STRATA Trust Company: Platform Profile

Overview

STRATA Trust Company is a Texas-chartered directed custodian focused on self-directed retirement accounts holding alternative and traditional assets.

Its current product structure is unusually explicit about the custodian's role:

• STRATA administers the account;
• holds or arranges custody of permitted assets;
• processes transactions at the account owner's direction;
• performs required reporting;
• does not select investments;
• does not endorse sponsors or issuers;
• does not provide investment, legal, or tax advice.

The current fee structure separates a lower-cost precious-metals tier from a broader Flex tier.

That distinction matters more than a single headline annual fee.

May fit better for

• investors holding private equity, private debt, real estate, or precious metals in an IRA;
• investors who want one custodian able to support both alternative assets and public-market exposure;
• precious-metals investors who want a dedicated metals fee tier;
• investors who prefer a state-chartered trust-company custodian;
• investors comfortable performing their own investment due diligence;
• investors who do not require direct cryptocurrency custody.

May fit less well for

• investors seeking direct cryptocurrency custody at STRATA;
• investors who want the custodian to evaluate the quality of an investment;
• users seeking a conventional brokerage-only IRA with no alternative assets;
• investors whose intended asset is on STRATA's prohibited or unsupported list;
• investors who want personal possession of IRA precious metals;
• investors who assume the $395 Flex annual fee includes every asset-holding fee.

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Current legal and regulatory status

Current STRATA materials identify the company as:

• Legal name: STRATA Trust Company
• Texas chartered trust company: Yes
• State regulator: Texas Department of Banking
• Directed custodian: Yes
• Investment adviser: No
• Broker dealer: No

The Texas Department of Banking entity record currently lists STRATA as an open trust company under charter number 1047-29.

STRATA also states that it is subject to periodic regulatory examination and independent audits.

The important distinction is:

regulated custodian does not mean investment evaluator.

The account owner remains responsible for evaluating the investment and its sponsor.

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Two current annual pricing tiers

Precious Metals Tier

Current annual pricing:

• Annual IRA fee: $150
• Commingled storage: $115
• Segregated storage: $175

Segregated storage applies to gold, platinum, and palladium, with depository exceptions possible under the current schedule.

The $150 annual IRA fee is not the total annual cost when physical metals are held because storage fees also apply.

Flex Tier

Current annual pricing:

• Annual IRA fee: $395
• Private asset holding fee: $50 per asset
• Private asset fee cap: $500
• Real estate holding fee: $150 per property
• Real estate fee cap: $1,500
• Precious metals storage if held: additional

The holding-fee caps apply at 10 assets/properties under the current schedule.

"$395 flat annual fee"

without explaining the asset-based charges.

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Current processing and service fees

Selected current fees:

• Account setup: $50; waived for electronic setup
• Outgoing wire: $35
• Late payment: $50
• Account closure or reinstatement: $250
• Asset reregistration: $100
• Roth conversion or recharacterization: $50 per asset
• Private asset purchase sale exchange: $50
• Real estate purchase sale exchange: $150 per transaction
• Note modification: $50
• Late annual valuation update: $50
• Precious metals purchase sale exchange: $40
• Depository handling processing: $35
• Precious metals shipping: $10 + depository cost

Fees are transaction-specific.

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Uninvested cash is different from investment assets

Current STRATA fee disclosures state that uninvested cash is automatically deposited into interest-bearing custodial accounts at depository banks selected by STRATA.

Current treatment:

• Uninvested cash bank deposit structure: Yes
• FDIC: up to $250,000 per depositor, subject to applicable rules
• Interest rate set by STRATA: Yes
• Investment products FDIC insured: No

The protection distinction must remain visible:

bank-deposit treatment for eligible uninvested cash does not make private investments, real estate, precious metals, or other investment products FDIC insured.

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Public-market access requires a brokerage relationship

STRATA can support public-market exposure, but STRATA is not itself a securities broker.

Current materials describe a TradeStation brokerage route within a STRATA IRA.

Current STRATA public-equity materials disclosures show:

• TradeStation stock ETF commission: $0
• TradeStation mutual fund: $14.95 per trade

Those are brokerage-route references, not STRATA custody fees.

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Asset breadth and explicit exclusions

Current STRATA materials support broad alternative-asset custody, including:

• Private equity: Yes
• Private debt: Yes
• Direct real estate: Yes
• Precious metals: Yes
• Public market exposure via brokerage: Yes

Current STRATA support materials also identify important exclusions.

This is a material review point.

"Self-directed" does not mean every conceivable asset is accepted.

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Account types

Current account materials support:

• Traditional IRA: Yes
• Roth IRA: Yes
• SEP IRA: Yes
• SIMPLE IRA: Yes
• Inherited Beneficiary IRA support: Yes

Eligibility and contribution rules depend on the specific account type.

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Protection and due-diligence

STRATA describes itself as a passive/directed custodian.

It does not provide investment due diligence for the account owner.

Assessment

STRATA's strongest feature is the breadth of assets it can custody without pretending that every asset is supported.

Its current pricing also gives two genuinely different economic models:

• a $150 annual IRA tier for precious-metals-focused accounts, plus storage;
• a $395 Flex tier, plus asset-holding fees where applicable.

The main limitation is equally clear.

STRATA is not a direct cryptocurrency custodian, and its current support materials reject several structures that other SDIRA custodians may accept.

For investors combining private investments, real estate, metals, and public securities, the Flex structure is broad.

For investors whose strategy depends on direct crypto or a single-member IRA LLC, the current exclusions are decisive.