Madison Trust Company: Precious Metals IRA Fees and Depositories

This page is part of our Gold IRA Custodian Directory. It collects what Madison Trust Company publishes about fees and storage for precious metals IRAs, and what public records show about its status. It is not a recommendation, a rating or a ranking. Everything the company says about itself is labeled as the company's claim. Facts were checked on October 13, 2026, and fees can change.

Who is Madison Trust Company?

Madison Trust Company, Inc. is a trust company with its main office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. According to its website, it is a custodian for self-directed IRAs and was founded in 2014. A self-directed IRA is an IRA that can hold assets beyond the usual stocks and funds, such as physical gold and silver. A custodian is the financial institution that holds the account, processes paperwork and reports to the IRS.

The company's website lists a mailing address in New Jersey operated by a related company, Madison Administration Company. The pages we opened did not explain how the two companies are related, so we say no more about that.

Is Madison Trust Company regulated?

South Dakota's Division of Banking, part of the state Department of Labor and Regulation, publishes a list of trust companies chartered in the state. The September 2026 edition lists Madison Trust Company, Inc. as a public trust company, with a first issuance date of January 29, 2014.

The Division's March 2026 activity report also shows an application by Madison Trust Company to move its main office within Sioux Falls, approved on March 27, 2026. That is a routine filing, not a complaint or action against the company. The 2026 fee schedule shows the older address (401 E. 8th St, Suite 200), while the state list shows 101 N. Phillips Ave Ste 308. Madison's home page lists both.

Madison's own pages that we reviewed did not name its regulator. The state list is the source for the charter.

Is Madison Trust Company on the IRS list of approved nonbank trustees?

Not that we could find. The IRS keeps a page of approved nonbank trustees and custodians. Entities on it were approved under Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e). The list we checked is dated April 1, 2026, and the page was last reviewed June 28, 2026. We searched that April 1, 2026 list only, for "Madison," and found no entry. We did not search any later edition.

What this does and does not mean:

• It means we did not find the company on that one list. The IRS says "We will frequently update this list," so a newer edition could differ.
• We did not find an explanation from the company on the pages we opened. We make no legal conclusion about what the absence means.
• Whether a particular custodian is acceptable for a particular IRA is a question for the company, a tax professional or an attorney. A fair question to put to Madison directly is how its status satisfies the IRS custodian requirement for holding bullion. See our page on custodian requirements for background.

This matters for metals because the IRS says certain bullion is not treated as a collectible only if a bank or approved non-bank trustee keeps physical possession of it. The rule itself is in IRC 408(m)(3).

What does Madison Trust Company charge for a precious metals IRA?

The company posts its fee schedule as a PDF. The PDF we opened states an effective date of January 1, 2026. The table below lists only the fees we could read clearly. The PDF has more line items, such as wire, transfer and account-closing charges, that we have left out because we could not pair each amount with its label with confidence. Read the full document before you decide.

The schedule also lists a $500 minimum cash balance. It is described as not a fee, but it may be used to pay fees if no other payment method is given.

Madison's fees page says there are no asset-based holding fees and that fees can be paid from IRA cash or personal funds. That is the company's description. A sentence such as "flat-rate" does not tell you your total cost: the quarterly fee, per-asset fees, storage and any dealer charges all add up. Our page on Gold IRA custodian fees explains the common fee types.

A worked example of the arithmetic

Suppose an account holds one metals position. Using only the table above, the custodial fee is $139 per quarter, or $556 per year, plus storage of at least $100 per year. Setup ($50) and an investment fee ($30) apply once for the purchase. Dealer markups, shipping and any items we left out of the table are extra. This is arithmetic from the published schedule, not a quote for any person.

Which depositories does Madison Trust Company support?

According to Madison, metals in its self-directed IRAs are stored at the Delaware Depository. The page we reviewed named only that one depository. Another Madison page describes FideliTrade as a Delaware Depository company and describes these purchase steps: you open an account with FideliTrade, select metals on its Products & Prices page and call to lock in the price, then fill out the FideliTrade Trade Confirmation and Madison's Investment Authorization Form. Madison says it "wires your funds directly to Delaware Depository."

Madison also describes two kinds of storage:

• Segregated: you get back the exact metal you bought.
• Non-segregated: you may get "like" metal of the same type, such as a coin from a different year.

Ask which type the account uses, what it costs, and whether it changes the fee above. For how the three parties fit together, see dealer, custodian and depository roles.

What does a custodian like Madison do, and not do?

According to Madison, as custodian it "facilitates" investment transactions and prepares annual reporting. In practice, a custodian typically holds the account, processes funding and distributions, and files IRS forms.

A custodian is not an investment adviser. Madison's disclaimer says it does not provide legal, tax or investment advice. An SEC and NASAA investor alert (September 2011) says self-directed IRA custodians "generally do not evaluate the quality or legitimacy of any investment." So the custodian's charter does not vouch for the dealer, the metals or the price you pay. Madison says the investor chooses the dealer. Checking the dealer is your job, or your adviser's.

What happened to the older Madison fee schedules?

Madison's older web pages and PDFs are still found in search results. Fees on an older document may differ from 2026. Use only the current schedule, and ask for it in writing.

What questions should you ask before opening an account?

• Can I have the current fee schedule in writing, and when does it take effect?
• How do the fees work when a position is sold and the account holds no metals?
• Is the depository storage fee billed by you or by the depository, and is it the same for segregated storage?
• How does the company meet the IRS requirement that bullion be held by a bank or approved non-bank trustee?
• What happens to my account if the company is sold or merges?
• What are the fees to transfer out or close the account?
• Who answers questions about my dealer's prices, and who resolves disputes?

For a general checklist, see how to choose a custodian. Other profiles in the directory include Preferred Trust Company and New Direction Trust Company.

What we did not check

We did not review complaint databases, court records or ratings sites for this page, so nothing here should be read as a clean record. We left out the company's self-reported client counts and ratings because we could not confirm them independently. Pages from the company and the state were read on October 13, 2026, and we will update this profile quarterly.