History of the Texas Bullion Depository
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Quick answer
The Texas Bullion Depository was proposed by state legislators in 2013, created by House Bill 483 signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2015, and opened for business in Leander, Texas in 2018. It is the first state-administered precious metals depository in the United States, operated by Lone Star Tangible Assets LP under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Short on time? The essentials
- Idea to law to open: from a 2013 legislative concept, to law in 2015, to open for business in 2018, per the depository's First in Class page, checked August 2026.
- Legal charter: House Bill 483, filed by Representative Giovanni Capriglione (R, Southlake) in the 84th Legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2015, per texasbulliondepository.gov About page.
- Legislative record: HB 483 was sent to the Governor on June 1, 2015, and the Texas Legislature Online history logs "Signed by the Governor" and "Effective immediately" entries on June 19, 2015, per capitol.texas.gov 84R history.
- First of its kind: the only state-administered and state-audited precious metals bullion depository in the United States, per texasbulliondepository.gov About page.
- Operator since inception: Lone Star Tangible Assets LP, a Texas-based holding company, is the depository contractor selected by the Comptroller of Public Accounts, per the About Depository Contractor page.
- Site: Leander, Texas, a purpose-built facility offering fully segregated Class III vaulting, per the First in Class page.
- Present-day governance as of August 2026: Texas Comptroller Don Huffines, Depository Administrator Macy Douglas, per the depository's About page.
On this page
The elevator version: 2013 idea, 2015 law, 2018 opening
The Texas Bullion Depository condenses into three moments the depository itself frames on its First in Class page. It started as "an idea by Texas Legislators in 2013". It became "law in the State of Texas in 2015". It went "OPEN FOR BUSINESS in 2018" in Leander, Texas. That is the arc from concept to operational public depository.
Two of those years anchor the legal history. In 2015, the 84th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 483, and Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 12, 2015, per the depository's About page. In 2018, the depository opened its doors under Lone Star Tangible Assets LP as the contracted operator, per the same source.
The result was the first state-administered precious metals bullion depository in the United States, per texasbulliondepository.gov. That "first" is a factual claim about the operating model, meaning a bullion vault owned and overseen by a state government, not a marketing superlative.
The 2013 origin: why Texas legislators wanted an in-state depository
The depository's own First in Class page traces the idea back to Texas legislators in 2013. The public rationale offered by Governor Abbott at the 2015 signing was direct: to keep Texas gold storage inside Texas. Abbott stated that with the bill's passage, "the Lone Star State will repatriate 1 billion dollars of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas".
Abbott added that the depository "will allow Texans to insulate the State's financial reserves from any future financial crisis", per the About page. The framing was less about individual retirement accounts and more about state assets, plus a general option for private storage inside Texas that did not depend on facilities in other states.
That state-storage angle is why the depository was placed under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the agency that manages state funds. The private and IRA storage lanes came second, layered on top of the state-account foundation. Reading the history in that order helps explain why the depository is a state agency rather than a purely private vault.
HB 483 in the 84th Legislature: author, path, and text
House Bill 483 was filed by Representative Giovanni Capriglione (R, Southlake) in the 84th Legislature, Regular Session, per the depository's About page. The enrolled caption is "Relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository; authorizing fees", per the Texas Legislature Online bill history at capitol.texas.gov.
The bill's legislative path can be read in the Texas Legislature Online record. HB 483 was sent to the Governor on June 1, 2015. The last action recorded on the LRL history page is dated June 19, 2015 with the entry "E Effective immediately", along with an adjacent "Signed by the Governor" entry on the same date. The final effect was immediate legal force.
Two dates therefore appear in the public record for the signing moment. The depository's own About page cites June 12, 2015 as the date Governor Abbott signed the bill. The Texas Legislature Online record dates the "Signed by the Governor" and "Effective immediately" bill-history entries to June 19, 2015. Both are primary-source references, and both are cited here.
