Madison Trust Company: Platform Profile

Overview

Madison Trust Company is a South Dakota-chartered self-directed IRA custodian built around a flat quarterly custody fee rather than an account-value percentage.

Current alternative-asset support includes:

• real estate;
• private placements;
• private equity;
• private lending;
• promissory notes;
• precious metals;
• cryptocurrency structures;
• IRA LLCs and IRA trusts;
• other permitted alternative investments.

The current pricing model is simple at the custody layer but not fee-free.

A one-asset account currently pays:

• $139 × 4 = $556 per year

before transaction, storage, wire, or other applicable fees.

The $500 minimum cash balance is separate.

It is not an account fee.

May fit better for

• investors who prefer flat custody pricing rather than a percentage of account value;
• investors holding one or a few alternative assets;
• real-estate and private-investment SDIRA users;
• investors seeking a Checkbook IRA LLC or IRA trust structure;
• crypto investors who specifically want the CryptoFlex IRA structure;
• investors who prefer a South Dakota-chartered trust-company custodian.

May fit less well for

• investors who want a no-fee IRA;
• investors with many separate holdings, because each additional asset adds a quarterly custody charge;
• investors who do not want to keep the required $500 cash balance;
• users who confuse the cash reserve with an investment minimum;
• investors who expect Madison Trust to recommend investments;
• crypto investors seeking unrestricted personal ownership of wallet assets while they remain inside the IRA.

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Current legal and regulatory status

Current Madison materials identify:

• Legal name: Madison Trust Company, Inc.
• South Dakota chartered trust company: Yes
• Public trust company: Yes
• State regulator: South Dakota Division of Banking
• Founded or chartered: 2014

Madison states that it received its South Dakota trust charter in January 2014.

The state trust-company registry lists Madison Trust Company, Inc. as a public trust company.

Madison's role is custodial and administrative.

The account owner selects and evaluates investments.

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Current 2026 core fees

The current fee schedule is effective January 1, 2026.

The $556 figure is arithmetic:

$139 × 4.

It is not a separately quoted annual fee.

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The $500 cash requirement is not a fee

Madison's current fee schedule explicitly states:

• Required minimum cash balance: $500
• Classified as fee: No

The balance may be used to pay fees if the account owner does not provide another payment method.

If the IRA closes, unused remaining cash is returned subject to applicable charges.

Those would be different concepts.

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Current transaction fees

Selected current transaction charges:

• Investment fee: $75
• Real estate investment fee: $150
• Sale of asset fee: $75
• Real estate sale fee: $175
• Asset reregistration incoming or outgoing: $75
• Roth conversion or recharacterization: $100
• Cash disbursement: $30
• ACH recurring distribution: $10

The investment fee also applies when funds move from the IRA into an IRA LLC or IRA trust under the current schedule.

This matters when comparing Checkbook IRA economics.

Checkbook control can reduce repeated custodian-level transaction processing after the entity is funded, but creating and funding the structure is not costless.

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Precious-metals storage

Current 2026 fee schedule:

• Precious metals storage minimum: $100
• Included asset value: first $100,000
• Storage above 100000: $1 per $1,000 of asset value
• Depository: Delaware Depository

The storage charge is separate from the ordinary custody fee.

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Checkbook IRA

Madison supports IRA LLC and IRA trust structures commonly described as Checkbook IRAs.

Current structure:

• Checkbook IRA: Yes
• IRA LLC: Yes
• IRA trust: Yes
• Madison remains custodian: Yes

The entity can give the account owner operational control over its bank account and transactions, subject to retirement-account rules.

The structure does not eliminate:

• prohibited-transaction rules;
• disqualified-person restrictions;
• valuation requirements;
• tax reporting;
• UBIT/UDFI issues where applicable;
• Madison's continuing custodial role.

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CryptoFlex IRA

Madison currently offers a CryptoFlex IRA structure through a self-directed IRA and IRA LLC arrangement.

Current materials identify a structure involving:

• Madison Trust as custodian;
• an IRA-owned LLC;
• banking support through the current program structure;
• crypto platforms/exchanges selected within the permitted setup.

The critical distinction is:

CryptoFlex access does not turn Madison Trust into a cryptocurrency exchange.

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Account types

Current Madison materials support:

• Traditional IRA: Yes
• Roth IRA: Yes
• SEP IRA: Yes
• SIMPLE IRA: Yes
• Checkbook IRA: Yes
• CryptoFlex IRA: Yes

Eligibility rules vary by account type.

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Service-fee examples

Current schedule also identifies:

• Asset retirement: $75
• Corrected 1099R or 5498: $100
• Expedited processing two business days: $75
• Incoming wire or instant transfer: $30
• Legal review: $100 per hour
• Medallion stamp: $150 + expenses
• Note modification or extension: $25
• Nonrecourse loan: $100
• Outgoing wire: $30
• Overnight delivery: $50
• Private to public stock transfer: $350
• Research or special services: $100 per hour
• Returned payment: $30
• Same day service: $125 when applicable
• Stale asset fee: $100
• Stop payment: $30
• Unidentified deposit research: $30

These are event-driven charges.

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Protection and due-diligence

Madison is a custodian, not an investment selector.

State-chartered trust-company oversight does not guarantee the performance or legitimacy of a private investment.

Assessment

Madison's current pricing is easiest to understand by separating three things:

1. custody;
2. transactions;
3. cash reserve.

A one-asset IRA incurs $556 of annualized custodial fees at the current $139 quarterly rate.

Additional holdings add $120 per year each.

Transactions and specialized services can add more.

The $500 cash balance is not another $500 annual fee.

For investors who want an SDIRA LLC or CryptoFlex structure, Madison supports both while remaining the custodian.

The tradeoff is that investors with many separately held assets can see the flat-fee model become less flat in practice because each extra asset adds a quarterly charge.