How Should Cryptocurrency Investors in Florida Include Digital Assets in Their Will?Estate Planning in Florida: Your Questions Answered

Cryptocurrency has moved from niche hobby to meaningful wealth for many Floridians. I see it in client balance sheets and in the questions families ask when someone passes: how do we find the wallet, what is a seed phrase, and can a court compel an exchange to turn over funds? Traditional estate planning documents cover bank accounts and homes with ease, but Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, and tokens held on decentralized protocols behave differently. They are borderless, often anonymous, and in many cases, irreversible. A will that ignores those realities creates risk. A will that addresses them with clear instructions, compliant language, and secure access stands a far better chance of passing value to heirs without drama.

The core idea is simple: your fiduciary must be empowered and able to take custody of your digital assets without violating law or losing value, and your heirs should know what exists and how it passes. Florida law offers useful tools, but you need to deploy them with care.

The term “digital asset” spans more than just Bitcoin. In an estate law context, it includes cryptocurrency and tokens on public blockchains, NFTs, assets held in decentralized finance protocols, staking rewards, private keys and seed phrases, accounts at centralized exchanges, wallets on hardware devices, and records that prove ownership. It also includes access-controlled online accounts that might hold value or evidence of value, such as a Coinbase account, a Kraken account, or a Web3 wallet linked to an NFT marketplace.

From an estate planning perspective, the most important distinction is where the asset sits: custody at a centralized exchange under a traditional account relationship, or self-custody through a wallet you control. The first looks more like a brokerage account, with the exchange’s terms of service and subpoena process in play. The second depends on possession of private keys or seed phrases. If no one can access the keys, the asset can become stranded forever.

Florida has adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, often called RUFADAA. Put simply, it gives your personal representative or trustee a pathway to access digital assets and electronic communications when authorized in your documents and permitted by the provider’s platform. It does not automatically hand over the contents of your accounts. Service providers can require court orders, death certificates, and specific authorizations. Some platforms allow you to designate a “legacy contact” or beneficiary in-app, which can trump your will if the platform says so in its terms.

What matters is alignment. If your will or trust expressly authorizes your fiduciary to access, manage, and transfer your digital assets, and if you also use the platform tools that designate what happens on death, you reduce friction. When I review plans for clients in Hillsborough County and nearby communities, this alignment is one of the first checkpoints. It is a straightforward technical fix in most cases, but it requires intention.

A Florida will can transfer cryptocurrency, but a revocable living trust often handles estate law it more cleanly. Courts supervise probate, which means schedules of assets can become part of the public record unless carefully managed. Many cryptocurrency investors prefer privacy and agility. A trust avoids probate and lets a successor trustee take control faster, which can matter if assets are staked or subject to market swings. The will still serves a purpose: it pours any remaining assets into the trust and names your personal representative. For clients with material holdings, I often see a combination approach.

That said, a will is still a valid route. If you are not ready for a trust, you can draft a will with digital asset clauses that authorize your personal representative to access and manage private keys, interact with exchanges, close accounts, and move tokens. Be careful not to include private keys directly in the will. Probate is public. You do not want seed phrases or wallet addresses that can be linked to keys in that document.

Most lost crypto estates fail at the first step: the fiduciary never knows what exists. No one can call a blockchain and ask, “What did the decedent own?” The network will not answer. Exchanges will not disclose without proof and proper requests. An inventory solves the discovery problem, but it must balance detail and security.

I encourage clients to maintain an off-chain, offline inventory that lists, at a minimum, the types of assets, the platforms used, the wallet naming scheme, and general location of credentials. If you own Bitcoin on a hardware wallet, the inventory might identify the device make and model, the label you gave it, and where to find the seed phrase without revealing it. If you trade on an exchange, the inventory should list the platform, the email used for login, and whether two-factor authentication is app-based or hardware-based. This is real-world estate planning, not theory. An inventory makes a chaotic week after a death more humane.

Unlike bank accounts, crypto is often a bearer-style asset in practice. Whoever controls the keys can move the funds. That makes security decisions consequential. Over-sharing is common. A well-meaning person prints their seed phrase and places it in a file folder labeled “Executor,” then stores it in a desk drawer. That is convenient, but risky. A visitor, contractor, or even a family member can photograph the page and drain the wallet. You want to make your fiduciary’s job feasible without creating a honeypot.

Several methods work:

Each approach has costs. Safe deposit boxes can be frozen temporarily upon death in Florida. Multisig adds complexity, and if co-signers are scattered or uncooperative, funds can be delayed. Password managers rely on cloud access, which is a strength and a weakness. The best plan reflects your holdings, your family’s technical comfort, and the urgency with which assets might need to be moved.

