What are the risks of having an ETF hold my gold?
ETFs store their gold at one of several approved warehouses/vaults that specialize in such things. If there were a national gold confiscation again (unlikely, but not impossible) the first place the authorities will go is to the commodity warehouses. These facilities hold so much gold in one location that it would be easy pickings. There is also counter-party risk. This is the risk that the issuer of the Gold ETF won’t have the gold on hand to handle redemptions by shareholders. Also, the fund managers may do things like lease out their gold holdings (banks have been known to do this) and the gold may not be all present. Etc. This is not an indictment that the current crop of gold ETFs are engaging in these practices (which would likely be illegal). Just that many funds in history have had names on them that did not reflect what was going on underneath the covers. So therefore it makes sense to read about any fund or ETF before you purchase it to make sure it really does what you think
