Crypto inheritance planning

Crypto inheritance planning is one task with one golden rule: your estate documents say what exists and where; preferably do not include the secret material itself. Everything else follows from that.

Prefer a printable version? The crypto inheritance planning checklist is the same plan as a tick-off workbook you can print and keep with your estate documents.

The pitfalls that make crypto unreachable after a death are covered in the most common reasons crypto can become unreachable.

The four layers

1. The inventory. Know what you hold: exchange accounts, self-custody wallets, hardware devices, DeFi positions, NFTs, paper backups. Use the same checklist as an executor would (crypto estate inventory), you are building the document your family will need.

2. The map. A document (with your lawyer, notary or in a place your trusted people can reach) that says:

• which exchanges you use and under which accounts;
• which devices exist and where they are;
• where the recovery material is stored (a safe, a bank box, a trusted person), not what it is;
• who the right first contact is for each category (exchange support, a specific adviser).

3. The handover. First separate the legal layer from the technical layer: a will and other estate-planning documents arrange destination and roles, to the extent the applicable law allows; technical access and continuity are arranged through the mechanisms below. Decide the mechanism per category: exchange inheritance tools where available, a will (crypto in a will), multisig (bitcoin multisig), a password-manager emergency process, or a trusted custodian arrangement. Compare the options honestly in options for passing on crypto.

4. The review. Plans rot. Update the map when you change exchanges, move devices, or your trusted people change. Review the plan periodically and after material changes, for example after a change of wallet, provider, access method, family situation or relevant legal or tax circumstances; an annual check can be a practical regular reminder.

The safe-documentation rule

Write down that a seed backup exists and where. Never put the words themselves in a will, inventory, estate map, email or other shared documentation; never photograph the plate and never email the file. Store any necessary recovery material securely and appropriately using a suitable backup method - a physical wallet backup on paper or metal can be part of that. If professional storage of secret material is deliberately chosen, first check whether the party concerned actually offers this service and clearly record security, access, succession and release conditions. Do not automatically assume that a lawyer or notary must or can hold wallet secrets.

A worked example

The difference between a plan and a secret dump is concrete. A good estate map says: “Exchange accounts: two (see account list); hardware wallet: secured location A; recovery material: stored separately according to the chosen backup strategy; passphrase, if used: documented separately according to the access plan (contact [named person] for the access instructions).” That tells your family what exists, where and who knows more, without a single word that would let anyone move the funds on their own.

The same map, written badly, contains the seed phrase itself, a photo of the recovery card, or the exchange password “so the family can get in”. That document is not a plan; it is the fastest way to lose the estate to anyone who reads it.

Reviewing the plan

Plans rot quietly: you open a new exchange account, move coins to a new device, or the trusted person moves abroad. Review the plan periodically and after material changes; a yearly check can be a practical regular reminder. Update the plan after any major change, a new wallet, a new exchange, a death in the family, a divorce, a move. The goal is that a competent person could act on the plan without you present.

What planning is not

It is not an invitation to share secrets with family “just in case”. Whoever knows your seed phrase can, depending on the wallet configuration, gain extensive or complete technical access. Sometimes an extra passphrase or other access component is also needed. It is also not investment advice: the goal is that your assets reach the right people, not that they grow.

Where to go next

For the will-specific part, continue to crypto in a will. For what happens if you become unable to act before death, see crypto and incapacity.