Hi fellow Lions,
Today I wanted to toss something out there for us in crypto to think about that might not be well covered elsewhere! Estate planning!
Taking Precautions
So it might sound morbid or something unpleasant to think about but I think we all need to take some steps to factor in estate planning to what we are doing. I was having a thought amidst other things the other day and considering the bull market we are in and the potential finances that are on the table, I had an idea that I am going to be putting into practice. We don't like to talk about death in many cultures or areas but it is literally the only thing that human beings cannot avoid, at least death of the physical form. (for you esoteric fans out there! :D) One thing we need to make sure is to have a guide that someone can follow to get to the assets we’ve accumulated.
If you unfortunately died, do your loved ones have the access they need?
I was trying to come up with some ideas for some basics in order to achieve this type of information without it sounding strange or as if I think I will be dying in the near future for one reason or another. I’ve been doing this a little bit over a few months to write down and document the accounts but not in the detail in the post here so here goes! Some of the things I think are important to leave some type of record in a safe space besides our brain, for loved ones to come across when they go through the unfortunate exercise of trying to determine what is left as far as documentation:
- Accounts.
Do you have a list of all of your accounts, crypto and non-crypto? The non crypto stuff is pretty routine for a lot of people since it's been ingrained in us for a while. What may not be so popular is having the crypto stuff documented. That air-drop you claimed back in 2018, do you have information on it outside of an obscure note saved on your computer? Write it down, print it, include it somewhere!
- Passwords
Passwords are a big one especially for those of us here on hive, Leo and the other aspects of this blockchain. Having an email password is one thing but if you don’t put your keys and passwords in a space that your loved ones can access then you are putting all this stuff that we’ve worked on at risk of being just essentially sent to null. There is some hope of recovering accounts but that’s another story, although one that’s not impossible for sure. It’s still hugely important to list out what you have in an easy to read and understand fashion for those that aren’t in the know. Names, email addresses, passwords to the email addresses are all important to have a record of. If they happen to be into crypto as well then you are on a leg up but most people here don’t have a partner or close loved one that participates as well so it’s foreign at best, unknown at worst.
- Expected Totals
This one might not be too relevant given the two points above but when the price of bitcoin is around 50k these days, there is a lot of potential money that could be on the table. The next best thing you can do is help get them an idea, as well as you yourself, of just how much you hold for assets. I don’t think dollar value is relevant since that fluctuates so much but raw bitcoin values. Do you own one bitcoin? Or do you own 1.4532245 bitcoin? Every number after the decimal point is important for things like bitcoin! It’s important to also figure out and calculate the other coins that you hold, not just saying that you own a little doge but figuring out exactly what your position is would be important.
- Security
This one here might not be too astounding to figure out but some good information to them for security purposes would also certainly help. After all I am going on the assumption that the family member or loved one doesn’t have a huge understanding of what crypto is, how to trade it and what the potential uses of things like ethereum are. It’s prudent to give them some information on just what to do and not do as a minimum. We don’t want to dictate to them all of it but for example don’t try to send a little bitcoin to someone if they promise to include you in an airdrop of the next most amazing token to ever hit the market since the last shit coin appeared! These basic scenarios might seem like a no brainer to us but it might not to them!
This is all under the assumption that you have some security of some kind in order to store this type of stuff. If you don’t have that either then you should figure something out to designate it and let your loved ones know where that space is. Could be a loose board in the floor under your bed but it should be stored in a safe device like metal so that it won’t get pests or other issues with it.
Are there any other things you think would be prudent to leave? I’m writing one of these myself for the exact reasons I’ve listed above so if you think I’m missing something please let me know and I’ll include it!
Connect with me!
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