Pull up your gold IRA statement and look at the name on it.
It is probably not yours. Not exactly.
It likely reads something like "Equity Trust Company, Custodian, FBO Margaret Wilson IRA." Those three letters in the middle, FBO, stand for "for benefit of," and they are doing an enormous amount of legal work.
The custodian holds title. You hold the benefit.
That is not a trick and it is not unusual. It is how every retirement account in America works, including the boring one holding your index funds. You just never had to think about it before, because nobody was storing your index funds in a vault in Delaware.
With gold, the chain becomes visible, and once you see it, the natural question follows: if four parties are involved, which one is actually responsible if something goes wrong?
Let's trace it.