Topic: Please review my inheritance strategy (Read 340 times)

This is definitely one way to setup your inheritance plan and as long as your partner knows what to do with the seed phrase your crypto assets shouldn't be lost. I don't know how old you are or in which physical form. Hopefully there are no issues for you and you have a happy and long life, but this would mean you need to constantly respond to your Deadman switch. What if you are on vacation or forget about it? This could lead to some trouble if the index is sent early. Don't you have other forms of inheritance to give to your partner or kids? Another way would be to include it in your will and leave it sealed with the lawyers. Or do it like me and put everything in a deposit box at the bank where it is insured and your family has everything in one place. I think it all comes down to how large your crypto portfolio is, the more valuable the more money you should spend to make sure it falls into the right hands after your death.

Well, you cannot predict life all the time and be able to get an accurate result for your prediction. Just like the first comment stated, there could be other situations that might cause you not to respond for the agreed period—not as if you had no intention to respond, but just due to that situation, you might not reply.

 Giving out your seed phrase to someone depends on the level of trust you have for the person and whether it's really someone who can disburse your asset the way you want to fulfill your wish. There was this footballer whose mom was in charge of all his finances, and because he trusted his mom. If you really know and trust your partner, you can share your seed.

I agree it is secured enough that his partner will have trouble cracking it if the other part of security is lost  .  I believe the simple way is much better and do what the earlier reply says, put it in the bank's safe, and give full authorization to the trusted family member when the time comes @OP unexpectedly meets his demise.

But for me, it is best to put trust in our family 100%.  if it is not the wife then our child.

I think that it's better not to think about inheritance strategy, at least in case of cryptocurrency. I'm thinking so because it's quite smple: if the relationship within the family is friendly, then its easy to pass seed phrases to the successors... If there are some issues between family members, then its possible to create a new account for every successor with his/her share. If the relationship within the family is terrible, then its better not to pass the money to anyone... In general, it depends on family, not on technology...

I am sure that they use smartphones and has got passwords for their socials. That's like the basic requirement that you can have them for teaching about these technical stuff.

So that inconfidence of yours for entrusting them with these can be gone if you're going to teach them little by little until they are already familiarize with how the process does.

Anyway, there have been a lot of suggestions that were given to you and you can try all of those until what works for you well.

Also, when you reply to different people, you can just merge them in one post as replying consecutively is likely going to make your posts deleted or any other consequence decided by mod as we've got this rule;

The only problem I have with this is that I am NOT confident they could keep it secure from other people on one hand, or remember the password on the other hand...
That's why my solution requires no need for passwords and is useless to anyone else who finds it.

Thanks!

There are a couple of options:

First, there's this https://www.deadmansswitch.net/. With it you can send emails containing the numbered index.
Alternatively google have an inactive account process (https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en) which lets you send messages and give access to various things (like your email and google drive or keep). You can leave the numbered index in google's ecosystem. The numbers will be useless by themselves to anyone else even if they gained access.

Trusting these devices is difficult and it may not broadcast the message at all, so I prefer to use a 3-of-5 (or 3-of-4)  multi-signature wallet, and you can choose the distribution according to what you need:

• A key to a safe place such as a bank or a safe for a private company that protects everything, with their names placed on the list of guardians after proof of death
• Another key is in the house.
• A lawyer's key is in a safe whose password no one knows.
• Distribute the password among them.
• You have two additional keys that you can keep in a safe place outside the country or with a friend you trust.

or
Source

In my view you should consider both bearings of the case - technical and legal. Technically you could  make  your transactions dependent on such parameter as nLockTime and do moving of funds before condition becomes  valid. As to the legal side   all arrangements are dependent on legislation in your country of living, thus, I would advocate to find reputable  lawyers and   consult them  to find the optimal solution.

At first (just like Tytanowy Janusz) I thought knowing all the words would make it possible to brute force the order, but with 24 words, it's not actually possible (too many combinations), so that bit seems safe. As for the switch, I haven't heard of it before. I've read about various examples, and are you referring to some sort of software that will send the message with the numerical order when triggered by something that can signify your death? I just don't know how reliable these things are, and how user-friendly for the person on the other side of it (the one who'll get the message). If it's a physical switch, what will trigger it?

actually as if he has other option but to trust His family , because death is unpredictable and none of us can hide from it.
and also His plans are indeed best because od deadman switch , as I believe there is a certain period of time that he will  let it trigger.
also he is knowledgeable in what he is doing , so what needs to be answer here but GO FOR IT OP.
you have the best option chosen .

