International Depository Services Review

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Last updated: July 22, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial

This review covers International Depository Services the way a US precious-metals IRA saver actually encounters it: through the custodian who books the storage, not as a direct customer. The sections below walk through the parent company, the three vault sites, the regulator and accreditation stack, the segregated-only storage model, the Lloyd's insurance layers, and how the group compares against peer IRA depositories. Every figure traces to an IDS page, the IRS, or a statute cited inline.

What is International Depository Services, and who owns it?

International Depository Services Group, usually called IDS, is a set of three precious-metals vaults built and operated by Dillon Gage Metals of Dallas. Dillon Gage has traded wholesale bullion since 1976 and runs a refinery that opened in 1996, which is how the group grew its depository arm out of an existing metals business (source: IDS, About the IDS Group).

The group launched in 2010 when Dillon Gage opened Diamond State Depository in New Castle, Delaware, later rebranded as IDS of Delaware. IDS of Canada followed in Mississauga, Ontario, and IDS of Texas opened in Dallas in 2017. The three sites share a common operating model, staff training, and reporting portal, but each has its own accreditation profile suited to its home market.

IDS is not a bullion dealer. Its own FAQ states plainly that the group provides storage and related services only, and it will refer clients to active bullion dealers when asked. That separation matters for a retirement saver, because the dealer, the custodian, and the depository each have a distinct role and the IRS expects them to stay in their lanes (source: IDS, Frequently Asked Questions).

Worth knowing: IDS decides how metal is stored, not whether a coin or bar is IRA-eligible. That call is made by the IRC 408(m)(3) statute, the IRS, and the dealer supplying the bullion. IDS is the neutral custodian in the middle.

The three IDS vaults, and why the addresses matter

IDS of Delaware sits in New Castle, just outside Wilmington, and is the site that IRA custodians route the majority of their eastern accounts to. It is a two-hour drive from New York City and a similar distance from Washington, which puts it close to Northeastern bullion flows without sharing the same target profile as Manhattan (source: IDS, History).

IDS of Texas opened in Dallas in 2017 and was moved to a larger, tailor-built Dallas facility in 2019 to keep up with demand. The site is about fourteen miles from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which shortens the shipping loop for dealers routing metal through DFW. On-site armed police officers work alongside the multi-redundant alarm stack.

IDS of Canada is in Mississauga, Ontario, near the Toronto financial district and roughly a two-hour flight from New York. This vault does not serve US IRAs. It holds bullion for Canadian Registered Retirement Savings Plan and Tax-Free Savings Account programs, and it is one of only eight IIROC-approved bullion depositories in Canada (source: IDS, Accreditations).

State choice matters for storage costs on top of geography. Delaware imposes no state sales tax, no personal property tax, and no inventory tax. Texas eliminated state sales tax on precious-metals purchases in 2013 and has no state income tax. Both help suppress incidental costs, though neither changes federal IRA rules.

Regulators, accreditations, and what each one actually means

The accreditation profile is not identical across the three vaults, and the distinctions matter for a saver reading a marketing page.

IDS of Delaware is the only IDS site with COMEX/CME approval. It is one of eight COMEX-approved vaults in the United States for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium delivery, and it is one of nine sites approved by ICE Futures US for gold and silver. Every COMEX approval requires financial and procedural audits and notification of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, so this is a heavy background check to hold (source: IDS, Accreditations).

IDS of Texas and IDS of Delaware are both Associates of the London Bullion Market Association, or LBMA, which sets the physical and operational standards recognized across the global gold and silver market. Both are also members of the National Coin and Bullion Association, or NCBA, the successor body to the Industry Council for Tangible Assets.

IDS of Canada carries a fourth label: the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, or IIROC, has approved it to hold LBMA gold and silver delivery bars. That is a Canadian regulator layer that does not apply to US IRA metal, but it explains why the same brand can talk to both markets.

Finally, IDS Group operates behind a system separation from its parent Dillon Gage. The depository does not run a trading operation, and the two companies keep separate infrastructure. That structural line is meant to keep the depository role neutral from the wholesaler role (source: IDS, Security).

Which metals IDS stores, and the IRA fineness rule

All three IDS vaults accept gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. The FAQ also confirms that IDS will store rhodium, but rhodium is not IRA-eligible, so it does not enter the retirement-savings picture. Certified numismatic coins in slabs are also stored, though most IRA savers stick to common bullion because premiums on numismatics rarely pay off inside a retirement account.

For a US precious-metals IRA, the fineness minimums are set by the tax code. The IRS traces them to IRC 408(m)(3), which references the delivery standards of regulated commodity contract markets: gold at 99.5 percent, silver at 99.9 percent, and platinum and palladium at 99.95 percent (source: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m)).

American Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Palladium Eagles qualify under a separate carve-out for United States coins listed in 31 USC 5112, even at their published purities. The IRS collectibles issue snapshot lays out the same eligibility grid (source: IRS, collectibles issue snapshot). The chart below shows how the four IRA fineness thresholds compare, all of which IDS is set up to hold.

