00:00Have you ever wondered what happens when somebody passes away? God forbid that happens to you or
00:04anybody that's around you, but it's an inevitability with the world we live in. What happens when they
00:09have digital assets on an exchange and now they're gone and their family can't get to it? That's what
00:14we're going to run down in this video and why it matters to get your assets into institutional
00:19custody with us at Digital Wealth Partners. So here recently we've got a couple different emails
00:26from clients that unfortunately have had loved ones pass away. And again, this isn't a topic that
00:32we really enjoy talking about, but it is something that is relevant for almost everybody that has an
00:37allocation to digital assets. You're buying these assets on exchanges and some of you, a lot of
00:44people are holding them on cold wallets, which is, you know, a separate deal we'll get into in this
00:49video. But if you have your assets on an exchange, they're in your name and it's unlikely they're
00:55insured or that you have beneficiaries associated with the assets on the exchange. I won't speak to
01:01which exchanges, you know, these clients are dealing with, but just know that it's going to
01:07become an issue if the individual didn't give access to the platforms or write down their passwords
01:12or create another way for somebody in their family to be able to get access to these assets upon their
01:19passing. Obviously you could pass, you know, the death certificate to the exchange and they're willing to
01:23work with you, but especially if they're a substantial amount of value and that person
01:28does not have a trust account there or an LLC account at the, at the exchange and it's in their
01:33personal name, it's likely that these assets are going to have to go through probate because there's
01:37no way to list a beneficiary on them. So that exposes you to a bunch of risk and a bunch of other
01:41problems. That's why we work with a lot of our clients to structure their assets inside of an asset
01:45protection trust in Wyoming or, you know, have other assets in a living trust, structure their estate,
01:50make sure that things are set up in a way where they bypass probate and they, you know, mitigate
01:54the gift tax of their estate to their descendants or beneficiaries, whoever they want to leave the
01:58assets to. Again, something else we can run down in another video. The main topic here that I want to
02:03stay focused on is why it's important to get your assets into institutional custody. So again, let's say
02:10you were, you know, had the wherewithal to move the assets to a cold wallet and they're listed in your
02:17will. My wife has no clue. She would not be able to get the assets off of the cold wallet back in
02:22exchange, cash out, do anything with them. She just has no interest. And that's been a commonality
02:27across most of the spouses that we've talked to in the space when dealing with our clients. Some of
02:33them are fortunate enough to have spouses that are excited about this asset class with them and know
02:38enough to be able to, you know, make sure that they're taken care of or get access to the investments
02:42if something were to go wrong. But in, I would say 90% of circumstances, that's not the case. They
02:48might have a, you know, a beneficiary, a child, a friend that they have denoted in the will that
02:53they've written down that is willing to help them be their crypto buddy in the unfortunate circumstance
02:58where they do pass away untimely. And that's one way to do it, right? But it's a lot better. Like
03:04you have a bank account. You probably had to have a beneficiary listed on your bank account.
03:08If you don't, I would suggest that you do and go, you know, make sure that your spouse or your loved
03:14one or somebody is listed on that bank account so that the asset or cash or CD or mutual funds that
03:20you're invested there at the bank get passed to the right person. If there is a beneficiary listed,
03:25that's who it goes to. You don't defer to the will. There's no probate. It just goes directly to the
03:30beneficiary list on the account. Same thing if you have investments at an investment bank, let's say
03:34Fidelity, Schwab, Goldman, any of these, they're going to have a beneficiary listed on the account
03:39and that's who the assets are going to go to on the other side of your passive. They will call them
03:44up and say, hey, you know, we've come to realize that this individual is no longer alive. Could you
03:49please provide us with the death certificate? You are listed as the beneficiary on this account.
03:53We would like to create you an account and be able to move the assets from this one to yours.
03:57Most of the time it would be an inherited account, inherited IRA or inherited 401k. And there are some
04:02things around that. So you get 10 years that can grow tax-free if it's an IRA or a Roth IRA before
04:08you do have to divest those assets or do something else with them, move them to another type of
04:12account. Anyway, I would always work with your estate planner, your tax attorney, or your CPA if
04:16you're dealing with that. If you do inherit some assets, make sure that you have professionals around
04:20you to mitigate the taxes and make sure you're doing everything on the up and up to be able to
04:24make sure that you don't have to owe most of what you inherited. So, but anyway, I digress.
04:28All of this is relevant when it comes to digital assets if you've moved your assets into institutional
04:33custody. So we provide that at Digital Ascension Group. We are a multifamily office. We specialize
04:38in digital assets and we have an SEC registered RIA, which is Digital Wealth Partners. You can go to
04:44digitalwealthpartners.net and go check out all the services that we provide. But one of the main
04:49things that we do for our clients is we do move their assets into institutional custody. You can add
04:54your spouse as a countersigner on the accounts, which gives them visibility and access. You know,
05:00again, in the unfortunate circumstance that you were to pass away or you both pass away, God forbid,
05:06your children are beneficiaries on the account. That is who gets the assets. There is no play this
05:12game of enter the seed phrases or hunt for them or go back and forth with the exchange and hope that
05:17they don't liquidate your investments and give you the cash because that's what they do a lot of the
05:20time. We've seen that multiple times with foreign exchanges. Again, I won't mention any names here,
05:25but if you're watching this, if institutional custody makes sense, we would love to have a
05:29conversation with you and just reach out to Digital Wealth Partners again, digitalwealthpartners.net
05:34and or you can email us at info at digitalwealthpartners.net. It's just sad for me to see people
05:40that have invested their time, energy, resources, and effort into this asset class and done well,
05:48all for it to get squandered because an exchange won't pass the assets in kind to the descendants
05:54or their family members aren't familiar with the technology and it gets lost. We've seen this in
06:00multiple circumstances outside of the XRP ecosystem, just digital assets in general. If they're on a cold
06:07wallet and the family members can't find the keys, if they're on a hard drive, if they're on a paper
06:12wallet, there's just been so many digital assets lost to this unfortunate circumstance. And that's why
06:18it's been my prerogative and on my agenda and of the utmost importance to me to get my assets over
06:24to institutional custody so that my family, loved ones are taken care of if something were to happen
06:29to me. So again, not a popular topic, not anything that I enjoy really discussing, but it is something
06:35that is relevant and I wanted to bring it up and make a video about it. So if this impacts you and
06:39your family, it sucks you in some way, please reach out. We would love to help you and make sure that you
06:44can protect your loved ones and your digital assets. So with that, we're going to go ahead and wrap it
06:48up. I hope you have a wonderful day. If this has been valuable, please like, subscribe, check out the
06:54other videos on the channel, and we'll see you on the next one.
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