How Should Your Banking Clients Leave Cryptocurrency and NFTs in a Will?

These days, there’s a good chance that at least one of your bank’s clients has assets in the form of cryptocurrency. This investment strategy has become more popular in recent years—between Q3 2020 and June 2024, the global user base of cryptocurrencies expanded from 101 million to 617 million. That means more and more people are going to be looking to include these assets in life-planning activities and last wills. 

Meanwhile, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are another well-known type of digital asset. Though the number of active NFT users declined significantly between 2021 and 2024, some people continue to view these digital collectibles as an investment opportunity. Your institution should be prepared to help your customers include NFTs in their long-term financial plans. 

Unfortunately, transferring cryptocurrency and NFTs can be trickier than distributing other forms of wealth. As a result, you may be unsure how to incorporate these assets into a customer’s life-planning process—and that can result in severe consequences down the road! But when your bank has access to platforms and software that make it easy to securely store NFTs and protect crypto accounts in wills, everyone can benefit from these valuable assets by forging stronger multigenerational financial relationships. 

Cryptocurrency and NFTs: Understanding the Basics

Before you can assist your customers with the process of adding cryptocurrency and NFTs to their wills, you’ll need a working understanding of these concepts. While both may appear to be similar to other forms of currency or unique pieces of physical content respectively, there are many key differences financial planners need to be aware of when structuring legal documents.  

Cryptocurrency

The term “cryptocurrency” describes a form of decentralized digital currency (that is to say, it isn’t backed by a government or financial entity). Whenever people create and trade cryptocurrency online, these transactions are listed on a blockchain—a shared digital ledger that cannot be altered.

Because cryptocurrency doesn’t exist in a physical form, that means ownership can only be accounted for through digital records. Crucially, crypto has to be stored in a digital wallet, and if the account information or password is lost it may be impossible to recover these assets. 

NFTs

While NFTs also depend on blockchain technology, these tokens aren’t another type of cryptocurrency. Instead, they are digital collectibles (such as art, music, and other types of intellectual property) with a unique digital identifier indicating the original file’s owner. 

NFTs present a few blockchain-related challenges when it comes to creating wills, but unlike crypto, it is much more difficult to estimate a concrete value. If intentions are unclear and a probate court steps in, it could result in painful and complex decisions about how NFTs are distributed and other assets are proportioned. 

How Banks Can Help Customers Transfer Digital Assets

Even if a client explicitly passes an NFT or cryptocurrency on to a loved one in their legal will, that person won’t be able to access this gift without login information. If these vital details aren’t included in a person’s end-of-life plan (or if it is included but gets lost in the shuffle), it can render these assets inaccessible—and therefore worthless. 

Yes, you read that correctly: Without access details, crypto and NFTs are essentially lost.

This is not a theoretical problem, either. Famously, computer programmer Stefan Thomas lost his password to a wallet containing over $230 million in Bitcoin. As of October 2024, he is still unable to open it, and he’s just one of several notable examples of people caught in similar predicaments. 

That said, distributing a person’s digital assets after their death is far from impossible. To accomplish this goal, you’ll need to help your customers with the following actions. 

Include These Assets in Their Wills

The first step toward transferring digital assets to future generations is listing them along with other belongings in a last will with clear and explicit intentions. When crypto/NFTs and their associated beneficiaries are included in a person’s will, their family members will face minimal confusion, and any potential probate process will move more quickly than it would otherwise.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t include login credentials for digital assets in this document. Wills become public records as soon as they go through probate, and any passwords listed in these documents won’t be redacted. Instead, you must protect your customers’ cryptocurrency and NFTs while ensuring they reach their intended recipients.

Create Separate Documents with Instructions

Next, it’s time to think about sharing the information needed to access a client’s digital assets in the form of a dedicated memorandum. This document will be entirely separate from their will, meaning it won’t go through probate—and your customer’s login information will be protected until it’s needed.

