Getting access to BTC in event of death

[utdrmac]

I've got a good amount of BTC in various exchanges and wallets. Each of these exchanges needs username, password, and 2FA code from phone to access. I'm looking for suggestions on a solution that, in the event of my untimely demise, my wife would be able to access everything. Let's throw in the option of my phone being destroyed along with me. I feel it was be near impossible for her to reset all the 2FA's. I'm thinking of typing up some instructions, laminating them, and storing in safe place. Thoughts? Suggestions? TIA!

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[ckcharlie]

I guess the first option is to involve your wife in the crypto world to an extent where she understands the basics and how to navigate wallets, exchanges and 2FA. Then if the worst were to happen she could follow (see below)
instructions: instructions are a good idea. do you have a safe place to store all your private keys and 2FA reset codes? Maybe you can legally file certain information with your lawyer or get a safe deposit box for this. (I still have my private keys in hardcopy at home but I don't have enough to worry about a safe deposit box)
As far as I can see it thats the only way while still staying safe from others and also from giving your wife access to everything now. Also forgive me but you never know when a relationship can go south ( and in my case completely out of the blue ) so the instructions in a safe deposit box seems the best way.

[L_777]

I have actually given this topic a fair bit of thought in the past.  I was like you in that I had assets strewn about on various exchanges.  I'll try not to give you advice, but instead tell you how I dealt with the problem. 

There is a spot (in geography) that I can refer to in such a way that only my wife would know it's meaning.   Also there is a deposit box, whose contents go to her in the will. 
Finally, I have a Ledger hardware wallet that I used to collect all the coins and tokens from the various exchanges.  I used the chrome extensions to gather the coins, and MEW with Nano for all the tokens.   From there, I buried my nano's seed (along with instructions on how to retrieve funds) at the "spot", and then wrote my wife a letter informing of the existence of that seed at the "spot."   

The advantage of this strategy is that if an unfriendly gets into the deposit box, then they cannot take the crypto, as they don't know the location of the seed. 

I hope this helps somebody out there.  There are too many instances of people dying without bequeathing their coins to their kin.   Good luck with your perpetuation plan.

[JungleBadman]

Reading this got me thinking, I wonder if it would be possible to set up a smart contract to transfer all of your funds into a wallet that she controls after a certain timeout (say a year) unless explicitly stopped by you. Kind of like a failsafe. So that once a year you cancel the transaction before it happens, but if you pop your clogs, it goes through

[fernandoaleixo]

Reading this got me thinking, I wonder if it would be possible to set up a smart contract to transfer all of your funds into a wallet that she controls after a certain timeout (say a year) unless explicitly stopped by you. Kind of like a failsafe. So that once a year you cancel the transaction before it happens, but if you pop your clogs, it goes through

That's a really nice and interesting. Also, I believe for a small fee there are banking services that holds your belongings in a safe coffer, there in the event of your death, they can open the coffer and give your wife whatever was stored in there, including all your passwords and crucial information. These services are generally well spoken, as they hold no value for bandits and are secured 24 hours / day, I believe you can even check the security cameras yourself.
I believe your wife won't be interesting on keeping investing like you (unless shes into that) and she is going to cash out.

[paxmao]

There are a few open topics in the forum about this. y recommendation is that all the information is stored in a file and then password protected. Then you create 3 copies of the file and give them to three people you trust. Lastly divide the password in two and put these two pieces in two different bank safes. You may want to use 4 safes to have two copies.

If the amount you have does not justify these expenses, you can just give parts of the key to trusted people or to 2 lawyers, notary public or similar.

[Welsh]

I have actually given this topic a fair bit of thought in the past.  I was like you in that I had assets strewn about on various exchanges.  I'll try not to give you advice, but instead tell you how I dealt with the problem.  

There is a spot (in geography) that I can refer to in such a way that only my wife would know it's meaning.   Also there is a deposit box, whose contents go to her in the will.  
Finally, I have a Ledger hardware wallet that I used to collect all the coins and tokens from the various exchanges.  I used the chrome extensions to gather the coins, and MEW with Nano for all the tokens.   From there, I buried my nano's seed (along with instructions on how to retrieve funds) at the "spot", and then wrote my wife a letter informing of the existence of that seed at the "spot."  

The advantage of this strategy is that if an unfriendly gets into the deposit box, then they cannot take the crypto, as they don't know the location of the seed.  

I hope this helps somebody out there.  There are too many instances of people dying without bequeathing their coins to their kin.   Good luck with your perpetuation plan.

You might be right than if a stranger finds the deposit box before your wife they won't be able to access the funds, but that doesn't stop them from removing it from the safe location, and trying to get into it back at their property. So, this method isn't that foolproof as you likely wouldn't care if the package was missing, but you could verify that the coins hadn't removed, because the likelihood of the finding the deposit box would be unlikely at best.

So there's no real advantage if someone else finds it other than your wife, because the deposit box would likely still be taken, and beyond the reach of your wife just like it would be if they had got access, and taken the coins.

[L_777]

I have actually given this topic a fair bit of thought in the past.  I was like you in that I had assets strewn about on various exchanges.  I'll try not to give you advice, but instead tell you how I dealt with the problem.  