If trust is the problem, then why should op add a lawyer in the mix and increase the number of people to trust, if i am to find a way to pass on my BTC's to people, i would never involve a lawyer in it; i trust my loved ones far more than i'll trust a lawyer. You could use locktime as your inheritance strategy, but you have to know exactly what you are doing so you wouldn't lock yourself out of your coins.
You should not store your assets on an exchange in the first place, Binance or any other centralized exchange will probably get hacked or lose your money in other ways long before you're even dead.

I think after death you may not have any tension about whether your bitcoins are being used properly by the person you left them with but while alive it is your responsibility to leave your invested bitcoins with someone you trust. If you think that whoever you leave your bitcoins with will not spend your bitcoins then you are wrong. When that person has financial problems he must try to solve his financial problems by selling bitcoins. After leaving the investment with someone I don't think there is a need to think about it so much in advance. What matters is whether you can leave your bitcoins with the right person in order to survive.

If you're going to do it for the inheritance of your chosen immediate family member, I wouldn't make it too complicated for them.

I'll just write down the seeds/recover phrases or private keys and then have those instructions on how to retrieve it. Every detail will be in there and I'll just trust them that they shouldn't open that treasure chest where these keys and instructions are placed on.

It's a matter of trust for me and I know that it's hard to trust that to anybody but your best option is to just put that trust to your immediate family, mom, dad, bro/sis, wife or your own child.

Since you already know the risks if the strategy you are cooking won't work, you can always find some other alternatives that are not that complicated to do because I think you are planning to give it to someone who is not that knowledgeable in terms of computer security. As others said, if you trust the person enough and you don't have anybody around who knows your secret inheritance, you can just simplify how they will able to take it in the future once you are gone. But when you have multiple persons interested in your wealth once you are gone, then I recommend making it more complicated for the one you give the bitcoins to.

How exactly hiring a lwayer will sort his problems?

Hiring a laywer means that you have to entrust someone location of a seed phrase and since you have to do that, why involve lawyer at all when you can instruct directly people that you plan to include in your inheritance on how to access bitcoin in case something happens to you.


That's probably the worst thing that you could do, use Binance (or any exchange for that matter) as a cold storage and entrusting them with your money.

In our lives anything can happen without us expecting it, especially death, if we save large amounts of Bitcoin then we need to tell our family so that after we are gone the Bitcoin can be used for the needs of the family we leave behind and we also need to teach them how to use it if they don't have the desire to continue what we have done. I really agree with you that after we are gone, what is left behind is no longer our responsibility, everyone who is left behind will have the right to use what they want, but it would be better if it was used for their needs and not used for things that are not necessary useful.

It's okay if you trust your relatives forever. It is the right strategy. But if trust is a problem and you want to leave a legacy, the safest way is to hire a lawyer. There is no harm in giving your family the seed words and passwords for your Bitcoin inheritance. If you store your assets on online exchanges other than cold wallets (for example, Binance), this is the simplest way to inherit. This is because large exchanges like Binance will transfer your assets to your immediate family for inheritance. However, i think the method you mentioned is the most reliable one. I would never make the bank a third party for my relatives to inherit.

The point is you've tried to give your inheritance with the most easy way, if they're not good to keeping things secure or forget where the place of your wallet seed phrase, it's not your problem anymore. If they can't hold "money" they're also can't hold fiat, gold, stock etc that something valuable because "they're not good".

If you're still expecting they must your money for good thing e.g. education, daily expense, creating business etc, you're still not ready to give your inheritance since it's up to them and you can't control it anymore.

This approach is far from ideal:

Sorting your 24-word seed phrase alphabetically is a significant security risk. Your seed phrase is meant to be in a specific order for a reason. By changing this, you're potentially making it easier for someone to access your funds.

The use of a deadman switch might seem smart, but its another layer of complexity and potential failure. What if it doesnt activate properly, or theres a delay? Or worse, what if its triggered by accident?