At a minimum, these documents should include:

• A list of your customer’s digital assets. A thorough list of the crypto and NFTs your client owns will make it easier for their loved ones to deal with these assets.
• An explanation of where these assets are stored. This memorandum also needs to explain the digital wallets your customer uses to store crypto/NFTs and what assets are stored in them.
• Login credentials. Without login information, no one will be able to benefit from your client’s digital assets. Because of that, their memorandum should cover any usernames, passwords, private keys, and PINs needed to access their NFTs and cryptocurrency.
• Links to the online exchanges your client uses. By including exchange information in this memorandum, your client can make it easier for their loved ones to access and exchange digital assets after they die.
• Access instructions. Finally, accessing NFTs and cryptocurrency can be overwhelming for people who are unfamiliar with this field. Customers can mitigate this source of stress by adding detailed access instructions to this document. Also, by being directly involved in the process, your financial institution will be in a unique position to provide valuable support and guidance for beneficiaries. 

Hang On to Important Information

When they create a memorandum including the information listed above, your customers will seriously increase the odds that their digital assets will end up in the right hands. However, that alone isn’t enough to ensure things will go smoothly. 

If this memorandum somehow goes missing, things will go back to square one—and there’s a good chance that your customer’s crypto and NFTs will be permanently inaccessible. To avoid that outcome, you can store this file (and other essential documents) in a secure digital vault. 

Though reliable document storage has obvious benefits for your customers and their loved ones, it can also come with noteworthy advantages for banks like yours. Providing these services to your clients will strengthen their existing ties with your institution. As a result, they’ll be more likely to choose your bank for any other financial services they need. 

Other Final Wish Planning Services You Can Offer

Of course, your bank’s end-of-life service strategy can and should go far beyond helping clients distribute digital assets and preparing documents involved in this process. By incorporating a platform that streamlines and supports activities related to life planning and business succession for your customers, you will be able to work together so everyone can benefit from a comprehensive process. 

A solid platform should help your customers:

• Create last wills. These days, most people don’t have a last will in place. When your bank can create legally-binding wills, you’ll be able to give your clients and their loved ones peace of mind and promote valuable financial conversations.
• Prepare other documents. Last wills play a crucial role in the estate planning process, but they aren’t the only document involved. Your bank should be ready to work with clients to create ethical wills and advanced directives as well.
• Plan their funerals. If a person plans their own funeral, they can rest assured knowing this event will meet their expectations and make life easier for their loved ones. Your financial institution can assist clients as they choose their funeral’s format, speakers, and location (among other crucial details).
• Share memories and messages. Does a customer want to share messages with their loved ones after they die? If so, your platform should be able to help them create, store, and send these messages when the time arrives.
• Organize and curate their digital media. Life is about the journey, and nearly everyone has cherished pictures, videos, and other content they want to share and enjoy with loved ones today. By providing a space to organize and store everything as they go along, these services can bring families together in the present as they plan for the future.

Finally, it’s wise to encourage your clients to get friends and family members involved in this process. That way, they’ll have a chance to explain their end-of-life plan to the people they care about. By providing these services, your institution will be in a better position to promote positive conversations and choices about financial management and multigenerational wealth creation. 

Rethink Your Bank’s End-of-Life Planning Services With The Postage

Even if you understand how your bank can benefit from helping clients organize cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other digital assets, these activities all should be part of a broader portfolio of legacy planning services you offer.  The Postage is an intuitive and comprehensive life-planning platform that makes it easy for financial institutions to empower the people they serve to take control of their financial well-being and build stronger relationships and communities. 

When you partner with The Postage for services like document storage, will creation, and memory/message sharing, you’ll establish lasting financial and emotional relationships with your existing customers as well as foster multigenerational banking habits. Best of all, these advantages translate to serious monetary growth for banks. In fact, financial institutions that work with The Postage see an average ROI increase in excess of 300% in the months after they introduce our services. 

Get started by setting up a demo of our comprehensive end-of-life planning platform, and learn more about how rewarding these activities can be for your customers and your financial institution for years to come.