There is a spot (in geography) that I can refer to in such a way that only my wife would know it's meaning.   Also there is a deposit box, whose contents go to her in the will.  
Finally, I have a Ledger hardware wallet that I used to collect all the coins and tokens from the various exchanges.  I used the chrome extensions to gather the coins, and MEW with Nano for all the tokens.   From there, I buried my nano's seed (along with instructions on how to retrieve funds) at the "spot", and then wrote my wife a letter informing of the existence of that seed at the "spot."  

The advantage of this strategy is that if an unfriendly gets into the deposit box, then they cannot take the crypto, as they don't know the location of the seed.  

I hope this helps somebody out there.  There are too many instances of people dying without bequeathing their coins to their kin.   Good luck with your perpetuation plan.

You might be right than if a stranger finds the deposit box before your wife they won't be able to access the funds, but that doesn't stop them from removing it from the safe location, and trying to get into it back at their property. So, this method isn't that foolproof as you likely wouldn't care if the package was missing, but you could verify that the coins hadn't removed, because the likelihood of the finding the deposit box would be unlikely at best.

So there's no real advantage if someone else finds it other than your wife, because the deposit box would likely still be taken, and beyond the reach of your wife just like it would be if they had got access, and taken the coins.

man, what can I say?  Wow.  I'm not sure if you understood what I was trying to say, but I know that I don't understand what you're saying.    I don't know what you mean by "safe location" or what it is that "they" are removing from said location.  I am confused.   

To clarify, if I may, I don't think anybody will "find" the deposit box.  This is not a scenario that I am guarding against.   What I have here is a mechanism in place that protects against other (perhaps illegitimate) claims on the estate.   

[rajurathod18]

I don't want to advertise anything but there is one project in the market DIGIPULSE, Which aims to solve this pain and problem. I got to know about this project from cryptobeadles channel on youtube & i liked the concept of the project. DigiPulse is a B2C (Business to Customer) subscription service that allows to encrypt and automatically pass on digital assets stored in crypto wallets to the rightful inheritors. In other words, if something happened to you, DigiPulse will hand down your Bitcoins and other digital currencies stored in your wallets to your descendants.

[Welsh]

man, what can I say?  Wow.  I'm not sure if you understood what I was trying to say, but I know that I don't understand what you're saying.    I don't know what you mean by "safe location" or what it is that "they" are removing from said location.  I am confused.  

To clarify, if I may, I don't think anybody will "find" the deposit box.  This is not a scenario that I am guarding against.   What I have here is a mechanism in place that protects against other (perhaps illegitimate) claims on the estate.  

Maybe I'm not understanding correctly. So let's try, and get things straight. You said that you have a location in geography that only your wife would know of, and that you've buried your nanos seed. I did initially misunderstand that I thought you were burying both the deposit box with the wallet, and the seed. You then said if a "unfriendly" which I'll refer to as a stranger happened upon your deposit box they couldn't get in.

Alright, so we've cleared things up without being rude right? Okay, so there's a fundamental problem with storing anything in a spot, and burying it. If it's in the public, and not private land then it could be found by a stranger whether that's through construction work or someone happens to dig up in that "spot". The spot is the safe location that I was referring too.

There's been several stories spread through the newspapers, and probably online that people have had their secret stashes discovered by members of the public. Mostly by accident. Okay so what I'm trying to say here that you shouldn't assume that just digging a hole, and burying your stash would mean it's safe. Even if it's a very slim chance of someone stumbling upon it you should take other precautions.

Your wife might not know much about cryptocurrency, but I would 100% recommend that you encrypt that seed even if you do bury it. It shouldn't be stored in plain text anywhere. You could teach her how to decrypt it right now.

I know you said your not concerned about your location being found, but you absolutely should be. It's your seed, and with that anyone can get into your funds with or without the wallet. You should always practice the best security possible, and guard against as many possibilities as possible. I'm only saying this, because you offered advice on a thread about exactly this, and I'm offering some advice on how this could be improved if you wanted too.

[yoseph]

I've got a good amount of BTC in various exchanges and wallets. Each of these exchanges needs username, password, and 2FA code from phone to access. I'm looking for suggestions on a solution that, in the event of my untimely demise, my wife would be able to access everything. Let's throw in the option of my phone being destroyed along with me. I feel it was be near impossible for her to reset all the 2FA's. I'm thinking of typing up some instructions, laminating them, and storing in safe place. Thoughts? Suggestions? TIA!

First and foremost, let the wife know about the crypto investments so that she will know exactly what to do in the case of your death and with the issue of the 2FA you should get a phone solely for that which you must store in safe so that it doesn’t get destroyed.

[Vod]

I've got a good amount of BTC in various exchanges and wallets. Each of these exchanges needs username, password, and 2FA code from phone to access. I'm looking for suggestions on a solution that, in the event of my untimely demise, my wife would be able to access everything. Let's throw in the option of my phone being destroyed along with me.

