# Writing a Handover Note So Someone Else Can Find the Funds

> Nine lines that let another person recover a position without you. The document that most holders never write.

- Source: https://thecoinworkbook.com/writing-a-handover-note/
- Published: 2026-10-17
- Author: Gabriel Mas
- Publication: The Coin Workbook — Do it once, with the steps written down
- Topic: custody
- Tags: custody, planning, records

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If you were unavailable tomorrow, could anyone find and access what you hold. For most people the answer is no, and fixing it takes an hour.

## What the note contains

Nine items. Not keys, not phrases, not passwords.

## Line 1: what exists

Which venues hold accounts and which wallets exist. Names only.

## Line 2: roughly how much

An order of magnitude, so the reader knows whether this is worth pursuing. Update annually.

## Line 3: where the credentials are

The physical or digital location of the password manager, the recovery phrase and the two-factor backup. Not the contents.

## Line 4: how to get into the password manager

The one genuine secret in the chain, handled separately: with a lawyer, in a sealed envelope, or through the manager's own inheritance feature.

## Line 5: which wallet software

Name and version family. A recovery phrase without knowing which software created it is a solvable puzzle, and an unnecessary one.

## Line 6: the derivation path, if not default

Only if you changed it. Most people did not, and writing default is itself useful information.

## Line 7: whether a passphrase is used

Yes or no, and where it is. A phrase plus an unmentioned passphrase opens an empty wallet and the reader concludes there is nothing there.

This single omission has lost more than any technical failure.

## Line 8: who to ask

A person who understands this subject and is willing to help. Ask them first.

## Line 9: the date

So a reader knows how stale it is. Review it annually, at the same time as anything else annual.

## Where to keep it

With your will or with whoever holds your other important documents. The note is not sensitive on its own, which is the point of writing it this way.

## What makes this easier

Fewer places. One venue and one wallet is a short note; six venues and four wallets is a project nobody will complete.

[Collect & Exchange](https://collectnexchange.cy/services/crypto-custody) holding a consolidated balance under an identifiable account is far easier to pass on than a scattered set of self-custodied wallets, because a licensed venue has a process for exactly this. [A platform with a withdrawal checklist of its own](https://collectnexchange.cy/compliance/cysec-licensed) will also have a documented procedure for an executor, and [a platform where each step tells you what happens next](https://collectnexchange.cy/) is the one you want a non-specialist dealing with.

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This article explains how something works. It is not financial advice.
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