Bitcoin Inheritance Readiness Scorecard: Could Your Family Recover Your Bitcoin?
Self-custody protects your Bitcoin from everyone — including, too often, the people you'd leave it to. This free 2-minute checklist scores how ready your Bitcoin is to pass to your family if something happened to you, shows your biggest gaps, and tells you what to fix first. No signup, and it never asks for addresses or keys. UK-focused.
The 8-point Bitcoin inheritance checklist
These are the eight things that actually decide whether your heirs can recover your Bitcoin. Score yourself honestly on each:
- Access. If something happened to you tomorrow, could someone you trust actually access your Bitcoin — and have they ever practised it?
- Resilience. If your home was lost to fire or theft, could your Bitcoin still be recovered from a geographically separated backup?
- Documentation. Are your recovery details recorded in a documented plan a trusted person can find — and kept separate from the keys themselves? (Never store a seed phrase in a will.)
- Legal. Do you have a will that accounts for your crypto by pointing to a secure recovery process, rather than exposing keys?
- People (executor). Have you named and briefed a trusted person or executor to coordinate recovery?
- People (heirs). Do the people who'd inherit your Bitcoin even know it exists and where the plan lives?
- Upkeep. Is your plan reviewed at least yearly so it still matches your current wallets and holdings?
- Monitoring. Is anything watching your addresses for unexpected movement — an early warning of theft or loss?
Why Bitcoin inheritance planning matters
Millions of bitcoin are estimated to be permanently lost, a meaningful share of it because holders died without leaving a workable way for anyone to recover their wallets. Self-custody removes third-party risk — but it also means no one can help your family unless you plan for it. A workable plan makes recovery possible for the right people without ever exposing your keys.
Why can't I just put my seed phrase in my will?
Wills become public documents when they go through probate in the UK — anyone could read a seed phrase written there and take your coins. A good plan references a separate, secure recovery process instead.
Does Bitzo see my answers or my Bitcoin?
No. The scorecard runs entirely in your browser; your answers are never sent anywhere, and it never asks for addresses, keys, or personal details. Bitzo is non-custodial and never holds your keys.
Take the free interactive scorecard above, then see how Bitzo turns it into a documented, verified recovery plan or read our crypto inheritance planning overview. This tool is a general educational self-assessment, not legal, financial, or tax advice.