Crypto inheritance, without handing anyone your seed phrase
Self custody means you hold the keys. It also means your family cannot recover them if you are gone. Here is a way to fix that without giving up control today.
The problem no one warns you about
The whole point of holding your own keys is that no bank, exchange, or government sits between you and your coins. The catch is that the same design works against your heirs. There is no password reset, no death certificate you can mail in, no support agent who can let your spouse back in. If the seed phrase is lost, the coins are gone, and the blockchain keeps showing the balance no one can ever touch.
This is already happening at scale
A large share of all bitcoin is widely believed to be stranded in wallets whose owners can no longer reach them. Estate planners now treat crypto as one of the easiest assets to accidentally take to the grave.
The two bad options most people fall into
- check_circleTell no one. The keys are safe from theft, but a single accident wipes out everything you saved.
- check_circleTell one person, or write it down somewhere. Now a single person, or a single break in, can take all of it while you are still alive.
Both options come down to trusting one point of failure. That is the part HeirLock removes.
A better plan: split the phrase into pieces
HeirLock takes your seed phrase and divides it into separate pieces. You pick how many pieces exist and how many are needed to bring the phrase back. A common setup is three of five.
- check_circleNo single person can move your funds, because one piece reveals nothing.
- check_circleThe phrase survives a lost piece, because you only need the number you set, not every piece.
- check_circleYou stay in full control today. The pieces only matter when your people decide to bring them together.
If you want the full detail on the math, read how HeirLock works.
Keep it out of your will, keep it off the cloud
A will often becomes a public record once it goes through probate, so a live seed phrase does not belong in one. Cloud backups create a honeypot that attracts attackers and depends on a company staying in business. HeirLock sidesteps both. The split happens on your phone, the pieces live with the people you choose, and your estate documents only need to say that HeirLock was used and who holds the pieces.
A simple setup to copy
- check_circleChoose five people you trust, such as a spouse, two adult children, a sibling, and a close friend.
- check_circleRequire any three of the five to recover it.
- check_circleHand each person their piece through HeirLock.
- check_circleLeave a short note with your estate papers explaining that any three of them can recover the wallet together.
Now any three can recover the funds, no single person can steal them, and the loss of one or even two pieces does not lock your family out.
Crypto inheritance questions
What happens to my crypto when I die if no one knows my seed phrase?
It is most likely lost for good. Self custodial crypto has no password reset and no support line. If no one can reconstruct the seed phrase, the coins stay locked on the blockchain forever. Chainalysis has estimated that millions of bitcoin are already unreachable for reasons like this.
Can I leave my Bitcoin to my family without putting my seed phrase in my will?
Yes, and you should. A will becomes a public court record in many places, so writing a live seed phrase into it is a serious risk. With HeirLock you split the seed phrase into shares and give pieces to people you trust, then your will can simply note that HeirLock was used and who holds the shares.
What is the safest way to store a seed phrase for inheritance?
Avoid a single copy that one person can either lose or steal. Splitting it into pieces, for example three of five, means the phrase can be recovered even if a couple of pieces go missing, while no single holder can drain the wallet on their own. HeirLock does this on your iPhone without any cloud or account.
How is HeirLock different from Vault12 for crypto inheritance?
Both split a secret into pieces and require several of them to recover it. The difference is the setup around it. Vault12 depends on its own servers, asks every guardian to install its app, and charges a subscription. HeirLock runs entirely on your device, needs no account, and is free.
Make sure your crypto outlives the seed phrase
Split your seed phrase with HeirLock and give your family a real path to recovery. Free, offline, and nothing stored in the cloud.
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