There are several things you can do before you die to ensure efficient estate administration.
You should make sure your BullionVault account is named and addressed in a way which will exactly match with your Death Certificate. For a personal account your account should be named with your full name. You are strongly advised that this should also match the account name of your linked bank account. A mismatch between your Death Certificate and/or your BullionVault account and/or your linked bank account on BullionVault can cause difficulties and expense for your estate's administrators.
You should make sure that whoever will administer your estate after your death will find a printed copy of your BullionVault account statement, or other evidence of your gold, silver, platinum and palladium holdings, among your investment records. This should include details of how they should contact us. It may also be sensible to make arrangements for them to be able to access your BullionVault account and email account.
Your estate's administrators should inform us of your death as soon as reasonably practicable.
Upon being notified of your death we will verify the report by attempting to contact you at the email address you have filed on your BullionVault account.
Unless we have good reason to doubt the report of your death we shall within 7 days start to process the notification of your death in good faith.
Your administrators will be requested to send to us the relevant documents required in the jurisdiction appropriate to your estate. Usually your administrators will be named in your will, as well as on official documents produced after your death, and those documents will bear the seal of the official issuing body - usually a court. These documents, and the Death Certificate, are sent to us.
Depending upon the location of your death and on your nationality and citizenship we may contact our own lawyers. They are members of an international organization which connects lawyers processing deceased estate administration across international borders. If we do not already have a relationship with lawyers in the relevant country we will be put in touch with one through this organization.
We may forward the documents provided by your estate's administrators to our lawyers, together with our instructions to perform the necessary investigation, and to provide us with authority to accept instructions from certain individuals - usually your estate's administrators - with regard to processing your BullionVault account. Our lawyers will check the validity and completeness of these documents in the appropriate jurisdiction.
Your administrators should write to us as follows:-
Your administrators' names,
addresses,
and contact detailsThe Manager,
BullionVaultBullionVault Username: ....................
Dear Sir,
Regarding the Estate of ......................... please accept this instruction to sell all bullion held in the above account for (US Dollar/Sterling/Euro*), and wire the proceeds to:
Bank name Branch/routing code Bank account name Bank account number SWIFT BIC IBAN I authorize the deduction of legal and other expenses to the extent that they do not exceed 1% of the value of the account, or $500, (whichever is the larger) without my prior approval.
Signed Date *Delete as applicable.
Please check our contact details for our postal address.
IMPORTANT: Having established the correct local processing of the death within the relevant jurisdiction BullionVault is authorised to accept the instructions of the administrator. It is now essential that the signature on the above document is independently verified to be the stated administrator. Usually the administrator should take this letter and a passport to a public notary, or local lawyer, who will endorse and/or stamp the letter bearing the signature and provide a contact detail at which they themselves can be contacted to verify the endorsement.
IMPORTANT: The administrator must send the instruction to us by recorded delivery to establish the date that the documents are received by BullionVault.
Step 5 - The sale of the bullion
Upon receipt and verification of these instructions BullionVault will place Daily price orders for the sale of the gold, silver, platinum and palladium. These orders use the London Prices determined at 3pm for gold, mid-day for silver and 2pm for platinum and palladium and published on the London Bullion Market Association website at midnight. We'll usually process your orders on the business day following the confirmed receipt of the sale instruction. The London Prices are internationally recognized and standard valuations of gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion. The proceeds from Daily price orders typically take 2 business days to settle into the account. The funds can then be withdrawn.
Step 6 - Sending the proceeds
After not more than 21 days from the settlement of the sale proceeds BullionVault will initiate a bank wire sending the account balance to the nominated bank account.
Fees
In finalising your account, BullionVault will apply two sets of fees:
- Ordinary BullionVault costs:
- Commission. BullionVault applies a commission on the sale according to its usual tariff.
- Storage fees. BullionVault deducts any unpaid storage fees according to its usual tariff.
- Bank wire fee. BullionVault deducts a banking fee for wiring money - according to its usual tariff.
- Fees specific to administration of the deceased account:
- Legal fees will be deducted from the account balance remitted and will vary from case to case.
- BullionVault may deduct an amount in respect of its own administration - according to its published tariff.
- BullionVault may deduct third party costs and expenses.
The fees specific to the administration of a deceased account will not exceed the higher of $500 or 1% of the value of the account without explanation from us and prior approval of the administrator.