Boilerplate digital asset clauses often miss the operational detail that custodians look for. Your will or trust should grant explicit authority to:

These verbs matter. Without them, a cautious personal representative can feel hamstrung, and an exchange’s compliance team might decline or limit cooperation. Drafting for Florida probate also means tying this authority to the personal representative named in your will, and, if you use a revocable trust, mirroring that authority for your successor trustee.

Where the crypto sits affects how it passes. Self-custodied assets held in your individual name and controlled by your keys are part of your probate estate unless you place them in a trust or a business entity. Assets at centralized exchanges can sometimes be titled to a trust during life, which can reduce probate work later. Joint ownership is typically not available for self-custody wallets, but some families operate de facto joint control by sharing keys, which can create tax, control, and theft risks.

A practical step that often helps is creating a trust-owned wallet. The trust becomes the legal owner, you act as trustee during your lifetime, and your successor trustee steps in on incapacity or death. For centralized accounts, ask the exchange about trust account onboarding. Some platforms support it; others do not. If the platform refuses, you can still hold in your own name and rely on your personal representative’s authority, but recognize that the process might take longer.

Florida has no state income tax, which makes this conversation easier, but federal rules still apply. On death, most assets receive a basis adjustment to fair market value. Cryptocurrency is generally treated as property for federal tax purposes, not currency, so the basis step-up typically applies. If your Bitcoin cost $20,000 and is worth $60,000 at death, the basis for your heirs generally becomes $60,000. If they sell soon after, capital gains could be minimal. NFTs and tokens usually follow the same property treatment, though values can be volatile and illiquid.

Staking rewards or airdrops accrued before death may be taxable income to the decedent’s final return or to the estate if received post-death. Recordkeeping matters. Your fiduciary needs transaction histories to prepare accurate returns. Good estate planning in Florida is not just about legal authority, but also about keeping a clean tax file for whoever prepares the 1041 and the final 1040.

Cryptocurrency complicates incapacity more than death. If you become incapacitated, bills still need to be paid and risky assets might need to be de-risked. A durable power of attorney should include digital asset powers, authority to manage keys, and permission to move assets as a prudent person would. Select an agent who can handle the task or will hire someone who can. Some clients opt for a backup wallet structure so that an agent can move funds with minimal delay if markets drop or if active management is needed. If your plan ignores incapacity, your family can get stuck while courts appoint a guardian, which is slow and invasive.

Multisignature wallets distribute control across two or more keys. For substantial holdings, multisig can be a shield against theft and single-point failure. It can also impede estate administration if no one understands the setup or if the keyholders include people who cannot or will not participate after death. If you choose multisig, document the quorum, list who holds each key, and store that description with your inventory. Consider appointing your successor trustee or personal representative as one of the signers during life, or at least naming them as a designated replacement signer upon proof of death. Simpler setups, like a single hardware wallet with a well-protected seed phrase, may suit smaller holdings or families without technical depth.

Not every wallet holds fungible tokens. NFTs, domain names, and gaming items can carry real value. Some are tied to specific marketplace accounts or carry licensing restrictions. If a Bored Ape or virtual land parcel is significant, your will or trust should authorize the fiduciary to agree to marketplace terms, transfer IP licenses as allowed, and retain third-party help to move assets correctly. In your inventory, include the marketplace handles and any linked emails, plus a note about royalty payments or secondary sale constraints. I have seen heirs lose days trying to find which of several wallets actually holds the NFT they care about because the on-chain address and the marketplace display name were never connected in any written record.

Exchanges headquartered in the United States often have published procedures for bereavement claims. Expect to provide a death certificate, letters of administration or letters of testamentary from a Florida court, and identification for the personal representative. Some require notarized forms and will not speak with family before the court appoints a fiduciary. If you plan ahead, designate a beneficiary or legacy contact within the account if the platform offers it. If not, at least retain monthly statements or balance screenshots so your fiduciary knows whether the effort will be worthwhile.

Offshore exchanges add complexity. Some cooperate readily, others do not. Terms of service can direct disputes to foreign jurisdictions. If you actively trade on offshore platforms, consider whether it makes sense to move a portion of those holdings into a domestic custodian or a self-custody wallet with a documented process before a crisis arrives.

It bears repeating because I have seen drafts from non-Florida forms that do this: do not write your seed phrase or private keys inside your will. A will becomes part of the court record. Even if you anticipate redaction, leaks happen. Use a separate memorandum or letter, stored securely, that your fiduciary can access after death. Reference the existence of that memorandum in your will or trust without describing its contents.

Surprises cause friction. Your personal representative or successor trustee should know, at least at a high level, that you hold digital assets and that your plan includes a secure handoff. If your spouse or adult child is not the fiduciary, give them enough context so they understand why the fiduciary will ask for certain devices or documents. If you use a law firm for estate planning in Florida, ask them to hold an escrowed copy of your inventory or a sealed credentials letter with instructions about release on death or incapacity. At Shaughnessy Law Estate Planning, for example, we often retain sealed documents that clients update annually, then log the update date on a separate cover sheet so fiduciaries know what to look for.