June 12, 2015: signing by Governor Greg Abbott
The About page reproduces Governor Abbott's statement at the signing. Abbott said, "Today I signed HB 483 to provide a secure facility for the State of Texas, state agencies and Texas citizens to store gold bullion and other precious metals". That single sentence captures the audience the depository was designed to serve: the state itself, its agencies, and Texas citizens.
The same statement previewed the operational structure. Abbott confirmed the depository "creates an official depository operation by the State of Texas, with depository services provided by Lone Star Tangible Assets of Austin, Texas". That named the contractor at the moment of signing, three years before the doors opened.
A second Abbott quote on the About page framed the practical goal: "no longer will Texans have to go outside of Texas to deposit their gold". The signing therefore had two functions. It created a legal state agency for bullion storage, and it announced the operator that would build and run the facility on the state's behalf.
Choosing the operator: Lone Star Tangible Assets LP
Lone Star Tangible Assets LP (LSTA) is the company contracted by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to operate the Texas Bullion Depository, per the About Depository Contractor page. LSTA is a Texas-based holding company operating a variety of businesses within the precious metals industry, including the United States Gold Bureau (usgoldbureau.com).
The About page notes that LSTA "and the Comptroller of Public Accounts will work together to ensure transparency and accountability are integrated into the core of operations at the Texas Bullion Depository". That co-role, private operator plus state agency oversight, is the working model the 2015 statute set up.
The IRS side of the operator role also has a paper trail. The About Depository Contractor page states that LSTA "is approved under Treasury Regulation Section 1.408-2(e) as a nonbank trustee, making it eligible to facilitate deposits, storage and distribution of IRA investments" in a self-directed precious metals IRA context. That IRS status is the door the depository walks through to hold IRA metal at all.
Choosing the site: Leander, Texas
The depository is located in Leander, Texas, a city in Williamson County north of Austin, per the depository's site navigation and its First in Class page. The site was announced under the headline "Leander Chosen as Site for Texas Bullion Depository" in the depository's news archive, per the About page related-articles list.
The First in Class page describes the facility as a "new purpose-built facility in Leander, Texas" offering "fully segregated Class III vaulting". The purpose-built framing matters because it means the vault was designed for bullion storage from the ground up, not adapted from a general-purpose warehouse.
Leander sits along the Interstate 35 corridor, giving the vault Austin-area access without the density of the central city. That location choice is not detailed in a single primary-source paragraph on the depository's site, but it is consistent with a state-agency preference for a lower-cost, lower-congestion Texas metro site with room for security perimeter and expansion.
2018 opening: what "open for business" meant for depositors
The First in Class page states plainly that the depository went "OPEN FOR BUSINESS in 2018". That was the point at which Texas residents, out-of-state depositors, and IRA custodians could begin sending metal to the Leander vault under the depository's account structure and account-holder agreement.
Open for business meant more than a ribbon cutting. It meant the state's oversight structure was live. That includes a Depository Administrator appointed by the Comptroller, a state audit team with any-time audit rights, and a Texas-based third-party CPA firm auditing the depository on a regular basis, per the State Admin Oversight page. All three layers went into effect with actual operations.
It also meant the depositor-facing platform was live. The First in Class page describes technology "developed for the depository" that includes photographic verification uploads of all deposits and withdrawals, automated notifications of account events, and at least 256-bit encryption in transit and at rest. Those features were not aspirational at opening; they were operational.
The IRA storage path: how the depository fit into self-directed IRAs
A precious metals IRA is a self-directed IRA that must hold metal at an IRS-approved depository under a qualified custodian. The Texas Bullion Depository fits that path because its operator, Lone Star Tangible Assets LP, is approved under Treasury Regulation Section 1.408-2(e) as a nonbank trustee, per the About Depository Contractor page.
In practice, a Texas resident opens a self-directed IRA with a qualified custodian, funds it through a rollover or transfer, buys IRS-eligible metal through a dealer, and directs shipment to the depository under the custodian's account. The depository then holds the metal in segregated Class III vaulting on behalf of that IRA, per the First in Class page.
