Meet Vault12 at the Mansion House Summit in London, September 13, 2024.

How to claim your Inheritance
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How to claim your Inheritance

How to claim inheritance as a beneficiary

As a beneficiary, it is within your power to claim inheritance in the event a Vault Owner passes away, or becomes incapacitated. Follow the steps below to initiate and claim Inheritance.


When the time comes to access the inherited digital assets, the Beneficiary opens the Vault12 app, selects the Vault to be inherited, and activates Inheritance. This will send a safeguard message to the Vault owner — just in case the Beneficiary is actually jumping the gun. The owner has a set period of time - 48 hours - to veto the request.

  • Once the Vault is ready, the Beneficiary is asked to contact the Vault owner's Guardians.

The Guardians are contacted out of band, e.g., by phone by the Beneficiary, and asked to do a Vault Restore.
The Vault restore/asset unlock process is the same process that Guardians may have enacted multiple times for the owner — so nothing new for them to do.

3. Restoring Assets

  • Once the minimum number of Guardians have confirmed a Vault Unlock, the assets are transferred to the Beneficiary.
The Inheritance process is complete, and the new Beneficiary will be free to disburse the assets as specified by the Vault owner's Will or Living Trust.

The Vault12 Digital Inheritance capability is designed to ensure that all digital assets — not just cryptocurrency — that are backed up in the original Vault are passed on to the designated individual in the future.

Vault12 Digital Inheritance is part of the Vault12 app, and is now available in the App Store, Google Play, macOS, and Windows. Download at https://vault12.com/download.

If you are a lawyer or a crypto investor please view our web seminar hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce, with
- Philip C. Berg, Otterbourg P. C.
- Jason Lederman, Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
- Wasim Ahmad, Chief Crypto Officer, Vault12



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Vault12

Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance and backup. The company was founded in 2015 to provide a way to enable everyday crypto customers to add a legacy contact to their cry[to wallets. The Vault12 Guard solution is blockchain-independent, runs on any mobile device with biometric security, and is available in Apple and Google app stores.

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Backup and Inheritance for Bitcoin

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You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

...unless you set up Crypto Inheritance Management today.

It's simple — if you don't worry about crypto inheritance, nobody else will — not your software or hardware wallet vendors, not your exchanges, and not your wealth managers. So it's up to you to think about how to protect the generational wealth you have created, and reduce the risks around passing that wealth on to your family and heirs. What are the challenges with crypto inheritance?

  • Crypto Wallets are difficult to use and do not offer crypto inheritance management. In fact, most of them tell you to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper, which is practically useless.
  • Some people back up their wallet seed phrases or private keys on paper, local devices like hardware wallets or USBs, or in the cloud. All of these options have severe drawbacks that range from hacking to accidental loss to disrupted cloud services.
  • Software wallets operate onspecific blockchains, yet your crypto assets span multiple blockchains. For inheritance to work, you must be able to manage inheritance across every blockchain — now and forever.
Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance management. Watch our explainer video above, or our inheritance demo today.
Screenshot of Vault12 Guard apps - Add an Asset screen

Crypto Inheritance Management: Get ready today

Vault12 is the pioneer in Crypto Inheritance Management, and offers an easy-to-use and secure method for assigning a legacy contact to your crypto wallets. Vault12 Guard enables you to pass on your wallet seed phrases and private keys for any cryptos including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to future generations. It's designed for everyday people, yet strong enough for Crypto OGs.

This innovative, decentralized system uses a hybrid approach of software fused with the Secure Element of phone devices (the Secure Enclave for iOS devices, and Strongbox for Google devices).

Vault12 Guard enables users to appoint one or more people or mobile devices as Guardians. The designated Guardians are entrusted to collectively protect the user's comprehensive collection of wallet seed phrases and private keys, which are safely stored within a decentralized digital Vault. Nothing is stored on cloud servers or Vault12 servers, and no assets are stored on local devices, making them less of a target.

The decentralized approach reduces points of failure and removes the necessity for regularly revising wallet inventories or modifying instructions for your lawyers (which could lead to privacy breaches). Simply put, Vault12 Guard is the best way to preserve crypto generational wealth.

Screenshot of Vault12 Guard app - Adding data into the Vault

Take the first step and back up your crypto wallets.

Designed to be used alongside traditional hardware and software crypto wallets, Vault12 Guard helps cryptocurrency owners back up their wallet seed phrases and private keys (assets) without storing anything in the cloud or any single location. This increases protection and decreases the risks of loss. Making sure you have an up to date back up is the first step in crypto inheritance management.

The Vault12 Guard app enables secure decentralized backups and provides inheritance for all your seed phrases and private keys across any blockchain, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20, and other crypto wallets.

Note: For anyone unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, Vault12 refers to wallet seed phrases and private keys as assets, crypto assets, and digital assets. The Vault12 Guard app includes a software wallet that works alongside your digital Vault. The primary purpose of this is to guard your Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) wallet seed phrases, private keys, and other essential data, now and for future generations.