In case of death

Good preparation

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 will which 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 holding, among your investment records. This should include details of how they should contact us.

You can upload an Expression of Wish document to your BullionVault account to identify the person who should be contacted by us in the event of a report of your death. Learn how to submit documents securely.

Administration following your death

Step 1 - Notification of death

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 correspondence address, email address and telephone number you have filed on your BullionVault account. We will also attempt to contact people who are listed under your Expression of Wish.

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.

Step 2 - Correct legal process

Depending upon the location of your death and on your nationality and citizenship we will 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.

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 what are sent to us.

We will copy these for our file and forward the originals 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.

Once we have received instructions from those lawyers confirming who we can deal with as administrators of your estate we will rename the account as "Estate of decd.".

Step 3 - Deceased account statement

We will send a single printed statement by private courier to the address detailed on your BullionVault account.

We will send a single printed statement by private courier to any address provided by your administrators.

We will then await a written instruction from them in the following general form.

Step 4 - Form of instruction

Your administrators should write to us as follows :-

Your administrators' names,
addresses,
and contact details

The Manager,
BullionVault

BullionVault Username: ....................

Dear Sir,

Regarding the Estate of ......................... please accept this instruction to sell all gold held in the above account, and wire the (US Dollar/Sterling/Euro^*) denominated 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

Print

Date

^*Delete as applicable.

Bank name
Branch/routing code
Bank account name
Bank account number
SWIFT BIC
IBAN

Signed
Print
Date

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. The administrator should send the instruction to us by private courier.

Step 5 - The sale of the gold

Upon receipt of these instructions BullionVault will arrange the sale of the gold, at the latest by the end of the day following receipt of the instruction. The sale price will be set according to the London PM fix price which is an internationally recognized and standard valuation of gold bullion. A 0.25% reduction from the London PM fix price will apply.

A contract will be sent to the email address recorded on the BullionVault account.

Step 6 - Sending the proceeds

After not less than 7 days and not more than 21 days from the sale 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.