What is a Qualified Custodian? Who are they regulated by?
Under Section 408 of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, the SEC defines a Qualified Custodian generally as a Bank or Trust Company that provides safe custody of client assets and handles all reporting and reconciliation of client accounts. Our Qualified Custodian is currently Fortis Bank.
What is iTrustCapital's role in securing my account and assets?
iTrustCapital is a software platform that allows clients to buy and sell cryptocurrency and precious metals in their Self-Directed IRA. iTrustCapital is not an exchange, custodian, trust company, licensed broker/dealer, or investment advisor, and therefore is not directly regulated as such. iTrustCapital leverages regulated bank and trust partners, and institutional crypto storage providers, to secure assets. All iTrustCapital client assets are held off balance sheet. Please review Our Terms of Service for more details.
How are my digital assets secured with iTrustCapital?
Through our Qualified Custodian, Fortis Bank, iTrust Custodial Services utilizes proprietary technology to custody digital assets, working with some of the most respected names in crypto for digital asset institutional storage. The names of these partners will be announced soon.
Highlights include:
- Multi-Party Computation (MPC)
- Offline Cold Storage
- Providers undergo regular security and financial audits by external firms and have been awarded SOC 2 Type II certifications
- Commercial Crime Insurance Policy
What would happen to my IRA and assets if iTrustCapital and/or the Qualfied Custodian were to go out of business?
iTrustCapital and our Qualified Custodian, Fortis Bank, maintain a business continuity plan to address business wind-down and account transitions if needed. In the event that a wind-down is required, clients would retain ownership and control of their accounts and assets and would be required to transfer their funds to another Qualified Custodian. Client assets are never mixed with operating funds and therefore are not available to satisfy the obligations of iTrustCapital or Fortis Bank.
Do you lend against my assets?
Neither Fortis Bank nor iTrustCapital lends against client assets. iTrustCapital never takes custody of client assets and client assets are never mixed with operating funds. Client assets are secured and stored with third-party institutional storage providers, as outlined by our Terms of Service in "Section 4.b." -
Storage: Digital Currencies are stored by iTrust Custodial Services using institutional cryptocurrency storage wallet providers, and precious metals are physically held at the Royal Canadian Mint with ownership managed via a secure blockchain distributed ledger.
To learn more about iTrustCapital’s relationship with its clients, see our Terms of Service here.
Who is Fortress Trust?
Fortress Trust is our previous Qualified Custodian that we no longer use. Fortress Trust is a state-chartered Nevada trust company and is subject to regulatory oversight by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division (FID), supervising all depository, fiduciary, and non-depository financial institutions within the state. All Nevada FID regulatory inquiries for Fortress Trust can be directed to Fidmaster@fid.state.nv.us via email.