What to do when an Unchained account holder dies
Report the death to Unchained's Estate Services Team at 1-844-486-2424
When an account holder at Unchained passes away, the next step depends on how the accounts were set up. Accounts with beneficiary designations or trust ownership transfer outside of probate. Accounts titled solely in the deceased's name require the estate's legal representative to work with Unchained's Estate Services Team (1-844-486-2424) to access and distribute the funds.
Death claim process
Here is the step-by-step death claim process at Unchained:
Filing a claim
- Do not send seed phrases (a set of 12 or 24 words) to Unchained, and do not take a photo or digital copy of them
- The estate guide is linked from Unchained's inheritance page
Required Documents
- Death certificateUnchained asks for a copy, as soon as it is available.
- The deceased person's full legal name and Social Security number
- Probate documentation of the executor's appointment, for bitcoin not held in a trust or IRADepending on the state, this may be a Short Certificate, Certificate of Appointment, or Letters Testamentary.
- Birth or marriage certificate, or proof of legal name change, where requested
- Certification of Trust showing the identity of the current trustee, for bitcoin held in trust
- Photo ID, such as a passport or driving license, for the executor, trustee, or IRA beneficiaryUnchained verifies the identity of every executor and beneficiary, even one who does not intend to use Unchained's key.
- Certified copy of the death certificate, for an Unchained IRA, sent to the IRA custodian, Fortis Bank
What happens to each kind of account5
- Crypto account
Unchained states that an inheritor needs two things to receive bitcoin: legal title and key control. Two keys are always required to move bitcoin in an Unchained vault and Unchained holds only one, so the inheritor needs at least one of the deceased person's keys as well as the estate documents.1
Unchained cannot move a client's bitcoin alone, and in most cases at least one of the deceased person's seed phrases is needed to move it. Unchained has no knowledge of the location of a client's private keys.2
Unchained keeps a copy of each vault's wallet configuration file and asks the person recovering the account to contact Unchained directly rather than attempting external recovery.3
- Account in one name
On the death of the holder of an account titled solely to a natural person, Unchained treats the validly appointed executor, administrator or personal representative of the estate as having all the rights of the original owner.4
- IRA
The process is easier for an Unchained IRA beneficiary; the IRA custodian, Fortis Bank, handles most of the paperwork. Once Fortis Bank verifies the beneficiary designation, the beneficiary chooses an in-kind transfer to an inherited IRA at Unchained, a U.S. dollar distribution, or, for a spouse, a rollover.1
Unchained provides a signature from its key as necessary. The IRA beneficiary still needs a key of their own.5
- Payable-on-death account
Unchained states that the process is easier if the inheritor is a beneficiary named on a personal vault.1
- Trust account
Bitcoin in an Unchained trust account stays titled to the trust. Unchained can give administrator privileges to a currently acting trustee who provides reasonable documentation of trusteeship, such as a certification of trust. The process is easier if the inheritor is a trustee already added.1
Accounts handled elsewhere1
- Fortis Bank IRA Services
The Unchained IRA, as its IRA custodian6
Phone: 1-720-644-2337
Email: iraservices@fortisbankus.com
Fax: 1-720-616-4030
Mailing address: 6975 Union Park Avenue Suite 180, Midvale, UT 84047
Help Unchained offers survivors1
- Unchained Inheritance Protocol
The executor or trustee holds a sealed tamper-evident bag with Executor/Trustee Letter B and the inheritance seed phrase card, opened only on the owner's death or incapacitation. If needed, Unchained ships the required equipment and schedules a one-on-one call to walk them through recovery.7
What Unchained's agreement and guidance say1
- Who can get account information
Unchained will not divulge information about an account without a court-ordered executor appointment.2
Not in Unchained's published guidance1
- How long a claim takes
Frequently asked questions
Its vaults are 2-of-3 multisignature: you hold two keys and Unchained holds one, and two keys are required to move the Bitcoin. Unchained states that an inheritor needs two separate things, legal title and key control. Court paperwork such as a Short Certificate, Certificate of Appointment, or Letters Testamentary establishes legal title, but Unchained can only add its single co-signing key.
The Inheritance Protocol is the lifetime package that solves the key-control half of the problem. It contains an inheritance seed phrase card on which you record a copy of a seed phrase protecting your vault, a key succession and transfer-of-title checklist, and two letters: Executor/Trustee Letter A, which your executor reads when you hand over the key while you are still alive, and Executor/Trustee Letter B, which stays sealed and is opened only on your death or incapacity and walks the executor through Bitcoin recovery step by step. It is designed so a non-technical executor can recover the key without prior Bitcoin expertise.
Unchained names three situations where inheritance is easier: an Unchained IRA with a named beneficiary, a personal vault with a transfer-on-death (TOD) beneficiary, and a trust account with a trustee already added.
Unchained's Estate Services Team can be reached by phone at 1-844-486-2424 and email at inheritance@unchained.com for questions throughout the claims process.
Sources
Data sourced from Unchained primary sources (34 pages reviewed). How we research.
Unchained death claims support
Estate Services Team
Phone
Fortis Bank IRA Services (Unchained IRA custodian)
Website
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