experts twenty-four hours a day.”

In addition to gold and silver bullion and coins, the facility holds the platinum group metals -- including palladium and rhodium -- used in catalytic converters for vehicles, for example.

Mr. Clark points out that “our depository is strategically located, yet it is a safe distance from many of the geopolitical threats known to exist today while being just a two hour ride to Wall Street.” Throughout the Northeast in particular, jewelry and certain other industrial manufacturers are heavy users of precious metals. But, he says, “They generally lack the means by which to safely hold a large volume of precious metals, as they lack the security, facilities and insurance to do so.”

Diamond State holds precious metals and certified coins off of its balance sheet, in insured, custody accounts that are titled in account owners’ names, so that clients have full control over their assets.

Through its internally developed inventory control and account management system, Diamond State’s services feature expeditious and user-friendly account reporting. Among other reports, Diamond State provides its customers with:

• Detailed transaction confirmations
• Itemized inventory and collateral holdings reports
• Comprehensive shipping summaries

Diamond State Depository prides itself on their attractive fee schedule. While all commercial accounts are physically segregated, Diamond State’s individual investment customers can open a Standard Storage account, where their metals or coins are stored with those of other customers. Or, for a higher fee, they can choose the Segregated Storage option, where their assets are separately held.

To meet the requirements of companies like high-volume bullion dealers, Diamond State provides its commercial accounts with daily transaction confirmations and either weekly or monthly inventory reports. And for all commercial accounts, sub-accounting, or participant accounting services are available.

“We always protect our customers’ business information, while working with them to meet their operational needs and investment objectives,” Mr. Clark says. “We realize that protecting our customers’ business data is as important as safeguarding their inventory.”

Diamond State offers collateral-custody accounting that is accomplished through a three-way agreement that includes the borrower who owns the assets in storage, the lender who has agreed to accept the assets as collateral for the borrower’s loan, and Diamond State. As a third-party custodian of collateral, under this arrangement, Diamond State protects the interests of both the lender and the borrower.

Because of Delaware’s tax advantages, clients can save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year by storing precious metals and coins at Diamond State, according to Mr. Clark. Breaks that Delaware offers businesses and local taxpayers include: no state sales tax, no personal property tax, no inventory tax and no commercial net worth tax. And unlike New York State, Delaware does not tax payments on depository-storage fees.

Retail coin and bullion purchases in any state in the U.S. can be made free of sales tax if those assets are shipped by the seller for credit to the buyer’s custody account at Diamond State, Clark says.

For individual accounts, a depository offers distinct advantages over a bank safe-deposit box, Mr. Clark says. Most safe deposit boxes are too small to store metals in quantity and box contents are not insured. Keeping metal and coins in a bank safety box requires the owner to personally deliver them to, and retrieve them from the box, exposing the owner to unnecessary security risks, and requires them to buy insurance to protect against loss in storage.

Instead, many investors store their metals with a non-bank depository. The benefits of storing at Diamond State include liquidity, personalized custody accounts, insurance protection and modest storage rates and service fees compared with other options.

The management and staff of Diamond State have more than 90 years of combined depository and banking experience. Diamond State President Mike Clark previously established and managed the depository businesses of both Wilmington Trust Company and Delaware Depository Service Company. Mr. Clark was the first-ever recipient of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets Chairman’s Award in year 2008.

Victor Phillips, Diamond State's depository manager, has extensive experience supervising and running depository operations.

For more information on Diamond State Depository go to www.diamondstatedepository.com or call 888-322-6150.

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For more information on Diamond State, please see www.diamondstatedepository.com or call 888-322-6150 in Delaware.