New Haven Crypto Legacy Planning Lawyer

New Haven Crypto Legacy Planning That Works When You Are No Longer There to Explain It

Cryptocurrency can sit in a hardware wallet or an exchange account that no one else in your family knows about.

If the recovery phrase or the login is missing, your executor or trustee can hold every legal document and still be unable to reach the assets.

Burns Thomas, LLC serves New Haven crypto legacy planning clients from its office at 520 South Main Street in Naugatuck. Partner William P. Burns Jr. formerly held FINRA Series 6, 7, and 63 securities licenses, a background that informs how we review where each account is held and who can reach it.

Contact us with a list of the exchanges and wallets you use, and we will review how each one is held and what your plan needs to say about it.

Cryptocurrency Creates an Estate Planning Problem of Its Own

Traditional estate planning starts with ownership. Crypto planning also has to account for control, and the answer changes with where you keep your holdings.

If you hold cryptocurrency on an exchange, the company has a record of the account, but your family may need to document a fiduciary’s authority before it releases information or allows a transfer.

If you hold it in a self-custody wallet, there may be no intermediary at all, and a trustee’s authority under your plan cannot replace a missing recovery phrase.

If you hold both, the person handling your estate needs to know which assets sit where, which documents govern each one, and which steps apply to it.

A plan that only names beneficiaries leaves those questions open, so we write the legal documents and the practical instructions together.

The Documents and Instructions a New Haven Crypto Legacy Planning Lawyer Can Build Into Your Plan

The right structure depends on how you hold your cryptocurrency and who will manage or inherit it. A plan may include these pieces:

• A trust for assets you want outside probate: A revocable living trust can hold assets you want managed through the trust instead of a probate estate, and we can give the trustee powers suited to cryptocurrency.
• Separate instructions for wallets and recovery information: Your will is a poor place for a seed phrase or password. Your plan can point your fiduciary to a separately kept record that explains where each wallet is and how the necessary information can be obtained, and you can update that record without redrafting the plan.
• An inventory of exchanges and digital accounts: Your fiduciary should not have to search years of email to find your accounts. A current inventory can name each platform and the documents each provider may require.
• Authority for periods of incapacity: A properly drafted power of attorney can address digital property if you become unable to manage your own finances.
• A will for everything left outside the trust: Your will covers property that never reached the trust, and we prepare it with the probate process in mind.

Connecticut Law Can Provide Authority Without Providing the Key

Connecticut’s digital assets law gives executors, trustees, and other fiduciaries the right to access certain digital assets, including those that no custodian holds and no terms-of-service agreement controls.

That authority has a limit, because it cannot supply information that no one preserved. A trustee may have the right to deal with a self-custody wallet and still be unable to move the cryptocurrency if no one knows where the wallet is or how its recovery information is stored.

Exchange-held cryptocurrency raises a different issue. The exchange has its own account procedures and may ask for documents that establish the fiduciary’s authority, such as a death certificate or proof of appointment.

Ownership structure also affects timing. Assets in your individual name may require probate administration before your executor can act, unless the estate qualifies for Connecticut’s small-estate procedure, which has a $40,000 limit on probate personal property and does not apply if the decedent solely owned Connecticut real estate.

Assets titled to a revocable trust work differently, because a successor trustee may be able to act under the trust terms without waiting for appointment as an executor.

Where New Haven Probate Fits Into a Crypto Legacy Plan

The location of your wallet does not decide where your estate is administered. Where you live at the time of death does.

For a New Haven resident, the New Haven Probate Court at 200 Orange Street, 1st Floor, handles the probate estate, and a move to another municipality can change which probate court applies.

Privacy is a second reason to keep credentials out of your will.

A will filed with a probate court can generally be read by the public, so we recommend keeping recovery phrases, passwords, and wallet instructions in a separate, secured record and using your legal documents to identify who has authority and how the plan is structured.

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Five Events That Can Make an Existing Crypto Plan Outdated

A crypto plan only works while its information matches what you own. We review a plan after any of these events so the documents and the access instructions still line up:

• A new wallet or hardware device: The inventory and instructions have to name it, and retiring an old device means updating them again.
• A new exchange account: Each platform adds an account your fiduciary has to find and a set of provider procedures to follow.
• A move to another municipality: A new address can change which probate court handles your estate.
• A change in who you trust: Your executor, trustee, or successor trustee may no longer be the right choice.
• A marriage, divorce, or new child: Beneficiary and fiduciary decisions should reflect your family as it is today.

Whether the best option for you is a comprehensive will, the establishment of trusts or other estate planning solutions, we will find a solution that fits your needs.

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Questions New Haven Families Ask a Crypto Legacy Planning Attorney

What should I bring to the first meeting?

Bring an inventory, not your passwords: the names of your exchanges, the types of wallets you use, a rough description of what each holds, and the people you are considering as fiduciaries. Leave recovery phrases and passwords at home unless your attorney tells you otherwise.

Can a Naugatuck law office handle a New Haven estate plan?

Yes. New Haven clients work with us at our office at 520 South Main Street in Naugatuck, and we serve clients throughout New Haven County. Probate follows where you live, not where your attorney’s office is, so a New Haven resident’s probate estate would still be handled in New Haven.

Who should serve as executor or trustee of a crypto estate plan?

Choose someone responsible who can follow detailed instructions and keep private information private. Some clients split the roles, naming a family member as executor and someone comfortable with technology to handle the wallets. Attorney Christine L. Thomas helps clients choose executors, trustees, and guardians as part of broader estate planning.

Can I keep trading cryptocurrency after I create a trust?

Generally yes. A revocable living trust is designed to leave control with you during your lifetime, subject to the trust terms and how each account is titled. If your holdings change, the inventory should change with them.

Does putting cryptocurrency in a trust keep it out of probate?

Assets titled to the trust generally do not pass through probate, while assets left in your own name may. Whether a particular exchange account or wallet can be titled to a trust depends on the provider and how the asset is held, which we review with you before drafting.

How much does crypto legacy planning cost?

The fee depends on the work involved. A plan for one exchange account takes less work than one covering several exchanges, hardware wallets, and a trust. We explain the fee at the first consultation, before you decide whether to proceed.

What if my question was not addressed here?

Bring it to your consultation. We can look at how you hold your cryptocurrency and explain which parts of a plan apply to you.

Talk With a New Haven Crypto Legacy Planning Lawyer Before Your Family Needs the Plan

Authority under your documents and access to your wallets are two separate things, and only a review of both shows where a plan has a gap.

Schedule a consultation and we can compare how you hold your cryptocurrency today with what your documents say, then tell you what needs to change.