Hidden cash, gold and crypto: how to write it down so it is found

Write it so a stranger could find it

Your family will be reading this in a hard week, perhaps in a house they do not know well. For each thing, write:

1. Exactly where it is. Room, piece of furniture, which side, what it looks like. "In the garage" is not enough.
2. How to open or reach it. The combination, where the key is, the gate code, which floorboard.
3. Roughly what it is worth, so nobody gives it away or throws it out.
4. Who else knows, even if the answer is nobody.
5. Who you want to have it.
6. Where the papers are: receipts, appraisals, a rental contract.

Cash, gold and jewellery

Say how much there was when you last counted and when that was, so nobody suspects a relative of taking some. For gold, coins and jewellery, keep the receipt or an appraisal if you have one. If something is insured separately, say with whom.

A storage unit

Record the facility, the unit number, the gate code and where the key is, and how the rent is paid. This one is urgent for your family: when the rent stops, the facility can sell the contents after a notice period. If the contract lets you add a second person who may enter, add one.

A safe deposit box

Record the bank, the branch, the box number and where the key is. Then ask the bank two questions now: what happens to the box when the renter dies, and can a second person be added to it. In many places a box in one name is sealed at death until the executor has court papers, which is a poor place for anything needed in the first week.

The vehicle that is not in the driveway

A project car in a friend's barn, a boat at the marina, a trailer in storage. List each one with where it is, whose name is on the title, where the title and keys are, and whether anyone is owed rent for keeping it. Many motor vehicle offices let you name on the registration who receives a vehicle at death. Ask yours.

Crypto is different

With a bank account, a family that knows the bank can always get there in the end. With crypto you hold yourself, there is no bank to call. Whoever has the recovery phrase has the money, and if nobody has it, the money is gone for good.

• Record the recovery phrase, all 12 or 24 words in order, and any extra passphrase you added.
• Record the device: where the hardware wallet is and its PIN.
• List exchange accounts separately. Those behave more like a bank: the exchange has its own process after a death, and your family should use it.
• Write the steps in plain words. Most families have never used a wallet. "Plug it in, open this app, send to that account, sell there." A wrong step with crypto cannot be undone.
• Do not photograph the phrase or email it to yourself. Keep it only somewhere sealed.

A wish is not a gift

Writing "I want Maya to have the ring" tells your family what you wanted. It does not, by itself, give Maya the ring. If it matters, say the same thing in your will, signed and witnessed. See which paper does what.

Where to keep this record

• Not in your will. A will becomes a public record once it is filed with the court.
• Not on a sheet in the same safe, and not in a note on the phone nobody can unlock.
• Somewhere sealed, that opens only for the people you chose and only when it should.