[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":19},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-content-en-crypto-inheritance-planning":3},{"slug":4,"title":5,"excerpt":6,"description":7,"bodyHtml":8,"faqItems":9},"crypto-inheritance-planning","What Happens to Your Crypto When You Die? Self-Custody Inheritance Planning","Self-custody means no company can hand your crypto to your heirs. Here is how to write an inheritance plan that works without ever exposing your seed phrase.","How to pass on self-custodied crypto: instruction letters, executors, multisig and timelock options, fatal mistakes to avoid, and a one-week checklist.","\u003Ch2>The Short Answer: Without a Plan, Your Heirs Cannot Access Your Crypto\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>If you hold crypto in a self-custody wallet and die without leaving instructions, that crypto is almost certainly gone. There is no customer support line for your family to call, no death certificate process, and no one who can move funds out of a self-custody wallet without the keys. (As of 2026, issuers of some stablecoins can freeze balances under legal process, but that lever belongs to the issuer — it does not exist for base-layer, self-custodied assets.) The assets sit at your addresses forever, visible to everyone and spendable by no one. Estimates of permanently lost coins vary widely, but every one of those stories starts the same way: the only person who knew the keys stopped being able to share them.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The fix is not complicated, but it is deliberate. You need to leave your heirs two things: proof that the assets exist, and a secure path to the keys that control them. Everything in this guide is about building that path without weakening your security while you are alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Why Self-Custody Makes Inheritance Uniquely Hard\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>With a bank account, ownership is a legal record. An executor presents paperwork and the institution transfers the balance. With self-custody, ownership \u003Cem>is\u003C\u002Fem> the key. Whoever knows the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-seed-phrase\">seed phrase\u003C\u002Fa> controls the funds, and nobody else does — that is the entire point of holding your own keys.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>This creates a genuine tension. Anything that makes your crypto easier for heirs to recover also makes it easier for a thief to steal today. Write the seed phrase in too many places and you have widened your attack surface; keep it in your head alone and your estate plan dies with you. Good inheritance planning is the art of splitting \u003Cstrong>knowledge that assets exist\u003C\u002Fstrong> from \u003Cstrong>access to the keys\u003C\u002Fstrong>, so no single document is dangerous on its own.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>The Instruction Letter: What to Write and Where to Store It\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The core tool is a plain-language letter to your heirs. It should list which wallets you use, which chains your assets live on, roughly what is held where, and — critically — \u003Cem>where the seed phrase backups are physically located\u003C\u002Fem>. It should not contain the seed phrase itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Explain the basics as if the reader has never used crypto, because they may not have. Name the wallet apps, describe how to restore a wallet from a written phrase, and warn them explicitly about \"recovery services\" and fake support accounts that prey on grieving families. Store the letter somewhere an executor will actually find it: with your will, in a home safe, or in a safe deposit box. Update it once a year, since wallets, chains and balances change.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Executors, Trusted Contacts and Telling the Right People\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>A letter nobody knows about is as useless as no letter. At least one person — a spouse, an adult child, an executor or an estate attorney — should know that a crypto inheritance plan exists and where the instructions are, even if they cannot access anything today.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Consider splitting roles: one person knows where the instructions are, while the seed backup itself sits in a separate secured location — a safe or bank deposit box. The letter alone exposes no keys, and with a death certificate plus your instructions, your heirs have a documented path to the backup. This is the same separation-of-duties logic institutions use, applied with a filing cabinet and a safe instead of a compliance department.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Multisig, Timelocks and Third-Party Inheritance Services\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>For larger holdings, on-chain tools can enforce the plan cryptographically. A \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-multisig-wallet\">multisig wallet\u003C\u002Fa> requiring, say, two of three keys lets you distribute keys among yourself, a family member and a lawyer: no single holder can spend, but any two together can recover. Some setups add timelocks or \"dead man's switch\" mechanics, where a beneficiary key becomes valid only after a long period of inactivity that you would normally reset.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Commercial inheritance services exist as well, from key-sharding schemes to smart-contract-based claim flows. As of 2026 this market is still young; if you use one, understand exactly who holds what, whether the service can move funds unilaterally, and what happens if the company itself disappears. A plan that depends on a startup outliving you is a fragile plan.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>What NOT to Do: Seed Phrases in Wills and Other Fatal Mistakes\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Never put a seed phrase in your will. In many jurisdictions a will becomes a public document during probate, and everyone who reads it can drain your wallets instantly. The same logic applies to emailing the phrase to yourself, saving it in cloud notes, or texting it to a relative — each copy is a standing invitation to theft.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Other common failures: leaving hardware wallets with no hint of what they are, so they get sold or binned; relying on a single paper backup that burns or floods with the house; and assuming heirs will \"figure it out\" from your devices. As covered in our guide to \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-happens-if-you-lose-phone-crypto-wallet\">losing the phone that holds your wallet\u003C\u002Fa>, the device was never the wallet — without the phrase, a phone full of crypto apps recovers nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>A Simple Inheritance Checklist You Can Finish This Week\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>First, inventory your wallets, chains and approximate balances. Second, verify your seed phrase backups actually work and live in at least two secure physical locations. Third, write the instruction letter — locations and steps, never the phrase itself. Fourth, tell one trusted person the plan exists and where to find it. Fifth, put a recurring yearly reminder in your calendar to review all of it. None of these steps takes more than an evening, and together they turn near-certain loss into a recoverable estate.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Self-Custody at WATS: Why the Plan Is Entirely Yours to Make\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>WATS wallets — the browser extension and the mobile app — are pure self-custody: you hold your keys, and WATS never holds a key. That is exactly why inheritance planning matters here. There is no WATS account-recovery desk that can hand assets to your heirs, because no such backdoor exists for anyone, which is what keeps your funds yours while you are alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The practical upside is that a WATS wallet inherits cleanly with the plan above: whoever restores your seed phrase in a fresh install regains everything across the supported chains — EVM networks, Solana and TON — from that single backup. Your job is simply to make sure the right person can reach that phrase at the right time, and no one else can before then.\u003C\u002Fp>",[10,13,16],{"q":11,"a":12},"Can my family recover my crypto with a death certificate?","Only for assets held on exchanges or with custodians, which have legal account-recovery processes. Self-custodied crypto has no issuer to petition: whoever holds the seed phrase controls the funds. Without your keys or backups, a death certificate recovers nothing.",{"q":14,"a":15},"Should I put my seed phrase in my will?","No. Wills often become public documents during probate, so anyone reading the file could drain your wallets immediately. Instead, the will or an accompanying letter should point to the physical location of your seed backup, never contain the phrase itself.",{"q":17,"a":18},"Do I need a lawyer or a special service to pass on crypto?","Not necessarily. A clear instruction letter, secure seed backups in known locations, and one informed trusted person cover most situations. Lawyers, multisig arrangements or inheritance services add value for large estates, but they extend the basic plan rather than replace it.",1789075079855]