Product form matters as well. Small bars and common bullion coins are handled as fungible product families, but larger bars carry unique serial numbers, hallmarks, and weights and are tracked one by one. That distinction feeds into how deposits and withdrawals are timed, and it also shapes the fee schedule your custodian passes through.

For product-level detail, see IRA-eligible silver bars, IRA-eligible platinum products, and IRA-eligible palladium products. These pages list the accepted mints, sizes, and purities that IDS is set up to receive.

Segregated-only storage and the bailment framing

IDS Group runs a segregated-only model, and it says so bluntly on its allocated-storage page. Every client account is fully segregated, and IDS does not offer unallocated storage of any kind. That is different from most peer depositories, which typically offer both a lower-cost commingled tier and a higher-cost segregated tier (source: IDS, Allocated and Segregated Storage).

In a segregated IDS account, your specific coins or bars are held apart from every other client and from IDS's own inventory. Legal title stays with you, and the vault cannot substitute, use, or borrow the exact items you delivered. On withdrawal you get back the same physical items, not an equivalent quantity of the same product.

All client assets are held as bailment, not as a deposit or consignment. The distinction is legal, not cosmetic. Under bailment, the bullion is customer property held off IDS's balance sheet, so it cannot be seized to pay depository debts if the company ever ran into financial trouble.

The trade-off: segregated storage costs more per year than commingled storage at a peer depository would. In exchange you get identical-item return, a cleaner audit trail, and lower counterparty risk. On a large IRA, that trade often pencils. On a small silver-heavy account, the per-year fee weight is worth stress-testing before you decide.

The three-policy Lloyd’s insurance stack

IDS Group insures all three depositories through Lloyd's of London, the specialty market that has underwritten this class of risk for roughly three centuries. The primary policy is an all-risk vault policy that covers physical loss, damage, mysterious disappearance, and unexplained shortages inside the vault footprint (source: IDS, Insurance).

Two extra policies sit alongside the primary cover. One is a separate acts-of-terrorism policy, which fills a gap that most all-risk vault policies exclude. The other is an employee-theft policy, which sits over the internal dual-control and separation-of-duties workflows. The three-policy stack is a defensive layer meant to close the usual exclusions rather than pretend they do not exist.

The security backbone under the policy stack is standard for a top-tier bullion depository. Each site runs UL-rated multi-redundant alarm systems monitored twenty-four hours a day by off-site security specialists. Each vault carries a Class III UL rating on the vault door and modular panels, which is the highest commercially available burglary-resistance grade, tested to withstand two hours of forced entry (source: IDS, Security).

Read the insurance limits, not just the underwriter name. IDS publishes the presence of the three policies and the Lloyd's underwriting, but the specific dollar caps are typically shared through the IRA custodian on request, not on the public site. Ask your custodian for a written summary of the coverage before you commit.

How savers actually place metal at IDS

You cannot open an IDS account as an IRA saver directly. IDS Group states that it works only with IRA trustees and administrators, not individual account holders. The custodian holds the master relationship and files the IRS paperwork on your behalf.

The path most savers follow looks like this:

1. Open a self-directed IRA with a custodian. Choose a bank or IRS-approved non-bank trustee that routes precious metals to IDS. The custodian holds legal title and files the annual reporting.
2. Ask, in writing, which IDS site the custodian uses. IDS of Delaware and IDS of Texas both accept US IRA metal, but a given custodian may default to one. Confirm the address before you fund the account.
3. Fund the IRA through a direct movement. Use a trustee-to-trustee transfer or a direct rollover to bypass the sixty-day deadline and the twenty percent mandatory withholding rule that applies to plan payouts sent to you.
4. Pick IRS-eligible bullion through a dealer. Stick to coins and bars that meet the fineness minimum or fit the United States coin carve-out. Common bullion beats premium numismatic pieces inside an IRA for spread reasons.
5. Direct the shipment to IDS. The dealer ships the metal to IDS of Delaware or IDS of Texas under the custodian's account. IDS inspects, counts, and books the bullion into your segregated position on receipt.
6. Verify the account entry in the online portal. IDS Group runs an Online Depository Client Portal for holdings and transaction history, accessed through the custodian, not by the individual saver.

For plan-specific rollover walk-throughs, see the guides for a 401(k) into a precious metals IRA, a 403(b), a TSP, or a traditional IRA. For custodian selection, see silver IRA custodians explained and the best precious-metals IRA custodians compared.

How IDS compares with peer IRA depositories

The set of US depositories that IRA custodians actually use is small. The table below shows how IDS stacks up against the other names that recur on custodian intake forms, focused on the pieces that matter to a retirement-savings account.

Sources: IDS Accreditations, Allocated and Segregated Storage; Delaware Depository About Us and IRA Services; Brink's storage pages; Texas Precious Metals Depository. Checked July 2026. See the fact-base for the full source list.

Three takeaways matter for a saver. First, most of these vaults hold the same four metals at the same statutory purity, so eligibility is not the deciding factor. Second, IDS is the only site on this list that runs segregated only. That is an advantage on counterparty risk but a cost floor on small accounts.

