Planning for inheritance
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 7 min
In short
Crypto in a self-custody wallet is unreachable if your family does not know where the keys are — yet sharing the keys outright creates a theft risk while you are alive. Because the tax and legal treatment matters too, consult professionals such as a tax accountant and a lawyer.
Key points
- If no one knows where the keys are, heirs may not even know the assets exist
- Handing over keys outright increases the risk of loss or theft during your lifetime
- Keep the inventory of what you hold separate from the keys themselves
- Inheritance tax treatment and valuation are set by rules — confirm with a professional
Definition
Preparing so that, after the holder's death, heirs can identify and take over the crypto assets.
Crypto inheritance has a difficulty other assets do not. A bank deposit can be traced through the institution even without a passbook. A self-custody wallet has no account holder in that sense and nobody to ask. If the holder alone knew about it, the assets simply stay on the blockchain, beyond anyone's reach.
Practical preparation starts by separating the information into two layers. The first is an inventory: which exchanges you use, how many wallets and of what kind, roughly which assets. No keys or seed phrases go in it. That inventory alone gives heirs enough to walk into a professional's office with.
The second layer is the keys, and how they are passed on needs careful design. Hand them over during your lifetime and you increase the risk of loss or theft; leave them nowhere and they die with you. Wills, trusts and safe deposit boxes each have formal requirements, and multiple heirs add further complexity. Improvised arrangements here can be invalid, or can themselves become the source of a dispute.
Tax is a separate matter again. How crypto is valued as estate property, the filing deadlines, and the cost basis that applies if heirs later sell are all set by rules that get amended. This site will not assert amounts or confirm what is permitted. The sums involved tend to be large and mistakes cannot be undone, so consult professionals — a tax accountant, a lawyer, a judicial scrivener — who understand both inheritance and crypto assets.
Watch out for
- · This page is not legal advice — consult a lawyer and a tax accountant
- · Writing a seed phrase directly into a will can expose the assets to anyone who can read it
- · Valuation rules and deadlines for inheritance tax are set by law; confirm the current position with the National Tax Agency and a professional
Frequently asked questions
Is inheritance simpler if the assets sit on an exchange?
Existence is easier to establish because there is a company to ask, but a formal inheritance procedure is still required and documents differ by operator. Leaving an inventory that shows the account exists is the starting point.