Crypto does not sit still. You may switch wallets, rotate keys, or migrate assets to new chains. An estate plan that worked last year can become outdated. Build an update habit. Quarterly or semiannual reviews are reasonable for active traders. Long-term holders can check in annually. The update should be simple: confirm the inventory, test whether the hardware wallet boots, verify your password manager emergency access, and ensure your will and trust still reflect your wishes. When we do estate planning Brandon FL families can maintain over decades, we try to design processes that a busy person can sustain without turning their life into a compliance exercise.

Consider an example I see often. A Tampa-area engineer holds about 3.5 Bitcoin on a Ledger device, $80,000 in ETH and tokens on a MetaMask wallet, and a Coinbase account with $25,000 that he uses for on-ramps. He also stakes some ETH through a service that issues a liquid staking token. He and his spouse own a home and have two kids in middle school.

He signs a revocable trust that includes robust digital asset authority. He funds a trust-owned wallet for part of the holdings and leaves the rest in his individual wallets, noting in his inventory which addresses correspond to which title. He updates his will to pour over remaining assets and names his spouse as personal representative with his brother as alternate. The will and trust both authorize hiring a consultant to help with key recovery and on-chain transfers.

He puts the Ledger device in a small fire-rated safe at home and stores the seed phrase split into two parts, one in a safe deposit box and one in a sealed envelope at his attorney’s office. He configures a password manager with emergency access for his spouse and leaves a sealed note with the master password hint and recovery method in the safe. He turns on legacy settings at Coinbase and downloads a copy of the most recent statement. In his inventory, he lists the MetaMask wallet’s descriptor and the names of the networks where notable tokens live, with a brief note that the staked ETH is represented by a liquid token. He schedules a calendar reminder every six months to review. This is not theoretical. It is practical, and it works.

The three repeat offenders are hiding everything out of fear, over-sharing credentials, and assuming a tech-savvy child will figure it out. Hiding everything leaves your fiduciary guessing, and blockchain guessing goes nowhere. Over-sharing leaks keys and creates theft risk. Assuming someone can “just hack it” is the worst of both worlds. Replace all three with a measured plan: a clear inventory, controlled access paths, and explicit authority in your documents.

Another mistake is assuming your family accountant or traditional financial advisor understands crypto mechanics. Some do. Many do not. Give your fiduciary permission to hire outside expertise, even for a short engagement. One or two hours with a competent technologist can save days of frustration and prevent costly errors like sending tokens to the wrong chain or burning an NFT by misunderstanding a marketplace transfer function.

Florida probate courts expect a personal representative to gather assets, pay claims, and distribute the remainder. For digital assets, gathering often means proving authority to a custodian or taking control of a wallet. Courts may not be familiar with hardware wallets, and you might need to educate the process server, the bank where the safe deposit box sits, or even opposing counsel in a creditor dispute. Keep records. If you move tokens from a decedent’s address to an estate-controlled address, record the transaction hashes and keep a short memo describing the reason. This paper trail protects the fiduciary and helps with tax reporting.

If the estate plan includes a trust, the successor trustee can often bypass much of this, especially for self-custodied assets already titled to the trust. That speed and privacy are a major reason many cryptocurrency investors gravitate toward trust-based plans in Florida.

A good estate lawyer does not need to be a crypto trader, but they do need to understand how control and title work for these assets, and how Florida law treats fiduciary access. Firms that handle estate planning Florida wide are starting to standardize digital asset clauses, but the drafting is only half the job. The operational plan sits underneath the documents, and that is where coordination with your family and advisors happens.

Shaughnessy Law Estate Planning works with clients in Brandon and across the Tampa Bay region who hold everything from a small balance on Coinbase to seven-figure self-custody positions. The playbook changes with the size, complexity, and the family’s comfort level. Sometimes it is as simple as a will with digital asset powers, a sealed seed phrase, and an inventory. Sometimes it includes trust-owned wallets, multisig coordination with co-trustees, and standing instructions for tax and security reviews. The goal is the same: make sure the value you created reaches the people you care about with minimal loss and maximum clarity.

Digital assets reward careful planning and punish neglect. A Florida estate plan that treats crypto like a bank account is incomplete. Add precise authority, a practical access strategy, and a living inventory. Decide whether a trust helps you achieve speed and privacy. Keep taxes in view, and prepare for incapacity as deliberately as you plan for death. If you invest the same discipline in your estate plan that you used to learn wallets and exchanges, your family will not be left guessing at the worst possible moment. And if you want help building a plan that fits your holdings and your household, an experienced estate planning team in Brandon FL that understands both estate law and the realities of custody can shorten the distance between good intentions and a plan that actually works.

