Originally Posted by
John
I think you are safe with a bank as long as the account type you hold is FDIC insured. Be cognizant of the limits of the insurance and be careful that they have not moved you into a different type of account, one that is not protected. With banks selling everything today from stocks to insurance make sure that you don't get inadvertently moved into a trading account or some other "product" that is NOT safe.
And on the precious metals, be careful, as catchy noted you need to make sure you aren't buying bogus products, the stuff you see in the commercials all the time, you may end up holding some "gold coins" but they have about a 1/3 of the value of market price for gold.