As a long time investor in gold , physical gold beats any papers or trade Certs.

As a investor, retailer, and storage operator I can say theres no one size fits all solution..

How many people lose their gold in home robbery's ?? How many lose it to girlfriends or other inside thefts..

Here in asia so many expats rent only, or live in condos, not so easy to fully secure your storage. OK sure for 5 or 10 ounces then maybe, but 100 or 1000 ?? Then insured segregated allocated storage becomes a far more realistic solution.

I had a villa destroyed in a landslide, if my assets had d been buried there I would have lost the lot.. Even 'deep under the ground' on your own property has risks.

I have been a long term investor in gold by online trading, but being in the uk at the time i used goldmoney www.goldmoney.com they are set up offshore in the channel islands. But also I use www.kitco.com an American base for my charts etc.

as i recall though; like the set up of online trading you have to send copies of residency, and passport details, for fraud purposes..and tax!

Know your customer is a fact of life these days and a requirement for anti terror laundering issues..

However if you invest in coins like sovereigns which are legal tender theres no capital gains tax even if you are resident.

http://www.goldmadesimple.com/taxfreegold