what to do when you pass away

[superduh]

ya.. what a bummer..
not sure which category to post this.

i got extremely sick, followed by a panic attack early.
i scambled to leave a usb with instructions for my SO as to what to do if i die and the passwords
i'm still alive thank god but it raises serious questions about how to create succesorship.
usually when you die either your relatives or the gov claims your assets
what about in this situation.. how do you trust someone with your keys/passwords so all the bitcoins saved up don't become wasted when you are no longer alive.

serious question.. do you leave cold wallet in safety deposit box.. and let them know?

[paulgruber]

Hi,

This post just caught my eye and hit home quite hard as I was thinking exactly the same thing just days ago. I believe there would be a law firm that has an interest in bitcoins and could setup some type of trust account in which all beneficiaries of the will would be informed about and the value of the coins (along with some background info on bitcoins etc..) Naturally the law firm would charge a premium (as they always do). The bitcoins could either be split evenly into wallets that would be created for the beneficiaries to do as they please.

I guess the best way to handle things would be to setup several secure wallets yourself (one for each beneficiary). After that you would have the username and password to each wallet put in a sealed envelope clearly marked for each beneficiary to receive at the reading of the will. 

God forbid it happen to anyone, but it is going to happen as we're all only human.

[Aswan]

If you think logical, you wont care anymore once you passed away. That being said its not easy for most people to act accordingly, because, while you are alive, you may feel better if you know your wife/children will have access to your savings once you passed away. So if you are a completely rational person you can just not care.

The problem comes in when your wife knows she cannot access the savings because thats where the drama begins. So either make sure she doesn't know she cant access them or else you have to actually deal with the problem of how to get your bitcoins unlocked in case you died.

You could have your wallet on a USB stick which is encrypted. You ofc know the password. Now you go to your wife/children/whoever and give then HALF the password. The other part will be in your last will safely stored with a noraty to be released upon your death to the person with the other half. You can put the password inside something like a letter that will be read once you passed away, ensuring that, even if whatever was left goes to the government, the person you chose still got the password and can access the bitcoins.

[davidspitzer]

ya.. what a bummer..
not sure which category to post this.

i got extremely sick, followed by a panic attack early.
i scambled to leave a usb with instructions for my SO as to what to do if i die and the passwords
i'm still alive thank god but it raises serious questions about how to create succesorship.
usually when you die either your relatives or the gov claims your assets
what about in this situation.. how do you trust someone with your keys/passwords so all the bitcoins saved up don't become wasted when you are no longer alive.

serious question.. do you leave cold wallet in safety deposit box.. and let them know?

I have so many sites with information  - I use a password vault service (lastpass) with an extremely complex password and two factor auth. I then leave my password in my safe with my will and my paper wallet for BTC and leave instructions about my various yubikeys and tokens. With the Will, tokens, the one master password and my paper wallet, my love ones will have access to everything when I die.