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Does your family even know that you own cryptocurrency?

On Behalf of | Nov 29, 2021 | Estate Planning |

As you do your estate planning, you really do need to consider all of your assets. If you have been investing in things like Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency, these could be worth an incredible amount of money. 

Experts note that one of the biggest problems with leaving these assets to your heirs is simply that your heirs may not know that they exist in the first place. If they have no idea that you ever purchased any type of cryptocurrency or that you were investing in this manner, the odds are good that they won’t think to look there. This is especially true if your heirs are not that tech savvy or haven’t considered any of this type of investing themselves. It’s unclear exactly how much cryptocurrency has been lost forever because no one knows that the accounts exist, but it’s a safe bet that it has happened. 

For this reason, it’s important to have a very comprehensive plan. It may even be best to withdraw your cryptocurrency and put it into more traditional investments if you believe that you are nearing the end of your life, but something like this is also problematic because no one can predict when that day will come. 

The rise of cryptocurrency 

All of this is incredibly important because cryptocurrency has exploded in popularity in recent years, and it has created a lot of wealth. For instance, someone who purchased just a small amount a decade ago could now be holding an account that’s worth millions of dollars. For some people, these are the most valuable assets they own. 

Even if you have a small amount though, it’s very important that you know how to plan for it and how to pass it on properly to the next generation, reducing confusion and ensuring that they actually get all of the assets that you control.