Third, the shipping geography relative to your dealer often matters more than reputation gaps. See the best precious-metals IRA depositories compared for the full ranking view.

Fees, minimums, and how the bill gets assembled

IDS Group does not publish a public retail fee schedule. The reason is structural: retail IRA storage bills are negotiated between IDS and the IRA administrator, and the custodian is the one that passes a rate through to the saver. IDS states on its Texas site that storage fees are based on stored asset value with no minimum storage requirement, but every account is billed a minimum fee floor (source: IDS of Texas).

Two structural points recur across IDS accounts. First, silver-heavy holdings pay more per dollar than gold-heavy holdings, because a fixed dollar amount of silver takes far more vault volume than the same dollar amount of gold. Second, segregated-only storage means IDS does not offer a cheaper commingled tier as a compromise, so the fee floor is what it is.

Ask your custodian for the full storage bill in writing before the transfer runs. Break it out into the depository fee, the custodian administration fee, and any dealer buy-side and sell-side spread that shows up separately. Fixed annual fees are the drag that punishes small accounts hardest.

The calculator below shows what a percentage fee does to a balance across the years an IRA usually stays open.

When IDS is not the right fit

IDS runs a well-audited group of vaults, but any honest review has to name the cases where it is the wrong depository for a specific saver. Not every IRA belongs there.

It is usually not the right fit in these situations:

• You want a lower-cost commingled tier. IDS Group is segregated only. If your custodian offers a lower-cost commingled option at another depository and your balance is small, the annual bill at a peer site may be lower. Segregated storage matters more once the account is large enough for counterparty risk to dominate the math.
• You want a depository closer to your dealer. A West Coast saver working with a Nevada or California dealer will usually pay less in freight over time by using a West Coast depository. IDS of Texas helps in the South, and IDS of Delaware helps in the East. Neither replaces a West Coast address.
• You expect the depository to sell you the metal. IDS is not a bullion dealer. It stores metal and refers you to active dealers on request. If a pitch bundles the dealer, the custodian, and the depository under one brand, it is not IDS, and the arrangement usually deserves a second look.
• You expect insurance to cover excluded categories. The Lloyd's stack covers physical loss, mysterious disappearance, terrorism, and employee theft. It does not cover cyber-attacks, radioactive contamination, or biochemical exclusions that London-market policies typically write out. No IRA depository can promise blanket coverage on those.

If one of these describes you, the decision is not that IDS is a bad depository. It is that another vault, another custodian, or a different account structure fits better. There is no call to action in this section on purpose.

IDS depository questions, answered

Is International Depository Services IRS-approved for IRA metal?

Yes. IDS of Delaware and IDS of Texas serve as preferred storage sites for many US self-directed IRA custodians, which route metal to IDS under trustee agreements that satisfy the physical-possession requirement of IRC 408(m)(3). IDS Group deals only with IRA trustees, not individual retirement savers, so the custodian holds the relationship on your behalf.

Where does IDS store IRA metal?

US IRA metal is held at IDS of Delaware in New Castle, Delaware, or at IDS of Texas in Dallas, Texas. IDS of Canada, in Mississauga, Ontario, does not hold US IRA bullion. It handles Canadian RRSP and TFSA accounts under Canadian rules, and federal US rules require IRA metal to sit inside the United States.

Does IDS offer segregated or commingled storage?

IDS Group offers segregated storage only. The allocated-storage page states directly that the group does not offer unallocated storage. Every client account is isolated from other clients and from IDS's own inventory, and withdrawals return the exact items you delivered.

Who insures the metal held at IDS?

All three IDS vaults are insured through Lloyd's of London, using an all-risk vault policy plus separate policies for acts of terrorism and employee theft. Outbound shipments are insured as well. The public site publishes the underwriter and the policy structure, and your custodian can request specific limits.

Is IDS COMEX approved?

IDS of Delaware is COMEX/CME approved for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium delivery. It is one of eight COMEX-approved vaults in the United States. IDS of Texas is not COMEX approved, but it holds LBMA Associate and NCBA membership, plus on-site armed police and the same Class III vault construction.

Can I visit the vault and inspect my metal?

IDS is not a walk-in facility for IRA holders. Direct visits by an IRA account owner risk creating a deemed distribution under the tax code. Personal-custody clients can schedule appointments through the standard request forms, and IRA activity flows through the custodian, not the individual.

Which metals can IDS store for an IRA?

IDS stores gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, all of which are IRA-eligible under IRC 408(m)(3) at the published fineness minimums. IDS also stores rhodium and certified numismatic coins, but rhodium is not IRA-eligible and most numismatic coins are a bad fit inside a retirement account because of wide dealer spreads.

What is a Class III UL vault, and why does it matter?

Underwriters Laboratories rates gold vaults on how long a burglary attempt would take to breach the door and modular panels. Class III is the highest commercially available rating, tested to withstand two hours of forced entry. Every IDS depository uses Class III vaults, backed by multi-redundant alarms, dual-control procedures, and off-site 24/7 monitoring.