In short
Most inheritance plans assume a death. Dementia, a stroke or a coma are more likely to come first, and then the will is still in a drawer and the seed is still yours. A power of attorney gives someone the legal right to act; it doesn’t give them the keys. Plan for both: a document that names the person, and a setup in which that person can actually move the coins.
The gap in most plans
If you can’t make decisions, two things are needed before anyone can deal with your crypto: legal authority to act for you, and the practical ability to do it. Banks and exchanges respond to the first. A hardware wallet responds only to the second.
Without a document in place, your family has to apply to a court to be appointed: a conservatorship or guardianship in the US, a deputyship in England and Wales. That takes months, costs money and puts a judge in charge of what happens to your coins. The document that avoids it is a power of attorney that survives your incapacity.
The document, per country
- United States: durable power of attorney. “Durable” means it stays in force when you lose capacity. For online accounts, the fiduciary access law adopted by most states (RUFADAA) lets a company hand your agent the catalogue of your digital assets if the power of attorney gives “specific authority over digital assets or general authority”; the content of your messages only if it says so expressly (North Carolina’s version of the act). Ask the lawyer drafting it to include digital assets and crypto by name. Without any document, the court route is a conservatorship (California courts).
- England and Wales: lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property and financial affairs. Registered with the Office of the Public Guardian for £92; registration takes eight to ten weeks (GOV.UK). There’s no UK law on attorneys’ access to digital assets, nothing like the US act, so attorneys deal with crypto under their general powers; in practice, as one law firm puts it, if the attorney “is not informed of the location of the wallet and any unique password the cryptocurrency is effectively inaccessible” (Collyer Bristow). The fallback without an LPA is a Court of Protection deputyship, which costs £432 to apply for plus yearly supervision fees (GOV.UK). Scotland uses a continuing power of attorney, registered for £99 (Office of the Public Guardian, Scotland).
- Canada: an enduring or continuing power of attorney, set by province; Alberta’s starts either immediately or when you lose capacity, as you choose (Alberta). Four provinces and territories have fiduciary access laws for digital assets; see Crypto inheritance in Canada.
- Australia: an enduring power of attorney, set by state; in New South Wales an attorney “can only make financial and legal decisions” (NSW Government).
- EU: most countries have an equivalent. Germany’s Vorsorgevollmacht can be registered so that courts, and doctors in an emergency, find it (Zentrales Vorsorgeregister); in the Netherlands it’s the levenstestament, usually drawn up by a notary (KNB). In the countries that have ratified it (Germany and France among them; not the Netherlands, and in the UK only Scotland), the 2000 Hague Convention decides which country’s law governs such powers across borders (HCCH).
What the document can’t do
A power of attorney gets your agent into your exchange accounts, with paperwork and patience. It does nothing for a hardware wallet. The agent needs what your heirs would need: the letter of instruction, the location of the seed, the passphrase, the PIN. So:
- Name the same person, or at least a person who knows the plan, as attorney and as helper in your letter.
- Say in the letter that it applies to incapacity as well as death, and that the attorney may read it. Unchained’s inheritance pack, for example, includes a letter that is “only to be opened upon your death or incapacitation” (Unchained), and Casa accepts a power of attorney document in its recovery process alongside a death certificate (Casa).
- Decide what you’d want done. Sold to pay for care? Left alone? Moved to the attorney’s control? Write it in the letter; an LPA can include preferences and instructions too.
Multisig solves most of it
The cleanest answer is a wallet where your agent already holds a key. In a 2-of-3 multisig, your attorney or a professional holds one key, you hold two. While you’re well, their key does nothing. If you can’t act, they combine their key with one of yours, found through the letter, and can pay your bills. Collaborative custody services are built around this: Gannett Trust, Unchained’s trust-company subsidiary, notes that clients “may delegate an agent, such as an attorney or accountant to hold a key” (Gannett Trust).
A timelocked recovery key also covers incapacity, in its own way: if you stop refreshing because you’re ill, the heir’s key becomes active. Which is fine if the heir is the person who’d be looking after you anyway, and alarming if not. Choose accordingly.
A short checklist
- A durable or lasting power of attorney for finances, with digital assets and crypto named.
- The attorney knows the plan exists and where the letter is.
- Exchange accounts listed, so the attorney can approach them with the document.
- A way for the attorney to move self-held coins: a multisig key, or access to the secrets through the letter.
- Instructions on what you’d want done with the crypto while you’re alive but unable to decide.
Next: Crypto held by a company.