Shaughnessy Law


Address: 618 E Bloomingdale Ave, Brandon, FL 33511


Phone: +1 (813) 445-8439






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Yes, you absolutely need a will even with modest assets. A will isn't just about dividing up money—it's about making sure your wishes are followed. Without one, Florida's intestacy laws decide who gets what, and that might not align with what you want.

Plus, if you have minor children, a will lets you name their guardian. Without it, a judge makes that call. Even if you're not wealthy, having a will saves your family unnecessary headaches during an already difficult time.

A will goes through probate court after you pass away, while a trust lets your assets pass directly to beneficiaries without court involvement. The will becomes public record and probate can take months, but trusts keep things private and often move faster.

In Florida, probate can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you own property here. Trusts also give you more control—you can set conditions on when and how beneficiaries receive assets. The downside? Trusts cost more upfront to set up, but they often save money and hassle later.

Florida's homestead laws provide special protections and restrictions that directly impact who can inherit your home. Your primary residence gets special protection from creditors, and there are restrictions on who you can leave it to if you're married.

You can't just will your homestead to anyone you want—your spouse has rights to it, even if your will says otherwise. This trips people up all the time. If you own a home in Florida, you need to understand these rules before finalizing any estate plan.

Yes, you can minimize or avoid probate through several strategies. Setting up a revocable living trust, using beneficiary designations on accounts, owning property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, or using transfer-on-death deeds for real estate all work.

Many people use a combination of these. That said, probate isn't always the enemy—Florida has a simplified process for smaller estates under $75,000. The key is understanding what makes sense for your specific situation rather than avoiding probate just because someone told you to.

Your estate goes through intestate succession, where Florida law determines who inherits based on a predetermined formula. Generally, everything goes to your spouse, or if you don't have one, it's divided among your children.

No spouse or kids? Then parents, siblings, and other relatives. It sounds straightforward, but it gets messy fast—especially with blended families, estranged relatives, or if you wanted to leave something to a friend or charity. The process takes longer, costs more, and might not reflect your actual wishes at all.

Yes, you should have a Florida attorney review and likely update your estate plan when you relocate here. Estate planning laws vary significantly by state, and what worked in New York or California might not hold up here.

Florida has unique rules about homestead property, different probate procedures, and its own requirements for valid wills. Your out-of-state documents might technically be valid, but they could create problems or miss opportunities for Florida-specific protections. It's usually not a complete overhaul, but adjustments are almost always needed.

A power of attorney authorizes someone to make decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. In Florida, you need two types: a durable power of attorney for financial matters and a healthcare surrogate (similar to a healthcare power of attorney elsewhere).

The financial POA lets your agent handle banking, pay bills, manage property—basically anything money-related. The healthcare surrogate makes medical decisions. These documents are crucial because without them, your family might need to go to court for guardianship, which is expensive and invasive.

A living will is completely different from a regular will—it outlines your end-of-life medical preferences while you're still alive but incapacitated. It tells doctors what life-prolonging measures you want if you're terminally ill or in a permanent vegetative state.

A regular will, on the other hand, distributes your property after you die. You need both. Florida has specific requirements for living wills—they need to be witnessed properly, and you should make sure your doctors and family have copies.

Estate planning in Florida typically costs anywhere from $300 for a simple will to $5,000+ for complex plans. A simple will might run $300-$800, while a complete estate plan with wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives usually costs $1,500-$3,500 for most people.

Complex situations with business interests, multiple properties, or tax planning can run $5,000 or more. It may seem like a lot upfront, but compare that to probate costs—which can easily hit 3-5% of your estate's value. Good planning pays for itself.

You can create your own estate plan using online forms, but it's risky unless your situation is very simple. Online forms work okay for single people with straightforward assets and clear beneficiaries.

However, Florida has specific rules about witness requirements, homestead restrictions, and other legal nuances that generic forms might miss. One mistake can invalidate your documents or create problems your family has to sort out later. For most people, the few hundred dollars saved isn't worth the risk. At minimum, have an attorney review any DIY documents before you finalize them.

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Shaughnessy Law


Address: 618 E Bloomingdale Ave, Brandon, FL 33511


Phone: +1 (813) 445-8439

Shaughnessy Law provides estate planning services in Brandon, Florida.

The legal team at Shaughnessy Law helps families create wills and trusts tailored to Florida law.

Clients in Brandon rely on Shaughnessy Law for guidance on probate avoidance and asset protection.

Shaughnessy Law assists homeowners in understanding Florida’s homestead exemption during estate planning.

The firm’s attorneys offer personalized estate planning consultations to Brandon residents.

Shaughnessy Law helps clients prepare durable powers of attorney and living wills in Florida.

Local families choose Shaughnessy Law in Brandon, FL to secure their legacy through careful estate planning.

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