STRATA Trust Company Review: Texas Charter, Fees and Court Record

Why this review exists

People who search “strata trust company” usually already have an account, or an investment sponsor has told them to open one. What the first page of results gives them is mostly the company's own pages and star ratings. What it leaves out is the paper record: who charters the company, who owns it, how big it says it is, what its dated fee schedule charges today, which sentences in its account agreement decide who checks your investment, and which federal courts have it as a party. We read those documents. We have no affiliate relationship with STRATA and earn nothing if you open an account.

If you are comparing custodians for a crowdfunding or private-note investment, our SDIRA custodian comparison sets STRATA beside Forge Trust, Equity Trust, IRA Financial and others; the figures below are later and come from STRATA's own dated schedule. For the tax rules on holding real estate in an IRA see our self-directed IRA real estate rules.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. Court listings describe disputes, which by nature involve accounts that went wrong; they are not a count of the accounts that did not end in court.

1. What STRATA is, legally

STRATA is a state-chartered trust company, not a bank and not an SEC registrant that we found. The company's complaint page says it “is chartered under the State of Texas and, by state law, is subject to regulatory oversight by the Texas Department of Banking.” The Department's own entity record agrees on the charter and adds the history.

Two points matter to a holder. First, a state trust charter is not deposit insurance. STRATA's own fee schedule says investment products are “NOT FDIC-INSURED,” and the only FDIC coverage it describes is for uninvested cash held in custodial deposit accounts, up to $250,000 per depositor. Second, the examination side is not public in what we found: we did not find a Texas examination report, an order against the company, or audited financial statements. The company says on its Why STRATA page that it is subject to “independent audits and a comprehensive compliance framework”; we have not seen those audits.

2. Ownership and history

STRATA began as Self-Directed IRA Services, Inc., which its timeline says was established in 2008 and which rebranded as STRATA Trust Company in 2017. That matches the Texas record, where the 09/01/2017 charter action and the merger with Self-Directed IRA Services, Inc. share a date. It is not the successor to another named custodian in anything we read. Several STRATA officers list earlier careers at Sterling Trust Company, a different Waco firm; that is a staffing link, not an ownership one.

On ownership, the company's own Form 245 (dated July 1, 2017) says: “Custodian is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Bank, SSB, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas.” The same form says uninvested cash may go to “Our affiliate depository bank, Horizon Bank SSB (Austin, Texas)” and to other banks STRATA selects. For context, the FDIC record shows Horizon Bank, SSB (certificate 3256, established January 1, 1905) with total assets of $2,553,778 thousand, about $2.55 billion, in its June 30, 2026 report. We found no document in which Horizon Bank promises to support the trust company's obligations to account holders.

3. How big it says it is

All of these are company figures; we have seen no audited statement. The years come from STRATA's “Our journey” list on its about page.

The company's brochure says it carries error and omissions, directors and officers and cybersecurity insurance, and adds that “this is for STRATA's protection only and does not cover client’s assets.” That is the sentence to remember when you read “insured” anywhere on a custodian's site.

4. The court record

We searched Justia Dockets (federal) for parties named “Strata Trust” on November 9, 2026. The search returned five cases. In three of them STRATA is a named party; in two (both filed July 10, 2025 in the Western District of Texas) the parties listed are other companies and STRATA does not appear by name, so we leave them out. We list companies, courts and case numbers only, and we read the docket listings, not the rulings.

What this does and does not show. A docket listing is not a finding: Justia itself says these records “should not be considered findings of fact or liability.” The 2019 listing cites 28 U.S.C. § 1441, the federal removal statute, which suggests the case began in a state court; we have not read the docket to confirm. The 2023 case has STRATA on the other side of the usual picture: it sued as the current custodian of an account it took over from another custodian. CourtListener, which would show opinions and docket entries, was not available to us, and our web searches and Justia's listing pages returned no ruling in these three cases. If you are in a dispute with STRATA, a lawyer can pull the dockets and tell you what, if anything, was decided.

