The New Inheritance Problem Costing Australian Families Their Wealth
- Written by: Times Media
Australians are sleepwalking into a digital inheritance crisis by failing to include provisions for crypto in their Wills and estate planning, warns a crypto expert.
With one in three Australians now owning cryptocurrency - locked behind personalised passwords and digital keys or stored on physical offline devices, a new problem is emerging - how these assets are inherited.
The General Manager of a leading cryptocurrency platform is now calling on Australians to ensure digital assets – and details on how to access them - are included in their Wills so families aren’t left locked out of wealth meant for them.
Nic Roberts says billions of dollars in crypto risks being lost because estate planning is struggling to keep up with the changing way in which wealth is being held.
“People are taking their passwords to the grave, creating a threat to intergenerational wealth,” he says.
“In the digital world, security is vital. But one forgotten password can wipe out a family’s inheritance.”
“Digital money needs to be treated like any other part of an estate. Without organising access and leaving the details in a Will, families won’t be able to inherit crypto the way they currently do for houses, savings and super.”
Roberts says many investors and families have never had to grapple with passwords, encryption and private keys when deciding how they intend to pass on their assets.
“It’s a wake-up call for people to update their Wills and make sure their family knows where their wallet and unique digital codes are stored because in crypto, security and inheritance are the same thing.”
As more Australians accumulate digital assets, Roberts says the need for clear instructions on access is becoming critical
According to the 2025 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI) report, 31% (around 6.2 million) of Australian adults own or have owned cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin being the most popular, held by 70% of those investors.
“In trying to keep their wealth private, some Australians are unknowingly making it impossible for their families to ever inherit it.”
Roberts says one reason many Australians struggle to address crypto in their estate planning is that digital assets don’t feel like traditional money.
“Crypto isn’t tied to your name like a bank account is – it’s tied to digital keys, long strings of code that prove ownership on the blockchain.”
“Access depends on these private keys and long secret recovery phrases -often called a seed phrase - that acts as the master key to everything a person owns digitally.”
He says many people now use hardware wallets like a Ledger – small offline devices that work like digital safes to reduce exposure to cyber risk.
“If the recovery details for a hardware wallet aren’t written into an estate plan or clearly communicated to a trusted person, those assets can be lost forever.”
He says the technical nature of the crypto system, combined with our natural reluctance to talk about death or confront wills and end-of-life planning, means many investors avoid the conversation altogether.
“This avoidance carries far greater consequences in the digital world.”
Crypto checklist for estate planning
- Know what you own - make an inventory of your cryptocurrencies and digital wallets and where they’re held.
- Store access details safely -keep recovery seed phrases in a secure place and not just in your head.
- Name a digital executor of your Will -nominate someone you trust who understands digital accounts.
- Make or update your Will -make sure you have a Will and you list all your digital property.
- Have written access instructions -write down how your digital assets can be accessed and where that information is kept.