This is your hard-earned bitcoin we're talking about. Dont play fast and loose with its security. Get expert advice, perhaps from a lawyer familiar with crypto, and formulate a foolproof plan

I have been reading this type of posts all the time and I am now scared about my bitcoins itself. I mean initially I really thought it was seriously not needed because I could just inherit the entire word phrase and ledger to my lovely children and die peacefully on my bed. I did not know people were so much worried about their inheritance of Bitcoin. I mean hardware wallet seems to be the perfect way to inherit and once you do it is their responsibility how manage it and how secure they keep it. If I am going to hold my bitcoin secruly until my final hours then I have already won the inheritance battle on my side. In the end, it's just that I should be sitting at the breakfast table when I will just pass on the info to my son and girl and it should be their duty to keep up with the whole thing. So I am gonna say, hardware wallet + written keys in an envelope + nice breakfast and chit chat. That's how it should be.

Just to add more clarity - and thanks everyone for your comments.

I don't trust lawyers, but not because they're lawyers but because I feel it's a mistake to give anyone access to something which can be taken without interaction with anyone else or easy proof they used it once it's gone.

I don't want to just give it to the people I'm leaving it to, because they're not good at keeping things secure or remembering passwords etc. So if I gave it to them it would either be lost or they'd forget the password to it.  That and the fear that someone else might compromise it in any form which is easy enough for the beneficiary to access it. People outside IT and in particular bitcoin do not have good practices or pay attention to this.

This is why I believe the solution I came up with is workable. The seed phrase in alphabetical order will not help anyone who finds it so can be easily stored or accessed without worry of it being stolen. And the dead man switch (there are a few reliable ways) will provide an index which will mean nothing to anyone else.  You could even put that index in the will. A lawyer can't use it and even when the will is public, 24 numbers will help no one else.

Thanks - it's hard to trust and a trustless solution makes sleep easier.

If you have to do it, you have to do it with trust; you have to give someone a chance. If you can give them family, then there should be a little bit of trust in them. We know anything relating to money can bring complications sometimes, but that does not mean that we shouldn't give it a try.
 
To be truth the method that you have chosen appears to be safe for me, but have you also taught me that if the place where you send the passphrase happens to fail to send it back to your family after the given period, what do you think will be the faith of your family over your fund recovery? They will have to go through hell just for them to be able to crack and assemble this phrase in the right orderly manner, which will be stressful, and their chance of breaking it will really be low to minimal.
 
The best thing to do is to fine-tune your family, either your child or your spouse, and entrust them with total control over the wallet. He or she should know when and where to get all the access they need to recover your fund when you are gone. But if you also don't feel too saved, you can split your wealth into two to three different wallets and hand over one to their custody, then move ahead with your plan so that if they can't have access to it at the end, they will not completely lose out.

There's no need to be difficult to pass on your bitcoin to someone else, just backup your private key in a secure place like an encrypted box or if you want to be more secure you can use a hardware wallet and tell it to someone you trust. It's very simple.
Or you can use a slightly more complicated method, namely by writing your word phrase on paper then storing it in a safe box at the bank and securing it with a letter of inheritance from a lawyer. So people who want to read your word phrase must contact your lawyer, show proof of heirship and your death certificate to unlock the secure box.

If you trust your partner, then you can share your seed phrase, but I don’t know if you will trust anyone else that you just mentioned. But you know anyone who has access to your seed phrase already has access to your bitcoin, so you have to be very careful with anyone with whom you are sharing it. And when it comes to money, you don’t have to trust anyone completely. People do change, especially when there is money involved, and some people might even do crazy things just to make sure the bitcoin belongs to them.

Why can’t you just get an iron steel and carve your seed phrase on it and make sure it is stored in a place that can be easily accessible after you are no longer alive? The iron steel should be stored in a place where you know your family members will be able to see it. I think that’s a better option.

If you write the seed phrase down and backup how it can be arranged in another place, this means the seed phrase is disarranged where you write them down in alphabetical order. If it is 12 words, your seed phrase can be arranged using a computer or GPU with btcrecover. If you want to do something like this, use 24 word seed phrase.

As for me I can not go for this method of backup.

I often think about this topic because the people I care about are not into crypto at all and also they don't give the importance they deserve to topics such as the security of their IT devices and the most basic practices to protect privacy (not that I am an example to be taken on the subject but having frequented this forum for years I can say that I have a slightly higher standard to the average user), so I really don't know where to start with them.
Being that said, I think your solution is the one that fit me best imo , it's more a heartfelt choice than a tecchy one ( where both me and them are lacking)

If you can not trust a family member, the one you love, to know your wallet backups, how do you trust a lawyer?

