How to Pass Your Crypto to Your Family After You Die

Why Crypto Is Uniquely Dangerous to Inherit

When someone dies with money in a bank account, there are legal processes to access it. Courts, lawyers, and banks have procedures designed to transfer assets to heirs. It's slow and frustrating, but it works.

Cryptocurrency is completely different. There is no recovery process. There is no customer service. There is no court order that can unlock a crypto wallet without the correct credentials.

If your heirs don't have your seed phrase — those 12 or 24 words that unlock your wallet — your crypto is gone forever. Not transferred. Not held by the government. Gone. Permanently inaccessible, sitting in a wallet no one will ever be able to open.

It's estimated that over 20% of all Bitcoin in circulation is already permanently lost this way. Don't let your assets become part of that statistic.

What to Document for Each Crypto Asset

For every crypto asset you own, your estate plan needs to capture the following information. Missing even one piece can make inheritance impossible.

How to Store Your Seed Phrase Safely

The seed phrase is the single most critical piece of information in your crypto estate plan. It is also the most dangerous — if the wrong person finds it, they can drain your wallet instantly, from anywhere in the world, with no recourse.

This means storage requires two competing goals: accessible enough for your heirs to find it, but secure enough that no one else can.

Best Options for Seed Phrase Storage

Metal backup plate: Stamp or engrave your seed phrase onto a stainless steel plate. Metal is fireproof, waterproof, and won't degrade over time. Store in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box. This is the gold standard for long-term storage.

Sealed envelope in a safe: Write your seed phrase on paper, seal it in an opaque envelope, and store in a fireproof safe or with your attorney alongside your will. Tell a trusted person the safe combination separately.

Encrypted vault file: Store your seed phrase in an encrypted vault like My Legacy Goals. The vault file is stored only on your device — no cloud, no third party. Your heirs access it with the master password you share with them in advance or in a sealed letter.

Exchange Accounts vs. Self-Custody Wallets

Crypto held on exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken is slightly easier to inherit than self-custody wallets — exchanges do have processes for estate claims, though they require death certificates, legal documentation, and significant time.

For exchange accounts, your heirs will need:

• Your account email and password
• Access to your two-factor authentication app (or backup codes)
• The phone number associated with the account (for SMS verification)
• A death certificate and potentially a court order for formal estate claims

The practical shortcut: if your heirs have your login credentials and 2FA backup codes, they can often access the account directly without going through the formal estate claim process. This is why documenting 2FA backup codes is so important.

Using a Vault App to Secure Crypto Credentials

A dedicated vault application gives you a secure, organized place to store all of your crypto documentation — seed phrases, exchange logins, wallet addresses, and 2FA backup codes — in a single encrypted file.

The key advantages over paper or other methods:

• All information in one organized place — your heirs don't have to piece together fragments
• AES-256 encryption means the file is useless without the master password
• You can add detailed notes and instructions for each asset
• No cloud, no account — no third party can freeze or deny access
• You can update it instantly as your crypto holdings change

The vault file plus the master password equals complete access. Store the master password separately — with a trusted person or in a sealed letter with your will.

The Right Way to Tell Your Family About Your Crypto

Documentation without communication is incomplete. Your heirs need to know that crypto exists and where to find the documentation — without knowing the credentials themselves until they actually need them.

The right approach is to tell a trusted person:

1. That you own cryptocurrency and approximately how much
2. Where to find the vault file or sealed envelope with the details
3. The master password or envelope location (keep this separate from the vault itself)
4. Who to contact for help (a crypto-savvy friend, an attorney with crypto experience)

Don't put this off. Crypto markets move fast, and holdings can grow substantially. The best time to document is now, while everything is fresh and your memory is clear.