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Sure, in theory, my family members could have combined the papers and took all of my money...but I trust them with my life so I was not worried about that.
The problem is not that your family members will steal your money
intentionally. The problem is that they may innocently tell someone about it, or just not take proper care of it and let it leak to the wrong hands. This is exacerbated by the fact that they don't understand it, and may even think it's not so important, thus not treating it seriously. That's why you should never share a passphrase, even with your parents or spouse.
Personally, when they complain that "I don't trust them" or "I don't love them enough", or whatever, I say "it's because I love you dearly that I don't share it with you". It's a bit difficult for them to understand, but eventually they get it (girlfriends are the most difficult).
When it comes to security, my motto is "if you disclose it to anyone, consider it compromised".
They knew it was a lot of bitcoins they had control of. They joked at times that they were together (rare) that maybe they should put the keys together and be rich. If at any time I felt worried I could move my coins. They put them in safety deposit boxes.
Elwar: Cool. I thought you might be sunk since your Trezor was acting up (turned out to be a non-data USB cable). Glad you had backups.
Ya, that was another portion of my coins. I had my backup passphrase on the seastead. I had the trezor with me.
Fleeing the navy on a sailboat under threat of death while also believing I may have just lost a few hundred k worth of bitcoins was beyond stressful.
Protecting your keys is no joke. Most people don't figure "what happens if the government comes and steals my house".
