The numbers are sobering: by some estimates, nearly 20% of all Bitcoin — worth hundreds of billions — is effectively lost, much of it locked in wallets whose owners died without leaving access instructions.1 For the digital executor — the person tasked with untangling a loved one's crypto estate — 2025 brings both urgency and, finally, real solutions.
The challenge is a paradox. Self-custody is the whole point of crypto, but absolute self-custody means no recovery key, no password reset, and no customer-support line for your heirs. The services below solve this by layering inheritance workflows on top of three fundamentally different custody models: managed multisig, self-custody smart contracts, and centralized custody. Each approach trades off security, complexity, and heir-friendliness differently. Here are the things actually worth buying.
Casa — Best for Automated Inheritance
Casa is the only service that bakes a complete inheritance workflow directly into a managed multisig vault.1 You set a designated recipient; after six months of verified inactivity on your account, that recipient can initiate a transfer. The six-month window prevents false triggers — a long hospital stay or a lost phone won't accidentally hand over your keys.
Casa holds some of your key shards, you hold others, and a time-locked recovery process bridges the gap. It's the closest thing to a "dead man's switch" for Bitcoin and Ethereum today. For digital executors who want a set-and-forget plan with professional support, Casa is the clear first choice.
Best for: Automated, hands-off inheritance planning with a reputable custodian.
Safe — Best for Advanced Multisig / Social Recovery
Formerly Gnosis Safe, Safe is the gold-standard smart contract wallet across Ethereum and L2s. It doesn't have a built-in "inheritance mode" per se, but its multisig and social recovery features let a digital executor be designated as a signer from day one.2
You configure a threshold — say, 3-of-5 — where one of those signers is your executor. When the time comes, the executor's key alone can't move funds, but combined with two other trusted parties (a lawyer, a family member, a hardware backup), the assets unlock. This is the most flexible and trust-minimized approach, but it requires technical comfort and upfront coordination.
Best for: Crypto-native users who want maximum security and are willing to document a recovery plan.
Coinbase — Best for Non-Technical Heirs / Probate
For families where the heir has never touched a hardware wallet, Coinbase's centralized custody is a feature, not a compromise. Coinbase allows formal beneficiary designations and works within traditional probate processes.3 Your executor provides a death certificate and legal documentation; Coinbase's support team handles the transfer.
This sacrifices the decentralization ethos, but it's the only option on this list where a non-technical spouse or sibling can realistically recover assets without a crypto tutorial. If your estate plan involves a will, a trust, and a lawyer — and your heirs are not crypto-native — Coinbase is the pragmatic choice.
Best for: Traditional estate planning with non-technical beneficiaries.
Comparison: Which Custody Model Fits Your Estate?
| Dimension | Casa | Safe | Coinbase |
|---|
| Custody Model | Managed Multisig | Self-Custody Multisig | Centralized Custody |
| Inheritance Trigger | 6-month inactivity | Manual signer activation | Legal probate / beneficiary |
| Heir Tech Level | Moderate | Advanced | Beginner |
| Key Security | Shared shards | User-controlled |
Why This Matters in 2025
The crypto industry has spent years building better ways to store assets, but the transfer problem — getting assets from one generation to the next — is only now getting serious attention. Services like Carryr and LastWish complement the picks above by helping digital executors create notarizable instructions without ever storing seed phrases.2
A complete crypto estate plan in 2025 layers three things: a custody solution (one of the picks above), a documented inheritance document (LastWish or Carryr), and a conversation with your executor so they know what exists and where to look.
Disclosure: Recomate earns affiliate commissions from some of the services linked in this article. We only recommend products we have tested and vetted. Our picks are independent of any partnership.
