Physical gold held in a properly structured IRA is generally considered secure, but “secure” covers a few distinct things worth separating: physical security, insurance, and account-level fraud risk.

Physical security comes from the depository, not the custodian — approved facilities like Delaware Depository or Brink’s are built for high-value storage, with the same kind of security infrastructure used for institutional bullion holdings, not a bank vault repurposed for the job. Insurance typically comes through the depository as well, often underwritten through Lloyd’s of London, covering the full value of stored metal against theft or physical loss.

Account-level risk is a separate question and where most real problems in this industry actually occur — not metal theft from a depository, which is rare, but fraud or misrepresentation by a dealer at the point of sale. That’s why confirming a custodian and depository’s regulatory history, insurance coverage, and BBB standing matters more in practice than worrying about depository security itself, which is generally robust across reputable providers.

So: yes, physical gold in a properly structured IRA is genuinely secure from a storage standpoint — the real due diligence is about who you’re buying from, not whether the vault itself is safe.