Five Questions to Bring Up with Your Estate Planner About Bitcoin

Why Estate Planning Gets Bitcoin Wrong

Traditional estate planning assumes assets can be inventoried, frozen, and reassigned. Bitcoin does not work that way. It is sovereign, bearer-based, and unforgiving if keys are lost. That mismatch leaves too many plans incomplete: heirs receive paperwork, but no access. As a Bitcoiner, you can prevent this by asking sharper questions in your estate planning conversations. These are not trick questions: they are the foundation for building a plan that reflects how Bitcoin actually works.

The Five Questions

When you sit down with your estate planner, make sure these are on the agenda:

1. How will my heirs actually access Bitcoin if I am not here to guide them?
2. What happens if my executor or trustee is not technically capable of handling private keys?
3. If keys are lost or destroyed, does my plan include a recovery path, or is the Bitcoin gone?
4. How will auditors, regulators, or courts verify the estate’s Bitcoin holdings without exposing keys?
5. Does my estate plan include insurance-backed assurance that beneficiaries will receive the full value?

Why These Questions Matter

Each question reveals a gap in traditional planning: probate courts cannot recreate keys, fiduciaries inherit liability without actual control, and heirs often lack the technical skill to act without risking loss. Without a structured solution, the estate’s intentions collapse in practice.

How AnchorWatch Fills the Gap

Trident Vaults are built with inheritance and compliance in mind, directly addressing each of these challenges:

• Access for heirs: Vaults include time-locked spending rules and inheritance pathways so beneficiaries can ultimately take control, even without the original keyholder’s guidance. Plain-English instructions ensure they know what to do.
• Executor support: Not every trustee is a Bitcoin expert. AnchorWatch provides structured processes and prepares attestation documents that executors can present to heirs, courts, or regulators. These documents confirm holdings and outline access instructions, allowing fiduciaries to fulfill their duties without needing technical expertise.
• Recovery if keys are lost: Multi-signature design and Miniscript policies allow for recovery even if one or more keys are lost or destroyed, preventing the estate’s Bitcoin from vanishing permanently.
• Verification without exposure: The Attestation of Holdings links vault balances to on-chain addresses in a way that auditors, regulators, and courts can independently confirm without ever accessing keys. Combined with the Inheritance Instruction Letter, this creates both transparency and operational clarity.
• Insurance-backed assurance: Coverage underwritten by Lloyd’s of London protects estates and beneficiaries financially, up to $100M, ensuring that intentions are carried out even in the face of unforeseen events.

How AnchorWatch Works With You and Your Estate Planner

Protecting Bitcoin in an estate plan takes more than technology, it requires coordination. AnchorWatch works directly with you and your estate planner to integrate Trident Vaults into the broader plan for your wealth. That means ensuring legal documents reference the right structures, preparing attestations that fiduciaries can rely on, and equipping heirs with clear instructions. By collaborating with your estate team, we make sure the technical and legal pieces fit together seamlessly so your Bitcoin is as secure, and as transferable, as your other assets.

Closing Thought

Estate planning is more than drafting documents. It is about ensuring wealth actually transfers when it matters most. These five questions help you and your planner move beyond theory to a plan that works for your heirs, your fiduciaries, and your Bitcoin.

Schedule a call with AnchorWatch today →