Home What Documentation Do Executors Typically Need to Claim Crypto Assets?

What Documentation Do Executors Typically Need to Claim Crypto Assets?

Updated July 13, 2026 6 min read

Settling an estate that includes crypto assets means navigating two very different worlds depending on how those assets were held, and the paperwork required looks nothing alike between them.

The short answer

For crypto held on a custodial exchange, an executor is typically asked to provide a certified death certificate, court-issued documentation proving their legal authority — commonly letters testamentary or letters of administration — and personal identification, similar to what’s required to claim other financial accounts. For crypto held in a self-custodied wallet, none of that paperwork matters unless the executor can also locate the private keys or recovery phrase, since there’s no institution to petition.

The custodial account process

When crypto is held through an exchange or similar custodial platform, the process resembles claiming a traditional brokerage or bank account, because a company is holding the asset on the account owner’s behalf and can verify a claim through its own procedures. Typical requirements include:

Because these requirements mirror standard estate administration procedures, the process connects closely to broader questions about what happens to cryptocurrency if the owner dies without a will, since the absence of a will can affect who the court recognizes as having authority to request these documents in the first place.

Why self-custodied wallets are a different problem entirely

A wallet the deceased controlled directly — without any company holding the assets — has no customer service department, no account recovery process, and no institution to send a death certificate to. Access depends entirely on whatever private keys, seed phrases, or hardware devices the person left behind, and if those weren’t documented and located, the assets can become permanently inaccessible regardless of how much legal authority the executor holds. This is a genuinely different risk category from the custodial case, explored further when looking at what happens if an executor cannot locate a deceased person’s private keys.

What can help before the fact

Because self-custody removes the safety net that custodial accounts provide, some people plan ahead by documenting where keys are stored, in a manner appropriate for their circumstances, so an executor has something to work from. Digital asset trusts and similar planning tools, covered in more detail when looking at how a digital asset trust works for cryptocurrency, are one structure some people use specifically to address this gap.

What executors can reasonably request from an exchange

Beyond the initial claim documents, executors are often able to request account statements and transaction records to establish what the estate actually holds, a process covered separately when looking at what records an executor can request from a deceased person’s crypto exchange. These records matter for more than just locating the assets — they also feed into the overall estate valuation that later steps of administration depend on.

What to weigh

The documentation an executor needs depends almost entirely on how the crypto was held. Custodial accounts follow a process that, while sometimes slow, resembles familiar estate administration steps. Self-custodied assets follow no such process at all, and their recoverability depends on information the deceased may or may not have left behind. Requirements and procedures vary by platform and by state, and this general overview isn’t a substitute for guidance from an estate attorney familiar with the specific accounts and assets involved.