E342 Thank You to Our Listeners!
Anthony S. Park
Based on feedback from you, the audience, we're pausing these episodes and will focus on writing instead: Our blog: Our books on Reviews always appreciated! Thank you for sharing all your amazing questions and stories, and thank you for listening!
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E341 How Long to Transfer Real Estate After Death
Anthony S. Park
There is no legal time limit to transfer real estate after death. It could happen quickly, or it could take years. We’ve seen cases where the real estate doesn’t get transferred until generations later. A fast sale is ideal, because problems can emerge in the meantime. There is a lag between the date of death and when the executor gets legal authority to handle the property. So, even “fast” isn’t very fast. How long does it take to get preliminary letters? The executor does not have full authority over the estate until he gets letters testamentary (or letters of administration) from...
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E340 Reasons Not to Make a Loved One the Executor
Anthony S. Park
We’ve talked before about not making a loved one your executor. I recently read an article titled, “.” Here, we’ll add our own perspective for why it’s not a great idea. Being executor can be emotionally difficult It is a duty that begins almost immediately after the death of your loved one. You are grieving the loss while facing a list of daunting tasks. Even normal probate is a lot of work and can be tough while grieving. In a somewhat difficult probate, you . If you are also family and friends with these people, it can be awkward. They will continually ask you when they will...
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E339 Why Sharing Your Seed Phrase is a Bad Bitcoin Inheritance Plan
Anthony S. Park
In this episode, we will talk about self-custodied bitcoiners (not those who have their coin on an exchange or with a third party). Some bitcoiners share their seed phrase with their spouse or adult children. Or perhaps they share their cloned wallet with those trusted individuals. It’s temptingly easy, essentially . But, as we’ll discuss, it can be insecure for reasons you may not think of. Sharing your seed phrase can be dangerously . Relationships change One reason that this plan is not flexible is because relationships change. Married couples can become divorced or...
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E338 Should I Sell My Home Before I Die?
Anthony S. Park
This is a very common question that we get from Solo Agers. We’ll review the pros and cons of making that decision. Reasons to sell your home before you die The biggest reason Solo Agers want to sell their home before they die is because they don’t want to leave a mess for their loved ones. Otherwise, there may be a lot of cleaning, maintenance, and packing for the heirs to do. Additionally, the before it is in sellable condition. Another reason is that Solo Agers may want to downsize anyway. Downsizing is a different topic, so we won’t focus on that here. Reasons to...
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E337 Who Owns a House During Probate?
Anthony S. Park
When someone dies, many folks are confused about who owns the house during probate, right after the death. Technically, the heirs own it immediately upon death, subject to debts and taxes of the estate. But, sometimes is not clear who the heirs are. The probate process decides who exactly are the heirs and places an executor in charge to sort out all those debts and taxes. So, the heirs own the house, but if it is not clear who the heirs are, then you kind of need to wait to see who really owns it. Understandably, this is a bit confusing. We’ll cover common questions on who owns the property...
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E336 Risks of Being an Executor
Anthony S. Park
What are the risks of being an executor? An executor has a lot of power and responsibility during probate, but is correspondingly accountable for everything that happens within the estate. We’ll cover how an executor has risk of even personal liability, how long that risk lasts, and how an executor can protect himself from these risks. Executor personally liable for debts and taxes The executor has personal liability for debts, taxes, and anything wrong with the estate. If an executor makes an error, the court’s first reaction is to deny payment of the executor's commission. If the...
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E335 Why a Letter of Instruction for Bitcoin Inheritance Will Fail
Anthony S. Park
A letter of instruction will likely fail for your bitcoin inheritance plan and should have only a marginal role in your plan, if any. Search for “bitcoin inheritance” and you will probably find lots of people advising you to write a letter of instruction for your heirs. We talked about this and even provided a . Now, having spent a bit more time delving into different approaches to bitcoin inheritance, we’re de-emphasizing a letter of instruction. Note: this applies to self-custodied bitcoin, not held through a third-party. Educate your heirs A letter of instruction is a subcategory the...
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E334 Why Hire a Professional Trustee?
