Why you should be interested in cryptocurrency inheritance

What is needed for high-quality traditional and digital inheritance?

Whether you are planning the inheritance of traditional or digital assets, there are some general planning requirements to consider. How you do this will depend on whether it is a traditional or digital asset. Each carries unique risks.

1. Identify your beneficiaries.

2. Write a legally binding will.

3. Write – and maintain – Instructions detailing how to convert various assets.

4. Have some form of storage agreement in place to protect your estate plan.

Source: Cosmetic Research Institute: https://cremationinstitute.com/cryptoasset-inheritance-planning/

What are the digital inheritance risks associated with beneficiaries?

In traditional inheritances, the executor ensures that each beneficiary receives the specific assets they wish to pass on at the appropriate time. Similarly, in the case of digital inheritance, a strong digital estate plan must ensure that beneficiaries cannot access inherited assets ahead of schedule.

Risk – If you currently give your intended beneficiaries direct digital access to your assets, they may be able to access your assets before you have access to them. Additionally, other people viewing the instructions may also have inappropriate access to them.

Risk – There are various forms of third-party risk when you give a lawyer or executor digital access to assets to be held for your beneficiaries. The Company’s failure to adequately protect such assets may result in their loss or theft. Or, you could go out of business or have your assets confiscated.

Vault12 Guard engages beneficiaries in digital estate planning without the risk of premature access to assets or risk of trustees losing assets before they are in beneficiaries’ hands.

What are the digital inheritance risks associated with creating and maintaining guidelines?

Your digital assets can be unique works of art, fungible cryptocurrencies, sensitive documents, or a mix of all. And for each digital asset, you may need to communicate specific instructions indicating where the asset is stored and any pin codes, seed phrases, and passwords applicable to the asset.

Risk – Assets and access codes may be incorrectly documented or some may be accidentally omitted.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping your guidelines up to date! Digital asset portfolios may change frequently. You can’t rely on doing inventory once or on an ongoing basis without help. The traditional approach required modifying instructions each time a digital asset was added, along with all access details. Errors or omissions can make assets inaccessible and waste time documenting them.

Risk – You forgot to update your digital asset list or related access information.

Additionally, you must ensure that detailed (constantly changing instructions) are not accessible to employees or unauthorized persons. In fact, it is important to protect these instructions from theft.

Risk – Instructions can be perfect, but they can fall into the wrong hands.

Vault12 Guard simplifies how you create and store asset access instructions and reminds you to test and ensure your access steps are correct.

What are the risks associated with storing digital inheritance instructions?

In a traditional inheritance, you will likely pay for a safe deposit box in a bank or other physical storage location.

Risks – Safe deposit boxes are not always safe or accessible (e.g. during pandemic bank closures) and are not covered by insurance in case of loss or theft.

The Vault12 Guard app is a more secure place to store your digital asset inheritance instructions than a safe deposit box bank or other physical location.

Why was Vault12, a digital inheritance company, created?

Our CEO and Co-Founder spent time executing early cryptocurrency industry deals at Andreessen Horowitz (one of the first and most reputable venture capital firms in the blockchain space). He observed that there is no end-to-end solution for backing up and protecting seed phrases and private keys, nor is there a mechanism for transferring assets directly to designated individuals in the event of death or incapacity. That revelation led to the birth of Vault12!

Aside from the personal tragedy of not being able to deliver digital assets to loved ones, another unfortunate side effect of unplanned “death events” in the cryptocurrency economy is that large amounts of coins are permanently removed from circulation. This loss of cryptocurrency reduces the total circulating supply of all current and future users. Left unchecked, this could develop into a much larger problem for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole, as the supply of digital resources available to new entrants will be reduced in an unplanned way as soon as the industry enters mainstream use.

How does Vault12 Digital Inheritance make your intentions clear?

Vault12 Digital Inheritance is the first solution that provides a simple, direct and secure way for investors of all types to ensure their digital assets will exist for future generations.

• Applying traditional approaches to asset inheritance to digital assets introduces complexity and risk.
• Your digital asset portfolio is constantly changing. You can’t rely on doing inventory once or on an ongoing basis without help.
• Vault12’s simple Digital Vault solution with a trusted guardian accommodates all types of digital assets and reduces uncertainty about which assets are unavailable to their designated recipients. Additionally, you do not need to approach and petition each service individually to gain access during probate.

How does Vault12 digital inheritance work?

• The Vault12 Digital Inheritance Solution provides apps to protect, back up, and secure your digital assets. This allows you to designate a beneficiary who can inherit your entire portfolio of digital assets stored in your Vault when the time comes. There is no need to constantly update inventory or issue updated instructions.
• You can add digital assets including cryptocurrency, financial login information, legal documents, medical records, and more to Vault12 Digital Vault.
• Vault is protected by a network of Guardians – friends, family, and co-workers you know and trust.
• Beneficiaries are designated by the Vault owner from among the guardians, and the declaration is digitally signed and sent to the beneficiaries and their attorneys as needed.
• When a Vault owner dies and a beneficiary is ready to access the digital assets, a designated number of guardians will approve the request and the assets to which the beneficiary has been granted access will be restored.
• If a beneficiary attempts to access the assets before the owner dies, the owner may deny the request.

What is your personal story about digital inheritance failure?

We continue to hear stories like this with worrying regularity.

Are you ready to inherit cryptocurrency assets?

Visit the Vault12 website to learn more and join the new era of digital inheritance. You can download the Vault12 Guard app and protect all your digital resources in just a few minutes.