What goes on it
The useful inventory is shorter than people expect. For each holding:
- What it is. Which coin, roughly how much, and since when.
- How it is held. An account on an exchange, or self-custody on a device. The two lead to completely different procedures after a death, and getting this one line right saves the family weeks.
- Where the thing physically is. The device, the metal plate, the safe, the bank vault. A room and a container, not a treasure map.
- Where the backup is. Somewhere different from the first location, and stated as plainly.
- Who else knows. A co-signer on a multisig, a partner who has seen the drawer, an accountant who has the exchange statements.
- Which accounts hold the second factor. A phone number or an authenticator app that dies with the handset is the reason plenty of exchange accounts are never reopened.
What never goes on it
The seed phrase itself. Not written out, not photographed, not split across two pages, not in a password manager whose master password is in the same envelope.
The inventory says where the seed phrase lives. It never says what it is. A document that contains both the location of your holdings and the key to them is a single sheet of paper that hands over everything, and it tends to circulate more widely than anyone intended, particularly in the weeks after a death.
Where the record is kept
With your will, with your notary, or in your own safe alongside the documents your family will already be looking for.
It is not stored here. No copy is held, no vault is offered and no encrypted service sits behind this page. What is on offer is the session in which the record gets made, and knowing which questions to ask so that it is complete.
What the notary will need from it
Belgian succession runs through the notary, and cryptoassets have to appear in the declaration of estate like anything else. The notary's practical difficulty is describing and valuing something they cannot see.
A good inventory answers, in advance, the three questions they will ask: what was held, how it was held, and on what basis it can be valued at the date of death. The note written for notaries covers the same ground from their side, and is worth handing to yours.
What this is not
- No custody. No keys, seed phrases, wallets or funds are held at any point.
- No storage of your inventory. The record is yours and stays in your keeping.
- No legal or tax advice. How the holdings are declared and taxed is for your notary and your adviser.
- No valuation certificate. Valuation method can be explained. Signing off on a figure is not something an unregulated party should do, and a notary would be right to refuse one.
Getting started
An hour is usually enough for a first version, and a first version is worth far more than a perfect one that never gets written.
Get in touch to arrange a session. If you are already dealing with an estate rather than planning one, start at urgent assistance.