Your executor opens your inheritance checklist, which says "Ethereum has 10 ETH, Solana has 200 SOL." He opens your hardware wallet and finds only 0.5 ETH in the Ethereum address—the other 9.5 ETH is staked in Lido, while on the Solana side, 150 of the 200 SOL are earning yield in Marinade.
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If the checklist only says "balances" and not "staking positions," these 9.5 ETH and 150 SOL will look like "money that does not exist" to your heirs.
Worse, those 150 staked SOL cannot be withdrawn instantly—Marinade SOL redemptions have a 3–5 day waiting period and must be done through the protocol interface, which is completely different from a normal transfer.
The Root Problem: On-Chain Assets Have Different Visibility Levels
Not all on-chain assets show up in your wallet balance. DeFi positions such as staking, liquidity providing, and lending are really "deposits inside a protocol." What you see in your wallet is only a receipt token (such as stETH or mSOL). If the protocol logic is not written down clearly, heirs will only see "incomplete" numbers in the wallet balance and think that is all the money—when in fact a larger amount is waiting to be withdrawn behind it.
The core issue is not that the owner does not know they have these assets, but that the executor does not know these assets must be pulled out of a protocol.
Case A: How to Systematically Inventory Hidden Positions
You cannot only record what is in a wallet address. You also need to record which protocols the wallet address has used. Spending an afternoon on this can save your heirs months of pain.
[What to do]: Use blockchain explorers plus portfolio tracker tools to fully scan every wallet address for all protocol interactions, not just balances.
[How to do]: Do it in three steps:
Check interaction history with a blockchain explorer: Enter your address in a block explorer such as Etherscan or Solscan, and look at the "Internal Txns" and "Token Transfers" tabs. Focus on interactions related to "Contract"—if you ever deposited USDC into Aave, there will be a contract call record, not a normal transfer record. Write down those protocol names and the matching chain.
Cross-check with a portfolio tracker: Enter your wallet address into a tracker such as 1inch Portfolio. It can cover DeFi positions on more than 13 chains, including over 150 protocols such as Aave, Uniswap, and Lido. The goal is to compare what you remember with what actually happened on-chain—you may discover 50 U still sitting in a protocol you tested three years ago and forgot about.
Organize withdrawal paths by protocol: For each protocol, write a "recovery/withdrawal guide." Format example:
Lido (stETH): Connect your wallet to app.lido.fi, click "Withdraw," choose the amount. Wait for the 1–7 day waiting period, then claim.
Aave (aUSDC): Connect to app.aave.com, find the position in "Dashboard," click "Withdraw," and the amount is converted back to USDC.
Marinade (mSOL): Connect to app.marinade.finance, choose "Unstake," and wait 3–5 days for the Solana epoch to end.
[Completion standard]: You have a document that lists every DeFi protocol used by every wallet address, plus the matching withdrawal steps. After receiving this document, the executor can follow it to unstake and withdraw all assets.
Case B: How to Write Staking Positions Into an Inheritance Checklist Without Exposing Private Keys
Writing "there are staking positions" on the checklist is not enough—you need to write where the position is staked, how to withdraw it, and roughly how long it takes.
[What to do]: Create an executor instruction manual specifically for DeFi positions.
[How to do]: Add a separate section to the inheritance checklist, structured as follows:
| Chain | Protocol | Staked asset | Estimated amount | Withdrawal method | Withdrawal time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | Lido | stETH | 9.5 ETH | app.lido.fi → Withdraw | 1–7 days |
| Solana | Marinade | mSOL | 150 SOL | app.marinade.finance → Unstake | 3–5 days |
| Ethereum | Aave V3 | aUSDC | 5,000 USDC | app.aave.com → Withdraw | Instant |
Important reminder: Do not write seed phrases, private keys, or any passwords in the table. Only write what asset is in what protocol, how to withdraw it, and how long it takes.
[Completion standard]: Use this table together with your main wallet address list. Once the executor has the wallet seed phrase, they can follow the table to withdraw all assets.
Common Mistake: Using Only Balance Screenshots for Your Inventory
Some people screenshot wallet balances from an app and send that to their lawyer, thinking it is enough. But in a balance screenshot, DeFi positions usually appear only as the name and amount of a receipt token—for example "stETH 9.5." Heirs may think it is ordinary ETH transferred in, and never know that it must be redeemed through Lido to become usable ETH.
The correct approach: Add a note next to the screenshot: "stETH is a Lido staking receipt token, not real ETH. Withdrawal path: app.lido.fi. Redemption takes 1–7 days and fees are deducted at the current rate."
Risk Warning
If you have staking positions on multiple chains, the operational burden for your heirs rises quickly. Some protocols, such as Lido, have a redemption queue that can get longer during sharp market swings. If the inheritance checklist only says "there are coins" but not "how to withdraw," the executor may make mistakes under stress—such as selling receipt tokens cheaply on a secondary market instead of using the official redemption path. Writing down the withdrawal path clearly can save your heirs thousands of dollars in expensive lessons.
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How to Verify the Work Is Done
After completing the inventory above, run an executor simulation test:
Give the "withdrawal manual" to a friend who knows nothing about DeFi (to simulate your executor).
Give them only the seed phrase and this manual, and ask them to try withdrawing a DeFi position shown in 1inch Portfolio (use a testnet or a very small amount).
Record where they get stuck—for example, "Where is Aave's Withdraw button?" or "What does Lido's waiting period mean?"—then add those answers to the manual.
It is recommended to update your asset inventory once a year, especially staking positions—the annual yield changes, protocol versions upgrade, and the protocols you use may be merged or shut down. Save the latest scan results in your inheritance checklist, mark older versions as "expired," and destroy them.
