A Fiduciary's Technical Checklist for Managing Bitcoin Estate Assets

If you're an estate planning attorney, trustee, or executor, you have a duty to manage all your client's assets carefully. That includes Bitcoin. With an estimated $471 billion in digital family wealth, this is no longer a niche problem you can ignore.

But here's the issue: Bitcoin is not like a bank account or a stock. You can't call customer service. You can't reset a password. If you make a mistake, it's permanent. The asset is gone forever.

Your job is to provide legal and financial guidance. Our job at Firm6102 is to handle the technical side of Bitcoin. This checklist will show you exactly where the technical risks are and why you need a partner who specializes in this.

Why Bitcoin Is Different: It's a Bearer Asset

A bank account is a legal claim. If you lose your password, you can prove who you are and get it reset. Bitcoin doesn't work that way. Bitcoin is a bearer asset, like cash or gold. Whoever holds the private keys owns it. There's no administrator to call, no appeal process, and no way to reverse a mistake.

Trying to manage Bitcoin without technical expertise is like trying to perform surgery after watching a YouTube video. The principles are different, and the risk is too high.

The Fiduciary's Technical Checklist

Go through this checklist and ask yourself: Can I confidently handle this? If the answer is no, you have a gap in your duty of care.

Phase 1: Finding and Securing the Bitcoin

This is where you locate the Bitcoin and make sure it's safe.

What You Need to Do	The Key Question	What Happens If You Don't
Find the self-custodied Bitcoin	Do you know how to locate Bitcoin stored on a hardware wallet, a paper wallet, or another offline device?	You miss assets that should be part of the estate.
Verify control without taking custody	Can you prove the estate controls the Bitcoin without actually taking possession of the private keys yourself?	You take on massive personal liability by holding keys you don't understand.
Tell the difference between wallet types	Can you tell if the Bitcoin is in a self-custody wallet or on an exchange? They're completely different.	You handle the assets incorrectly and create legal problems.

Phase 2: Keeping It Safe and Figuring Out What It's Worth

Once you've found the Bitcoin, you need to secure it and value it properly.

What You Need to Do	The Key Question	What Happens If You Don't
Store the hardware wallets safely	What's your documented process for storing a client's hardware wallets and seed phrases in a secure, dual-control environment?	The keys get lost or stolen, and the Bitcoin is gone forever.
Get a defensible valuation	How do you establish a legally defensible date-of-death value, including which exchange to use and what time of day?	The IRS challenges your numbers, and you owe more in taxes.
Handle multi-signature wallets	If the estate has a 2-of-3 or 3-of-5 multi-sig wallet, do you know how to work with the other keyholders to access it?	You can't access the Bitcoin at all.

Phase 3: Managing the Bitcoin

This is where you actually do something with the Bitcoin, like paying estate expenses.

What You Need to Do	The Key Question	What Happens If You Don't
Create and sign a transaction	Does your team know how to safely create, sign, and send a Bitcoin transaction using a hardware wallet?	You can't perform basic tasks like paying bills or taxes.
Sell Bitcoin to pay expenses	What's your process for selling some of the Bitcoin to cover estate taxes or other costs, while managing fees and market risk?	You lose money due to poor execution or bad timing.
Avoid irreversible mistakes	How do you make sure you don't send Bitcoin to the wrong address? Once it's sent, it's gone forever.	A single typo costs the estate everything.

Phase 4: Giving It to the Heirs

This is the final and most important step.

What You Need to Do	The Key Question	What Happens If You Don't
Verify the heir's wallet address	What's your process for securely receiving and double-checking a beneficiary's wallet address before you send their inheritance?	You send the Bitcoin to the wrong person or a hacker.
Teach the heirs how to use it	Do you have a way to educate beneficiaries on how to safely receive and manage their Bitcoin, so they don't lose it immediately?	The heir gets scammed or loses their inheritance right after receiving it.
Document the distribution on-chain	How do you create a clear record on the blockchain to prove you distributed the assets correctly?	You can't prove you did your job, and you face legal challenges.

The Bottom Line: You Need a Technical Partner

If you went through this checklist and realized your firm isn't equipped to handle these tasks, you're not alone. These aren't legal problems. They're highly technical challenges that require specialized knowledge.

Trying to do this yourself isn't just risky. It's a potential breach of your fiduciary duty.

How Firm6102 Can Help

At Firm6102, we're not estate planning attorneys. We're the technical experts that fiduciaries partner with to solve the Bitcoin problem. We work alongside you to make sure your client's Bitcoin is handled with the care and expertise it requires.

Here's what we do:

• Digital Asset Executor Services: We act as your technical agent and handle the tasks on this checklist.
• Multi-Signature Collaboration: We serve as an institutional co-signer on multi-sig wallets.
• Beneficiary Education: We make sure the heirs know how to safely receive and manage their inheritance.

When you partner with Firm6102, you delegate the technical risk while keeping legal oversight. You focus on what you do best—legal and financial guidance—and we handle the Bitcoin.

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