Don't complicate things.

http://www.lastpass.com

LastPass has an Emergency Access feature that lets you give trusted contacts access to your password vault. To add a trusted contact, open your LastPass account and click Emergency Access. Click Give Emergency Access and type in your contact's email address. Choose a wait time for how long that contact will have to wait when they request emergency access (anywhere from "immediately" to 30 days). If your contact requests emergency access, you will have this amount of time to reject their request before they are automatically granted access.

[L_777]

man, what can I say?  Wow.  I'm not sure if you understood what I was trying to say, but I know that I don't understand what you're saying.    I don't know what you mean by "safe location" or what it is that "they" are removing from said location.  I am confused.  

To clarify, if I may, I don't think anybody will "find" the deposit box.  This is not a scenario that I am guarding against.   What I have here is a mechanism in place that protects against other (perhaps illegitimate) claims on the estate.  

Maybe I'm not understanding correctly. So let's try, and get things straight. You said that you have a location in geography that only your wife would know of, and that you've buried your nanos seed. I did initially misunderstand that I thought you were burying both the deposit box with the wallet, and the seed. You then said if a "unfriendly" which I'll refer to as a stranger happened upon your deposit box they couldn't get in.

Alright, so we've cleared things up without being rude right? Okay, so there's a fundamental problem with storing anything in a spot, and burying it. If it's in the public, and not private land then it could be found by a stranger whether that's through construction work or someone happens to dig up in that "spot". The spot is the safe location that I was referring too.

There's been several stories spread through the newspapers, and probably online that people have had their secret stashes discovered by members of the public. Mostly by accident. Okay so what I'm trying to say here that you shouldn't assume that just digging a hole, and burying your stash would mean it's safe. Even if it's a very slim chance of someone stumbling upon it you should take other precautions.

Your wife might not know much about cryptocurrency, but I would 100% recommend that you encrypt that seed even if you do bury it. It shouldn't be stored in plain text anywhere. You could teach her how to decrypt it right now.

I know you said your not concerned about your location being found, but you absolutely should be. It's your seed, and with that anyone can get into your funds with or without the wallet. You should always practice the best security possible, and guard against as many possibilities as possible. I'm only saying this, because you offered advice on a thread about exactly this, and I'm offering some advice on how this could be improved if you wanted too.

Thank you for the clarification.    I am 99.9% certain that the seed will not be found, however, I do see your point about secrets being turned up by unsuspecting normies.   As an added measure, I will take your advice about encrypting the seed, and then maybe leaving the key with my wife (outside the deposit box.)   

Thanks for the reply and feedback. 

[FinalFury]

Legally, if you filled out a KYC for these exchanges, couldn't your wife get what you have on the exchanges at least, through legal means?

[Me.n.KHOF4SH]

I think avoiding it is the best option, my mother and my girlfriend already have all of my information in case if anything happens to me

[L_777]

Legally, if you filled out a KYC for these exchanges, couldn't your wife get what you have on the exchanges at least, through legal means?

Yes, if you left it on the exchanges.  But then you are left with the problem of trusting the exchanges to hold your funds -> not the ideal.

[FinalFury]

Legally, if you filled out a KYC for these exchanges, couldn't your wife get what you have on the exchanges at least, through legal means?

Yes, if you left it on the exchanges.  But then you are left with the problem of trusting the exchanges to hold your funds -> not the ideal.

I guess that's better than simply dying and taking the coins with you. I mean coming from the US, if the exchange is involved here, I'm sure by law they would have to accept the procedure. If they deny it they will get in huge trouble.

[apimembership]

you should reinitialize your exchange 2FA and store each QR code in safe place and even if your mobile is destroyed, your wife can recover it with backup of qr codes.

[CryptAssist]

This is an important topic and I'm glad you brought it up. Be sure to save the back up codes for all of your 2FA so you, or your wife doesn't get locked out. If you don't have those backup codes then better you realize that now before you lose your devices. If not, I would reset them all and as you set them up, they will show you a very important code. save it somewhere not on any device but it can be on a thumb drive or other kind of external drive. I recommend backup drives. You can never have too many. Many people encrypt them which keeps them protected should someone steal one. Only issue is I hear of people losing their codes for that as well. so be careful and test it out on one first. Then, instead of a sheet that someone can find maybe a text document with instructions and run it through with her first. Good luck! 

[TheHas]

It's definitely a problem. With regular banks your assets automatically go to next of kin. With cryptocurrency it could be locked away as no one will know your phrases or password.

I've thought about this too, outside of providing something in a will, or providing part passwords to different relatives or any other combination of ideas, there isn't really much currently available.

For those with technical knowledge, you would think this is an area ripe for an ICO. You could have it so that on death or some other event, there is a trigger that would provide funds to a designated person/s. You could even make it scripted or time based in case the recipient doesn't know you have cryptocurrency or you want to split it in some way or change it over time, so it wouldn't need to be based on someone knowing you have crypto.

For example, if you don't access a wallet after 2 years, the funds are automatically sent to a new address and an email is generated that advises your chosen recipient that they been provided x coin that can be accessed by doing y, as you have not accessed the wallet in the set period of time. There would need to be other things in place so it doesn't make its way into spam folder but you get the idea.