If you don't trust your loved ones, don't let him/ her know about your wallet and do give his/ her rights to inherit your coins. It's simple and you must accept that when you die, your coins will be lost in the air until a day someone find where you store your seed and get it.

Trusting a lawyer is a terrible idea, should not be used.

I will not also encourage you to start up a new method to safe your seed than the ones i have as recommendation for you maybe you can choose any of the convenient one from the list to secure your seed phrase.

storing seed phrase with washers
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/securing-your-seed-phrase-with-washers-5389446

seeds backup tools
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/list-bitcoin-seed-backup-tools-5263482

additional security to your seed phrase
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/crypto-security-additional-protection-for-your-seedprivate-keys-5230920

Always now that anything that has to do with handling your seeds should be what only you must know and have access to it and you should always remember not your keys not your coins.

Get a lawyer, write a will, go the official way, there is no better advice than this for your situation, that's if you have trust issues but for me, I don't mind, because I have no trust issues, there is nothing that will go back with you when you passed, even if you will all your properties, those who get them might still waste them, such is life.

If you have children, make use of this time and teach them about crypto and Bitcoin, you still have the time, but first, ask them if they have interest, if one doesn't than Fiat is better passed down to such child, because even if you will him BTC he will sell it right away.

If you have no children but a spouse, husband or wife, then pass on the knowledge to them, willing BTC or private keys to them with out them having an idea can make them to throw the BTC away, while trying to sell or move the BTC around they can make bad mistakes or decisions.

Teach them about crypto first, so that they can make good use of your assets when you are here no more, many beginners have make a lot of mistakes because they lack knowledge about Bitcoin wallet and private keys.

If what we are talking about here are 24 seed phrase words, in my opinion, there is no need to have a third party. If you have a trusted person who is a close family member, such as your husband or other relatives, if you don't have a spouse or even a best friend, it is good that you just tell the ones I mentioned if any of them you want to tell the seed phrase.

Because I'm honestly speaking right now, I have seed phrases saved on my USB flash drive, and I plan to tell this to my wife because right now I'm the only one who knows everything I do here in the bitcoin or crypto business. In terms of the crypto assets I hold, such as emails and passwords from the exchange, wallets like Electrum or other wallets, and private keys from different network blockchains, I won't even need a third party for that, instead directly I will tell to my wife.

You mean storing yout seed phrase in the bank vault? I don't know, I personally woulnd't trsut my bank with it.

Lawyer won't help you if you die while no one else has the access to your seed phrase, which is exactly what worries OP so that why he is thinking of contigency plan.

[ht]

The way I sorted it out is that I have 2 seedphrases at two entirely different locations (in case of fire, flood and other stuff that can happen to house/apartment) with two sets of people I trust with my money.

Such methods may cause problems for your password. The only thing we need to pay attention to here is trust. It may be difficult to find someone you can trust and you may have trust issues, but resorting to other methods may cause you to lose your password. Losing the second part will cause you big trouble.

I think instead of looking for different methods for passwords, you should tell your loved ones about your savings and explain the situation. Decide how to proceed with them or someone you trust.

"24 word seed phrase" and "numerical index" all to the same person   honestly this is a two edged sword that could mean someone from the receiving parties might have full knowledge of cryptocurrencies and act selfish by choosing to sweep the wallets without the other person knowing because they had no interest with crypto or don't have the knowledge of what to do with the crypto inheritance...which could defeat the initiative!

I think crypto being a valuable asset, why not go with a bank, or use a lawyer to facilitate the inheritance process or better yet educate the receiving parties what they will be receiving and what to do with them without having to rely on thirdparties which is a cost effective option too.

It is simple but it can be problematic if the other party fail to crack what you assigned them to do so your savings will be buried there forever so why not opt for multi-sig which can be useful, especially for inheritance purpose? There are many paid versions available on multiple wallet platforms but if you still prefer the decentralized way then just go with 2 of 3 multi-sig keys and share one with another and one for you then the remaining one goes into the bank vault or someplace like that.

I find this risky because once you lose the 2nd part of your idea, then it would be hard and close to impossible to open or recover your seed phrase which will just cause your efforts to be wasted. All you need to do is trust, trust your partner, give them the ideas and information because accidents could be anytime which I hope it would never happen. Because to be honest, if you'd make a more complicated way for them to inherit your wealth, they might ask another person to open it up for them which can scam and take the wealth. Just put a hardware wallet into a safe where you could simply give them the password and the key, just say only open it in case of emergency. For sure they would eventually understand you and follow your instructions.