The IRA lane has been part of the depository's offering since operations began in 2018. For a Texas gold IRA depositor, the historical significance is that Texas residents have had an in-state, state-audited option for IRA metal storage for more than seven years as of the year checked in August 2026.
Present-day governance: Comptroller and Administrator
The Texas Bullion Depository sits under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. As of August 2026 the Comptroller is Don Huffines, appointed by Governor Abbott and sworn in as Texas Comptroller on August 1, 2026, per the depository's About page. The Comptroller is the elected official at the top of the depository's oversight chain.
The Depository Administrator is a Comptroller appointment. The current Administrator, per the depository's About page, is Macy Douglas, a career Comptroller's-office veteran who also serves as the agency's director of Treasury Operations. The Administrator has "direct oversight and audit privileges regarding all Depository Account Holder accounts", per the depository's FAQ.
Governance and audit design are the operational expression of the 2015 statute. The three-layer audit chain the depository publishes on its State Admin Oversight page (operator internal audit, state audit, and independent Texas-based CPA firm audit) is downstream of the HB 483 framework, not a separate initiative added later.
Why the history matters for a Texas gold IRA depositor today
| Year | Milestone | What it means for an IRA depositor |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Idea by Texas legislators, per the First in Class page. | Concept phase; nothing operational yet for IRA storage. |
| 2015 | HB 483 filed by Representative Giovanni Capriglione (R, Southlake) in the 84th Legislature, and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2015 per the About page; recorded effective immediately by the Texas Legislature Online on June 19, 2015. | Legal charter and Comptroller oversight established. |
| 2018 | Depository opened for business in Leander, Texas, operated by Lone Star Tangible Assets LP, per the First in Class page. | Texas residents gain an in-state, state-audited storage option for IRA metal. |
| 2018 to 2026 | Ongoing operations under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts; the operator LSTA is approved as an IRS nonbank trustee under Treasury Reg. 1.408-2(e), per the About Depository Contractor page. | Continuous IRA-eligible storage path for self-directed precious metals IRAs. |
Texas has no state personal income tax on individuals, per the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. That means an IRA distribution or Roth conversion for a Texas resident is taxed at the federal level only, not doubled by state income tax. The depository's history reinforces the practical Texas story: a Texas resident can hold IRA gold in Texas, audited by a Texas state agency, with no state income tax on the account.
The history also matters for trust and continuity. As of August 2026 the depository has been open more than seven years under the same operator (LSTA) and the same governing agency (the Comptroller of Public Accounts). That is a shorter track record than some private depositories in the United States, but it is a record inside a state agency structure rather than inside a private company.
Limits and honest caveats about the historical record
- Two signing dates in the public record. The depository's About page cites June 12, 2015 as the date Governor Abbott signed HB 483, while the Texas Legislature Online history logs "Signed by the Governor" and "Effective immediately" entries on June 19, 2015. Both are cited here. The bill's legal effect is what matters for the depository's charter; the exact ceremonial date is a documentary question we do not resolve.
- No detailed public year-by-year construction timeline. The depository's public pages summarize the arc as "2013 idea, 2015 law, 2018 open for business" without publishing a monthly construction calendar. The gap between 2015 signing and 2018 opening reflects site selection, construction, and operational readiness, but we do not have month-level primary-source detail to attribute.
- Facility specifications not fully re-verifiable on public pages. Numeric details sometimes cited elsewhere (facility square footage, campus acreage) were not stated on the pages we checked in August 2026. We have therefore omitted numeric specifications we cannot confirm live.
- Operator ownership context has changed over time. Lone Star Tangible Assets LP has been the operator since inception in 2018, per the About Depository Contractor page. Corporate ownership at the LSTA parent level may have shifted over time in ways that are not disclosed on the depository's public pages; that is a private-company matter outside the depository's own history disclosures.
- Comptroller succession is normal. The depository has been under the Comptroller of Public Accounts since 2015, but the specific elected Comptroller has changed with normal Texas political cycles. The current Comptroller as of August 2026 is Don Huffines, per the depository's About page.
