What happens to crypto holdings if one dies?
Coincover, a cryptocurrency protection and insurance company looks to address this unique yet real problem – and has announced their new product, Cryptocurrency Wills. Providing a unique and dedicated solution to cryptocurrency estate planning, the product – which the company said is a world-first – solves one of the key issues preventing cryptocurrency going mainstream: what happens to Bitcoin when you die?
Bitcoin is like no other asset, they claim. Without a robust retrieval mechanism once it’s lost, it’s lost forever. Gone baby gone. It is estimated that around 4 million Bitcoins (worth around $30 billion) have been lost as a result of people dying and without adequate plans in place.
Coincover wants to be an investor’s solution to this problem.
Coincover will help executors and beneficiaries retrieve cryptocurrency funds in the event of the owner’s death with its Cryptocurrency Will Kit.
David Janczewski, Co-Founder and CEO, Coincover, comments: “As Bitcoin becomes more mainstream and its value continues to increase, considering how to manage it as part of an estate planning exercise is becoming increasingly difficult. Many people don’t know that unlike physical assets which form part of an estate on death such as savings, property, pensions and investments, you can’t get at cryptocurrency, unless you have the key or password to it. There’s no bank manager to ask, and no one can break in for you. That’s why so many billion Bitcoins are lost when people die each year. Our Cryptocurrency Wills product meets this gap in the market.”
Along with BitGo, the firm acts as the custodian of the back-up key and only the two together, in the event of a death, can unlock the wallet and retrieve the funds. So, your loved ones can benefit from your cryptocurrency investment after one’s death.
How the Cryptocurrency Will Kit works:
Coincover’s Cryptocurrency Will Kit can be brought from e-commerce giant Amazon as of today. The Kit contains information, a physical, stainless steel ID Card with a unique ID number (for you), and Notification Cards with ID numbers (for your loved ones or executor contacts).
The Cryptocurrency Will requires just three simple steps to set up:
1. Answer some simple questions and register your ID on the wills.coincover.com website to activate your Cryptocurrency Will
2. Secure your Bitcoin by setting up an online BitGo Cryptocurrency ‘wallet’ to store it in
3. Distribute the Notification Cards provided in the Kit, to your executors and loved ones for safe keeping
When one dies, loved ones or an executor contacts Coincover, and gives the Unique ID number provided on the Notification Card, along with a death certificate corresponding to the deceased. Coincover will investigate and then retrieve the funds.
Coincover trusted partners
Coincover has partnered with BitGo to offer the Will product. BitGo is the market leader in institutional-grade multi-signature hot wallets, processing 20% of all global Bitcoin transactions, and $15 billion per month across all cryptocurrencies. Customers purchasing the Cryptocurrency Will Kit must store their cryptocurrency in a multi signature BitGo wallet. Multisignature wallets require at least two keys (ID numbers that give you access to your Bitcoin), to authorize a transaction.
Coincover has also partnered with Harrison Clark Rickerbys, a top 100 UK law firm, to enable their clients to supplement their main will with a Cryptocurrency Will. There is no need for their clients to hand over confidential keys or passwords. Coincover takes care of the custody aspects leaving HCR to take care of their clients wishes.
Coincover is FCA approved and is backed by several Lloyds of London insurers who agree that the Coincover solution is credible and legal.