There are lots of people doesnt really trust up banks eh? You cant blame them though but i would really be totally agreeing on this set up on which having a will and make it notarized so that if ever there would really be some problems occur then you could really be having a fight or could really make out complaints and instead on making yourself that hassling and stressing about inheritance problem on how you would really be able to pass your coins into your family on the time that you do pass away then it would be that simple and less hassle i would say. This is what im planning too soon but since im not really that holding much coins which are
really worth to be passed on then it would really be better to have those conventional ways like keeping these keys on a USB wallet and tell them about on how to access coins or converting them into cash
once i do pass away but of course those flashdrives would really be keep hidden as much as possible. Of course i dont like for them to access it out while im still living but i might be putting it on a will
because we dont know on what happens tomorrow whether we die or not.

I opted for trusting my daughter... I only have one anyways... I have 2 hardware wallets which i keep in a safe place... They both have the same seed, the same pin and i used the same extension word... My daughter knows where i've locked up my hardware wallets and she knows where she can find the extension word and she knows my pin by heart. She knows how to use my wallets as well. If i die, i don't want her to have to start a big puzzle restoring a seed and importing it into a wallet. I want her to plug in a ready made device, punch in a 8 number pin code, take the piece of paper where the extension word is written on and take control over my money.

If she robs me, she robs me... I'd rather have my only child robbing her father than dying and not being 99% sure she'll be able to spend my hard earned money.

When I read your thread, I immediately thought that it would be too easy to break. Certainly not for an ordinary person, but still: "Computer programs used for brute force attacks can check anywhere from 10,000 to 1 billion passwords per second.", but i did some calculations and:

number of combinations - 24! (24 x 23 x 22 x 21 x ... x 3 x 2 x 1)

24! = 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000

Assuming 1 billion tests per second, the correct order will be 100% cracked in 19,631,267,468,771,206 years! half of this time to be 50% sure. I think its secured enough! At least to my knowledge

If you want something easy, then it's either share your seed phrase directly or create a multi sig wallet 2 of 3 (which mean it's need at least two private keys to open it). You can share it to your wife and your son, so when you're gone, both of them can access it.

However life isn't focus about inheritance, but you need to focus every single thing when you're still alive, if you have teach them about Bitcoin when you're alive, you don't have to think about inheritance anymore.

Yeah you gotta becareful with this. If this was 12 words I think someone was able to crack it with their computer but with 24 words it’s going to take forever to get the correct order. If you lose the second part then it will be gone  forever.

You need to just give it to your loved one and trust that they won’t steal anything from you. Because you are making this very complicated and they might not understand computers as well as you and they will have issues getting to the funds.

Don't create new method to store your wallet seed.

When you do it, like this method, sorting words alphabetically and need another backup part to know orders of those words in your seed phrase, it's risky. You can lose the second part and can not recover your wallet with 24 words you have.

Write down 24 words as they are and back up, it's enough.

Trust is all that matters on whoever that you are handling your seedphrase to, because one must finally pass on and leave his bitcoin behind for someone to inherit. When your seedphrase is in the hands of trusted person, then your bitcoin is safe but if it icn't in the hand of someone that you trust, your bitcoin will be gone for life. If this method works for you fine then go ahead. Everyone will have their different method on how they can transfer their bitcoin to their heir for inheritance, and emost people will come up with different suggestion.

This looks a bit problematic to me. You may not respond for a long time for some other reason. It is probably a better idea to trust a third party like a bank in this situation. I know banks suck but sometimes there is no need to make life harder when you can choose the easy way and in this case banks do win in my book. You may still pass down your coins btw, let them stay in a bank deposit box, write a will and get it notarized so everything will be official. If go with the unofficial way, you will always have doubts…

Hi everyone,

I'm uncomfortable with doing anything too complicated because outside of our ecosystem anything vaguely complicated is intimidating and I want it to be simple.

So here it is.

1. Write down my 24 word seed phrase sorted alphabetically and give it to my partner or anyone else
2. Put the numerical index of the order of this into a deadman switch which will be sent to them if I fail to respond for my chosen period / times.

I believe this is secure but wanted to get many other opinions to be comfortable before I commence it.

Thoughts...?

Thanks!