Preferred Trust Company Review: Nevada Listing, Fees, Contract

Why this review exists

Searches for “preferred trust company” return the company's own site, consumer-review pages and gold-IRA affiliate write-ups. None of the pages we looked at puts the regulator's list, the dated fee schedule and the wording of the investment form side by side. We read those three sources and a few supporting pages, and we say plainly what we could not read.

Step zero: which company. Names like this are easy to confuse. We identified this one by two things: the regulator's list entry “PREFERRED TRUST CO LLC” and the company's own documents, which name “Preferred Trust Company, LLC” and give the Las Vegas address above. If your statements come from a different “Preferred Trust,” nothing here applies to it.

If you are comparing custodians for a crowdfunding or real estate IRA, our SDIRA custodian comparison covers Forge Trust, Equity Trust, IRA Financial and others. Preferred Trust is not in that comparison, so this page fills the gap with the company's own numbers.

1. What the regulator shows

The Nevada Financial Institutions Division publishes lists of licensed trust companies. We downloaded two.

The counts are ours, from the names on each PDF. The lists carry names only: no licence numbers, charter dates or ownership. The company's About page says “License #TR10025” and its FAQ says it is “a Nevada-chartered, non-depository trust company regulated by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division.” We could not confirm the number against a regulator document, so treat it as the company's statement.

Enforcement. The division's enforcement-actions page, read November 9, 2026, has year headings from 2012 to 2026. It lists trust-company orders against other firms (for example Fortress Trust LLC on October 22, 2025), and none names Preferred Trust. Absence from that page means no published order, not a clean examination: the division's exam findings are not public in what we read.

What a Nevada listing does and does not tell you. It says the company holds a state trust-company licence. It does not say the investments in your IRA were checked. The company's own FAQ says it “does not provide due diligence to third parties regarding prospective investments, platforms, sponsors, dealers, or service providers.”

2. The fee schedule, dated January 20, 2026

The company publishes one PDF with three schedules (standard, precious metals, crowdfunding), each marked “As of 1.20.26.” It reserves the right to change fees “upon thirty (30) days written notice.”

Contributions, ACH distributions, notary service, proof of funds letters and demand for payoff are listed as “FREE.” The schedule also says that if fees stay unpaid for 30 days and the IRA has no assets, the company “reserves the right to close the IRA without prior notice.”

Worked examples (our arithmetic, from the schedule):

• A crowdfunding-only IRA that makes six investments in its first year: $50 + $200 + 6 × $50 = $550.
• A $150,000 IRA on the standard schedule with six alternative investments in year one, one $200 fee each: $50 + $500 + 6 × $200 = $1,750. The schedule also bills subsequent purchases and the final payoff, so a real year can cost more.
• Leaving with a full transfer out and an outgoing wire: $300 + $30 = $330.
• A $250,000 account pays the $200,001 to $300,000 tier: $600 a year.

The gap between the first two examples is the practical point: the crowdfunding schedule applies only while crowdfunding is the sole asset type. The schedule says that if the IRA holds various asset types, “see the standard IRA Account Administration Fee Schedule.” Adding a rental property later moves the account to the standard schedule, and the fee page we read does not say whether the $50 crowdfunding transaction fee stays. Ask the company before you mix asset types.

3. What the forms say you agree to

We read the company's Investment Authorization and Direction Form (version dated July 27, 2023, linked from its forms page) and its trustee and custodian application. These are the company's own documents, not a court's reading of them.

Under clause 18 the account owner “releases and indemnifies” the custodian for “any loss resulting to the Retirement account” connected with an investment “or resulting from serving as Custodian.” The text we saved has no exception for the custodian's own negligence. The company's separate trust-account agreement does have one: the client indemnifies the trustee “except where such loss or damage directly results from gross negligence or willful misconduct of the Trustee.” We did not read the IRA custodial agreement itself, which may contain its own terms, so ask for it before you sign.

Insurance. The trust-account agreement says trust assets “are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.” That matches the general position in our custodian comparison: a self-directed account holding a private note or an LLC interest has no deposit-insurance backstop.

4. What we could not verify

• Courts. A search of Justia's federal docket index for “Preferred Trust” as a party name, run on November 9, 2026, returned “No cases found.” That covers federal district and appellate courts only. We did not search Nevada state courts (Clark County), so we make no statement about state lawsuits by or against Preferred Trust. If you are in a dispute, ask a lawyer to search Clark County dockets by the company's legal name.
• Ownership and history. We found no published owner, parent or acquisition, and no regulator document giving the charter date. The company says “15+ Years In Operation” and “$606M+” in active assets; both are its own, unaudited statements.
• Licence number and examinations. The regulator lists we read show names only.
• Complaints. Consumer-review sites carry mixed comments. They are anecdotes, and we do not count them as a record.

5. What a reader can do with this

• Before opening: download the January 20, 2026 fee schedule and price your actual plan: the number of investments, whether you will hold a property, and what leaving costs ($300 full transfer out plus wire fees). Compare it with the same exercise at another custodian.
• Before any investment: the company will not check the sponsor, so read the offering documents yourself. For private notes, ask for the lien position and the recorded documents. Our self-directed IRA real estate rules explain the prohibited-transaction limits the custodian says it will not police.
• If you hold a private note or LLC interest inside the IRA: ask in writing how the custodian values it, since the form says values may be cost or sponsor-provided.
• If you only want crowdfunding exposure: compare the $200 plus $50 schedule against your platform's own IRA arrangement, and read SDIRA vs Solo 401(k) if you are self-employed.
• If money is stuck or you suspect fraud: write down dates and amounts, ask for statements in writing, and talk to a securities lawyer. Under clause 18 a suit against the custodian is limited to Clark County courts.

Sources: Nevada Financial Institutions Division, Retail Trust Companies lists (files generated January 26, 2026 and April 20, 2026) and Enforcement Actions page (read November 9, 2026); Preferred Trust Company Fee Schedule (“As of 1.20.26”), Investment Authorization and Direction Form (July 27, 2023 version), Trustee/Custodian Application, FAQ and About pages (read November 9, 2026). Court dockets were not searched. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.