We also found no SEC action and no Texas Department of Banking order naming STRATA in our searches. Absence from a search is not proof of absence: we did not search state securities regulators or every state court.

5. What the account agreement says about who checks your investment

This is the section that decides most disputes between a holder and a custodian, so we quote the Traditional IRA Custodial Account Agreement and Disclosures, Form 225-01012021 (January 1, 2021), which is the version posted on STRATA's forms page. The Roth and SIMPLE agreements are separate forms we did not read, and your own signed agreement may be a different version.

These sentences are common in this industry, and STRATA's FAQ says the same in plain words: “STRATA does not sell investment products or provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As a directed custodian, STRATA processes transactions at your direction and handles account administration and IRS reporting.” The consequence for a reader is practical. A fraud that runs through a self-directed IRA is not stopped by the custodian's acceptance of it, and the agreement assigns the checking to you before the money moves.

6. What it charges

The fee schedule is Form #300-090126, “Effective September 1, 2026.” It says fees are not prorated and that STRATA may amend the schedule on 30 days' written notice. The annual fee is invoiced on the 15th of the month before your account anniversary.

Worked examples (our arithmetic). A Flex account with one rental property pays $395 plus a $150 purchase fee in year one, $545, with no holding fee until the second year; from year two it pays $395 plus $150, $545 a year. Five private notes cost $395 plus 5 times $50, $645 a year after the first year. Twelve notes hit the cap: $395 plus $500, $895 a year. Ten rental properties cost $395 plus $1,500, $1,895 a year. Closing a Flex account that holds two notes costs the $250 closure fee plus one $100 re-registration (it is charged once per request), $350, plus any third-party fees.

Contradiction with our earlier page. Our custodian comparison lists the STRATA Flex annual fee as $350 and totals about $650 for a first-year real estate account. The schedule effective September 1, 2026 lists $395, and its asset-based fee starts after the first year, so the same account is $545 in year one and $545 a year after (our arithmetic). The $0 online setup, $150 real estate transaction, $150 holding and $250 closing figures match. Treat the comparison page's STRATA row as out of date until we update it. We could not read the prior schedule, so we cannot say when the annual fee changed from $350.

7. What a reader can do with this

• Read your own agreement. Find Section 9.1, 9.6 and the 60-day statement clause in the version you signed. The Traditional IRA form we read is dated January 1, 2021; yours may differ.
• Do the due diligence before you direct the money. The agreement says the custodian does not. Verify the issuer, what security you will hold (a recorded mortgage, a signed note, a deed in the account's name) and who signs for the account. See our crowdfunding IRA guide for what the account structure changes.
• After the money moves, get the proof. Section 9.6(i) puts it on you to confirm the funds went into the proper investment and to send the original documents to the custodian or a servicer. Keep a copy of what you sent.
• Know your date. Annual fees are invoiced on the 15th of the month before your anniversary, and statement objections are due within 60 days.
• Price the whole life of the account. Use the table above at your number of notes or properties, and add the $250 closing fee. If you are weighing an IRA against a solo 401(k) for a real estate investment, the tax difference can matter more than the custodian fee; see solo 401(k) vs SDIRA.
• If an investment in your account is in trouble, a lawyer can tell you about deadlines. The agreement sends suits to Austin and shifts costs if you lose.

Sources: Texas Department of Banking entity record for Strata Trust Company (charter 1047-29); STRATA Trust Company about, why STRATA, home, complaint information, fees and forms pages and knowledge center FAQ, retrieved November 9, 2026; STRATA IRA Fee Schedule #300-090126, effective September 1, 2026; STRATA Traditional IRA Custodial Account Agreement and Disclosures, Form 225-01012021; Form 240 Important Information Regarding Your Statement (August 7, 2023); Form 245 Important Information Regarding Your Uninvested Cash (July 1, 2017); STRATA at a Glance brochure; FDIC BankFind API record for Horizon Bank, SSB (certificate 3256); Justia Dockets federal search, read November 9, 2026.