Three years ago, you made an inheritance plan and gave your seed phrase and instructions to your lawyer. Last year you switched to a new wallet, but the old plan did not change. Your lawyer still has the old wallet's seed phrase in a drawer, and you never told him it is no longer valid.
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Then something happens to you. Your executor follows the old plan, uses the old seed phrase to recover the wallet, and finds it has nothing in it. Your real assets are in the new wallet, but nobody knows where to look.
An old inheritance plan does not expire automatically. After switching wallets, you must personally "kill" it. Traditional law has clear rules for this: a new will usually says it revokes all earlier wills, and copies of the old will must be destroyed. Otherwise the old will may be mistaken for the final estate plan. Crypto inheritance plans work the same way. If an old wallet's seed phrase remains out there, it is a time bomb.
Step 1: Empty the old wallet and confirm all assets have been moved
Don't rush to tear up documents. First, clear all assets out of the old wallet.
[What to do]: Move all assets from the old wallet to the new wallet and confirm the balance is zero.
[How to do it]:
Open the old wallet and check balances on every chain, including staking positions and LP tokens. If you had DeFi positions, first revoke approvals and then withdraw assets, as we discussed before.
Send all assets to the new wallet address. Pay attention to gas fees, and keep enough funds on each chain to cover them.
After the transfers, use a block explorer to confirm the old wallet balance is 0, or only has a tiny amount of dust left for notes.
[Done when]: The old wallet address shows "balance is 0" on Etherscan, Solscan, or similar explorers, or contains no meaningful assets.
Step 2: Revoke the old wallet's on-chain approvals
Even if the old wallet has no funds, approvals it gave to contracts may still exist. If an attacker calls transferFrom through an old contract, there is nothing to take from the empty wallet. But if someone accidentally sends assets there, they can be swept away too.
[What to do]: Use tools like Revoke.cash to revoke all past approvals from the old wallet.
[How to do it]: Connect the old wallet address and revoke approvals one by one on Revoke.cash until the list is empty. This process requires gas fees.
[Done when]: Revoke.cash shows "No allowances found".
Step 3: Physically destroy the old inheritance documents
The old wallet is empty and approvals are revoked, but the pages with the seed phrase are still in the lawyer's drawer. You must destroy them yourself.
[What to do]: Destroy all paper or digital files that contain the old wallet's seed phrase, private keys, or PIN code.
[How to do it]:
Paper files: Shred them or burn them completely, so every word is gone. If the documents are with a lawyer, request in writing that they return them and destroy them in front of you, or be present when they are destroyed.
Digital files: Delete them permanently from computers, phones, cloud drives, and USB drives, and empty the recycle bin. If you ever photographed your seed phrase, delete the photo and remove it permanently from "recently deleted".
Record the destruction: Take a photo or write a short note saying "the old inheritance document was destroyed on YYYY MM DD".
[Done when]: You are confident that no readable copy of the old wallet seed phrase still exists anywhere.
An easily missed detail: If you move old wallet assets to a new wallet but do not destroy the old inheritance documents, anyone who gets the old seed phrase cannot take the old wallet's money, but they can trace your new wallet address through the old wallet's transaction history. On-chain transactions are public. They just need to click the "From" address on Etherscan to see how much you hold in the new wallet. This is not a theoretical risk, but many people miss it.
Step 4: Create a revocation statement and store it separately
Beyond physical destruction, you also need a formal written record that says the old plan is no longer valid.
[What to do]: Write a short statement saying the old inheritance plan is void and telling the executor to follow the new plan.
[How to do it]: The statement should include:
The exact name and date of the old plan
The reason it is void, such as "wallet changed"
The location of the new inheritance plan
Your signature and date. Store this statement in a different place from the new inheritance plan, or give a copy to your lawyer for safekeeping.
[Done when]: Your estate checklist or will clearly states: "The old crypto inheritance plan made in YYYY (document number XXX) is void. The new version made in YYYY controls."
Step 5: Notify everyone involved
Your executor, beneficiaries, and lawyer may all remember that an inheritance plan exists. If you do not tell them it changed, they will still look in the old place when something happens.
[What to do]: Tell everyone involved, verbally or in writing, that the old version is void and the new version is active.
[How to do it]:
Email or tell your executor: "My previous crypto inheritance plan is void. The new one is at XX location, and all old copies have been destroyed."
If you use multisig or Shamir shards, tell every person holding a shard: "Old shards are void. New shards are being distributed, and please destroy the old ones."
[Done when]: You confirm that everyone who may have access to old materials knows it is void and no longer holds valid shards.
Risk warning: If you rely on the idea that a new will automatically revokes an old one, there is a hidden flaw. If copies of the old will are not destroyed and the executor does not know about the new will, they may follow the old one. For crypto inheritance, the probate process can offer some protection against fraud, but if both old and new asset clues are circulating, confusion is unavoidable. Destroying the old version completely is the cleanest solution.
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Checklist after completing the steps
After finishing these five steps, do an independent check:
Assume you are unreachable: Give the old seed phrase from the old inheritance documents to a trusted friend who is not your executor. Ask them to try recovering the wallet. They should find the wallet is empty and has no meaningful assets to move.
Assume your executor has the old documents: Confirm that they cannot use the old documents to locate the new wallet's assets.
Confirm the new documents are active: Ask the executor to read the new inheritance plan and confirm they can understand and follow the new wallet recovery process.
Try to check your inheritance plan every 6 months. Compare your wallet address to the one in the plan, and confirm all old documents have been destroyed. If you switch wallets again, repeat the steps above.
