What to do when a BitGo account holder dies
Report the death to BitGo's Client Support
After an account holder at BitGo dies, accounts with beneficiary designations or trust ownership transfer to the designated recipients without probate. Solely-owned accounts require the estate's representative to contact BitGo's Client Support with the proper legal authority documents.
Claims can be filed by phone or by emailing documentation to support@bitgo.com. Before reaching out, gather the account holder's full name, account numbers, and the death certificate.
Death claim process
The death claim process at BitGo works as follows:
Filing a claim
- Identify the deceased person, the account, and your fiduciary capacity
- BitGo's Connect With Us page tells current clients: "Are you a current client? Email support@bitgo.com"
- BitGo has no claims phone line, no claims portal and no estate department
Claims Contact
Website: Online portal →
What happens to each kind of account2
- Crypto account
In a custody wallet, BitGo holds all three keys and can move the assets on proper authority.1
In a self-custody wallet, the client holds the Client Key and the Backup Key and BitGo holds only the Platform Key. BitGo can countersign but cannot originate a transaction and cannot supply those two keys, so without them no one, including BitGo, can recover the assets.1
BitGo's Terms of Use say: "You may not assign or delegate these Terms, your obligations, rights or responsibilities. Any attempt by you to do so is void." An heir cannot take over an account by private arrangement.2
- Loan
BitGo Prime financing is a secured debt of the estate, and it must be resolved before the collateral is released.1
Accounts handled elsewhere4
What BitGo's agreement and guidance say2
- How proceeds are paid
Once BitGo has verified the claimant's authority, the assets move on-chain to the estate, trust or beneficiary wallet address the authorized representative names. Staked positions may need to unbond first.1
BitGo's 24-hour processing time for custody-wallet withdrawals covers the transfer itself, not the compliance review that comes before it.1
- Dormant and unclaimed accounts
Under section 3.7, if BitGo "is unable to contact you and we have no record of your use of the Service for several years, applicable law may require us to report the Digital Currencies associated with your account as unclaimed property."4
BitGo may then deliver the digital currencies to the state and "deduct a dormancy fee or other administrative charges."4
Not in BitGo's published guidance5
- A procedure for reporting a death
- A claim form
- A list of required documents
- How long a claim takes
- Terms in its agreements for a customer's death
Sources4
- 1.Resource Center
- 2.BitGo Terms of Use
- 3.Entities
- 4.Services Agreement, last updated September 13, 2017
Frequently asked questions
No, and this is an easy and expensive mistake. BitGo's solutions page at bitgo.com/solutions/estates is headed "Creditors & Estates" and sells custody, liquidation, and claimant distribution services to BANKRUPTCY estates -- it says BitGo is "chosen by bankruptcy trustees and court-appointed fiduciaries" and describes "trusted solutions for crypto bankruptcies" where approved claims are deposited into BitGo wallets. It has nothing to do with a decedent's estate. To settle a deceased person's BitGo account, email support@bitgo.com or open a ticket at https://support.bitgo.com/support/home. BitGo publishes no death claim form, no claims phone line, and no estate department.
No on both counts. BitGo's published US agreements -- the Services Agreement, Terms of Use, General Addendum, CIP Notice, privacy notice, and staking terms -- contain no transfer-on-death, payable-on-death, or beneficiary designation provision, and there is no form or screen to create one. BitGo also closes off the informal alternative: its Terms of Use state that "you may not assign or delegate these Terms, your obligations, rights or responsibilities" and that "any attempt by you to do so is void," so a private agreement handing the account to someone is not effective against BitGo. The planning route that does work is titling the account in the name of a trust and naming the successor trustee as an authorized signer in advance.
Because it decides whether anything can be recovered at all. In BitGo custody wallets, BitGo "holds all three private keys and secures them in cold storage," so with a certified death certificate, court letters, and claimant identification BitGo can move assets to an estate or beneficiary wallet. In self-custody wallets, BitGo is explicit that "you maintain the Client Key and the Backup Key, while BitGo keeps the Platform Key" -- BitGo can only countersign a transaction the client's keys have already half-signed. If the Client Key and Backup Key material is lost with the account holder, no court order and no BitGo department can reconstruct it. Anyone holding BitGo self-custody wallets needs to document, in a place a fiduciary can lawfully reach, where that key material lives and how to use it -- not in the will, which becomes a public probate record.
It can be escheated. Section 3.7 of BitGo's Services Agreement provides that if BitGo is "unable to contact you and we have no record of your use of the Service for several years, applicable law may require us to report the Digital Currencies associated with your account as unclaimed property," and that if BitGo cannot locate the holder using its records it "may be required to deliver any such Digital Currencies to the applicable state as unclaimed property." BitGo also reserves the right to "deduct a dormancy fee or other administrative charges from such unclaimed Digital Currencies." For an executor, that is a reason to contact BitGo early rather than leaving a discovered account untouched while probate runs; once assets are remitted to a state, the claim is made to that state's unclaimed property program rather than to BitGo.
BitGo's Client Support can be reached by email at support@bitgo.com for questions throughout the claims process.
Sources
Data sourced from BitGo primary sources (23 pages reviewed). How we research.
BitGo death claims support
Client Support
Website
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