Anthony S. Park
I do serve as a professional trustee, not just executor, or our Solo Ager clients. We’ll cover why our Solo Ager clients are looking for a professional trustee, why they don’t use banks, and how much it costs to hire a professional trustee. Disputes between trustee and beneficiary Why are our Solo Ager clients looking for a professional trustee? The main reason is because of potential disputes between the trustee and the beneficiaries. Unfortunately, this kind of conflict is very common, even more so than between heirs and executors. A trust creates a much longer relationship: an estate...
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E333 Seller Credit When Selling Probate Real Estate
Anthony S. Park
This happens when the buyer agrees to a higher contract price, but the seller also agrees to credit back a set amount to the buyer, so the net purchase price is lower. For example, if the buyer wants the house for $250,000, they would set the contract price at $300,000 with a side agreement that the seller would credit $50,000 on the closing statement, effectively making the price $250,000. Why not just a price reduction? Co-ops (and sometimes condos and homeowners’ associations) want the closing price to be (artificially) higher to maintain their average price per square foot. They don’t...
info_outlineAs you may know, Bitcoin does not have layers like legacy and traditional accounts do, so an inheritance plan needs to be created. We will discuss the drawbacks of constantly seeking and getting stuck on a “perfect” Bitcoin inheritance plan, and a few solutions for approaching the creation of these layers.
Legacy assets have inheritance layers, bitcoin does not
Legacy assets (banks and financial institutions) already have several layers or contingencies that you may not even realize. On the testamentary side (deciding who gets what), there may be a will, a trust, beneficiaries on the account, or payable on death designations. If you don’t have any of those, there are still default inheritance state laws called intestacy laws. Basically, even if you do nothing, there is a safety net of who gets what, and there are backup layers. You could name backup heirs, successor executors, etc., but even if you don’t, the intestate laws will dictate inheritance. This is not the case for Bitcoin.
The other side of inheritance is custody, since so many Bitcoiners self-custody. When you have Bitcoin assets on an exchange, you have a few failsafe layers. This includes password recovery. While you are living, you could contact the institution to gain access. When you pass, your heirs have a third-party custodian that they can turn to for assistance with accessing and liquidating. With self-custody, you don’t have this naturally built in to turn to.
Worst case, with traditional and legacy accounts, there is the process of unclaimed funds. This is where the assets go to the state after a certain amount of time if they are not accessed. This is in place, so the money doesn’t simply disappear or get lost. Bitcoin does not have anything like this yet.
Again, Bitcoin self-custody has few to none of these fail safes as of right now.
“Perfect” bitcoin inheritance solutions
Anthony has spoken with many Bitcoiners, and he keeps coming across the same problem – people are getting stuck waiting for the “perfect” inheritance solution. The plans, ideas, and visions for are different for each Bitcoiner, based on their level of security and knowledge. But for everyone it is important that you do not wait. While you’re working on your perfect plan, put in a satisfactory solution for the time being. You need a safety net.
If you worked really hard on your perfect inheritance solution and you believe it will work, great. But what if it doesn’t? There are no layers or fail safes in plan with Bitcoin self-custody. So, it’s up to you to create all of these layers, backups, safety nets, etc., so the funds aren’t lost.
How to make bitcoin inheritance layers
Start with a layer that you’re HIGHLY confident will work, even if you don’t love it (for example, it relies on a third party, exposes your KYC, etc.). Once you have that in place then add layers that increase your comfort and increase complexity. But keep in mind, increased complexity may increase the risk of not working.
Here is one example:
First is the base layer and one way to do this is to create a poor man’s multisig. If you have a single sig hardware wallet, you can give the seed phrase to your heirs and successor heirs (your wife and children perhaps), store a handwritten copy of your seed phrase in safe deposit box, and give your passphrase to bitcoin-savvy friend or professional bitcoin executor (executor and successor) named in your will. Again, you may not love this for privacy reasons, but you are fairly confident this would work.
Now, with the base in place as your safety net, you can do whatever you want. You can teach your heirs in hopes they will understand self-custody enough to take custody on their own with a letter of instruction and treat it as a family bitcoin wallet.
Again, remember you are not creating your perfect plan, you are creating your own safety net until you have your perfect plan.
Check out my book, “How Probate Works,” to get an understanding of the probate process. Then add all the extra steps your executor and heirs will need to do to administer your bitcoin. As always, please reach out with your questions and feedback!
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