Crypto inheritance tools

A new industry has grown around one question: what happens to my crypto when I die? Wallets, custody providers and independent services now ship “inheritance” features, and the market changes quickly. This page maps the categories and gives the questions to ask, it never endorses a product, because the right choice depends on your situation and the terms change.

Why crypto is different from “digital legacy”

Generic legacy tools (the kind that pass on emails, photos or profiles) do not work for crypto. A seed phrase or private key is not an account Google or Apple can hand over, and no platform’s memorial feature can release wallet secrets. Crypto inheritance needs crypto-aware mechanisms: features that can carry keys, shares or guidance to the right people. And one thing no tool changes: who legally inherits. Succession law still decides ownership; the tool only affects access.

The categories

1. Wallet-maker inheritance features. Hardware and software wallet providers increasingly ship “inheritance” or “recovery” options: successor activation, guardians, social recovery or recovery subscriptions. They vary in custody model (who holds the keys), trigger verification (what proves the owner has passed away), and cost. Related mechanisms are covered in options for passing on crypto and smart-contract wallets.
2. Dead man’s switches and encrypted vaults. Independent services that release stored guidance (or the secrets themselves) to chosen contacts after a period of inactivity. The risk is structural: once the timer runs, secrets leave your control without anyone checking, and the service is a single point of failure if it disappears.
3. Multisig and guardian structures. Wallets where several keys or trusted guardians must cooperate (2-of-3, social recovery). Cryptographic by design, harder to lose, but they only work if the heirs are named, trained and tested.
4. Password managers with emergency access. Managers that can release vault contents after a delay or upon a trusted contact’s request. Because managers often hold wallet passwords or seed material, this is crypto-relevant, but the estate’s legal authority still governs access after a death.
5. Custodian-style arrangements. Exchanges and custody firms with inheritance processes or account structures for successors. Regulated, region-specific, and the platform’s official procedure applies.

What to check before trusting any tool

• Who holds the secrets, and what happens to them when the trigger fires? Custody by the service is different from self-custody, and each has different risks.
• What is the trigger, and can it be tested? Inactivity timers, verified succession events and support requests are very different mechanisms. A tool you cannot test is a plan you cannot trust.
• Does it change legal ownership? Almost never. If anyone claims a tool “bypasses inheritance,” that is a warning sign, not a feature.
• What happens if the company disappears or changes its terms? Crypto history is full of services that shut down.
• What does it cost, and what happens if payments stop?
• Can your family actually use it? The least technical heir should be able to follow it, with the secret-free summary in hand.
• Who else can see your secrets? Support access, breach history and share distribution all matter.
• Does it fit with your will, your executor and your summary? A tool that fights your documents is worse than no tool.

The rules that always apply

• No tool replaces the secret-free summary and a named, informed executor.
• Secrets never belong in a will, see crypto in a will.
• Test whatever you choose, at least once a year, with the person who would actually use it.
• Anyone (tool, service or person) who asks for your seed phrase “just to help” is a warning sign: scams targeting crypto estates.

The mechanisms behind these tools are compared neutrally in options for passing on crypto, and the full method that ties them together is in crypto inheritance planning.