How to Pass On Your Cryptocurrency in a Florida Estate Plan, Step by Step

Cryptocurrency does not pass the way a bank account does. There is no branch to call and no customer-service line that can reset a self-custody wallet, so if the keys are lost, the coins are lost. This guide walks the five steps that put your Bitcoin, Ethereum, exchange balances, and other digital assets inside a Florida estate plan that actually works, in the order to do them.

Step 1: Inventory every wallet and account

Start with a complete, private list: every self-custody wallet (hardware, software, or paper), every exchange account, and any crypto held through an app or custodian. For each one, record what it is, where it lives, and whether you or a platform holds the keys. You are not writing down passwords or seed phrases here, only what exists and where. This inventory is the backbone of everything that follows, because a fiduciary cannot reach what they never knew you owned.

Step 2: Add crypto-specific language to your will and power of attorney

Florida's Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, gives your personal representative and your agent a legal path to many digital accounts, but how far that path reaches depends on what your documents say. Some access, such as the content of your messages, requires your written consent or a court order, and a direction you put in your will or power of attorney can override a contrary term in a platform's terms of service. A will that only disposes of "all my property" leaves those questions to the platform. Have express digital-asset and cryptocurrency authority added to both your will and your durable power of attorney, so your fiduciary is not left arguing with a provider at death or during incapacity.

Step 3: Build a secure access plan for self-custody keys

Self-custody keys are the paradox: your family must be able to find them, but no one else can. The one place they must never go is the will, which becomes a public record in probate. Instead, build a separate, secured access plan (a sealed letter of instruction, a password manager with a documented succession path, or instructions split among trusted people) that your documents point to without reproducing the secret. Decide who should be able to reach it, and how, before anyone needs it.

Step 4: Set and reconcile your exchange settings

For coins held on an exchange, the platform's own tools matter. Under Chapter 740, a direction you give through a provider's online tool, such as an account-access or legacy-contact setting you can change at any time, overrides a contrary direction in your will, and if a platform offers its own beneficiary or legacy-contact feature, its terms may also affect where the balance goes. Not every exchange offers either. Go into each account, set any beneficiary or legacy contact it offers deliberately, and make sure it matches what your estate documents say. A designation you set years ago and forgot can quietly override your plan, so reconcile every one.

Step 5: Store it, tell your fiduciary, and review it every year

A plan no one can find is no plan. Tell the person who will administer your estate that a crypto inventory and access plan exist and where to begin, without handing over the keys today. Then put a yearly review on the calendar. Wallets move, exchanges change hands, and balances grow; a digital-asset plan ages faster than the rest of your estate and needs a deliberate refresh.