None of these caveats undermine the arc. They describe the honest boundaries of what the depository publishes about its own history. A prospective depositor who needs deeper detail can reach the Office of the Depository Administrator directly through the contact information published on the depository's site.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
When was the Texas Bullion Depository created?
It was created by House Bill 483 of the 84th Texas Legislature, signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2015 per the depository's About page. The Texas Legislature Online records "Signed by the Governor" and "Effective immediately" entries on June 19, 2015, per the capitol.texas.gov 84R bill history for HB 483. Operations began in Leander, Texas in 2018, per the First in Class page.
Who authored the bill that created the depository?
Representative Giovanni Capriglione (R, Southlake) filed HB 483 in the 84th Texas Legislature, per the depository's About page. The enrolled caption on the Texas Legislature Online record is "Relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository; authorizing fees". Capriglione was the lead House author of the bill that became the depository's legal charter.
When did the Texas Bullion Depository open for business?
2018, per the depository's First in Class page, which states the sequence as "an idea by Texas Legislators in 2013 to law in the State of Texas in 2015 to OPEN FOR BUSINESS in 2018". The vault is located in Leander, Texas, a city in Williamson County north of Austin.
Who operates the depository, and since when?
Lone Star Tangible Assets LP (LSTA), a Texas-based holding company, has operated the Texas Bullion Depository since inception, per the About Depository Contractor page. LSTA is contracted by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. LSTA also operates the United States Gold Bureau (usgoldbureau.com) as an affiliated precious metals business.
Is the Texas Bullion Depository really the first state-run bullion depository in the United States?
Yes, based on the depository's own public claim. The About page describes it as "the first ever state-administered precious metals bullion depository", meaning a bullion depository owned and overseen by a state government. This describes the operating model, not the age of any building; older private bullion vaults exist, but they are not state agencies.
Was the depository created specifically for individual IRAs?
No. The original public rationale, per Governor Abbott's signing statement on the About page, was to provide a secure in-state facility for the State of Texas, state agencies, and Texas citizens. The individual IRA storage lane is available today because the operator LSTA is approved under Treasury Regulation Section 1.408-2(e) as a nonbank trustee, per the About Depository Contractor page.
Why was Leander chosen as the site?
The depository has not published a single primary-source paragraph on its public pages explaining the Leander selection in detail as of August 2026. The About page related-articles list references a news item titled "Leander Chosen as Site for Texas Bullion Depository", indicating the selection was announced publicly at the time. Leander sits in Williamson County along the I-35 corridor north of Austin.
What is the depository's legal status today?
The Texas Bullion Depository is a state agency of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, per the depository's About page. Day-to-day operations are handled by the contracted operator Lone Star Tangible Assets LP under a Comptroller-appointed Depository Administrator (Macy Douglas as of August 2026, per the depository's About page).
How does this history change what a Texas gold IRA depositor should consider?
It gives Texas residents a reference point when comparing custody options. The Texas Bullion Depository has been in operation since 2018 under a state agency structure. A Texas resident evaluating IRA storage can weigh that state-overseen option against private IRA depositories on oversight, audit, and location; both models can hold IRS-approved metal for a self-directed IRA under Section 408(m).
Sources
- Texas Bullion Depository. About Us: The Creation of the First Ever State Authorized Bullion Depository. State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Checked August 2026.
- Texas Bullion Depository. The First Precious Metals Depository with State Oversight. Checked August 2026.
- Texas Bullion Depository. About Depository Contractor: Lone Star Tangible Assets. Checked August 2026.
- Texas Bullion Depository. State of Texas Oversight Ensures Client Asset Safety and Security. Checked August 2026.
- Texas Bullion Depository. Frequently Asked Questions. Checked August 2026.
- Texas Legislature Online. House Bill 483, 84th Legislature, Regular Session (2015): Bill History. Texas Legislative Council. Checked August 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Approved Nonbank Trustees and Custodians. Checked August 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A: Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). Checked August 2026.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Texas Taxes (state-level tax overview, confirming no state personal income tax). Checked August 2026.