[WSBAPT] Cryptocurrency in estate planning

[Tom Westbrook]

Lynn, this is great information. Thanks so much.



Sincerely,



Tom



Thomas J. Westbrook

Attorney at Law



324 West Bay Drive NW, Suite 201

Olympia, WA 98502

(360) 866-4000 phone

(360) 866--3832 fax

www.buddbaylaw.com



COVID POLICY:

*Our firm continues to follow guidance from the CDC and Governor Inslee’s
office regarding social distancing and the wearing of face coverings, and
we encourage the public and our clients to do the same.  Our staff is still
working remotely much of the time so electronic communication by phone and
email continues to be encouraged.  We appreciate your patience and
understanding.*







*From:* wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com>
*On Behalf Of *Lynn Clare
*Sent:* Tuesday, January 11, 2022 11:35 AM
*To:* wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
*Subject:* Re: [WSBAPT] Cryptocurrency in estate planning



Tom and Rachel



No, cryptocurrency cannot be treated like other assets in estate planning.
Remember: the whole point of the asset is its secrecy, privacy,  and
untraceability. *The custodian of the "wallet" will not abide by the terms
of any court order*.  If the PR does not have the "keys" to the wallet,
they cannot get at the value. But your testator also can't put the keys
into his or her will - because that is going to be a public document
someday.



I was advised to note the specific nature of the asset in the will and the
name of the custodian, and then say, "I will provide my PR with
instructions on accessing this property."



My client wrote his PR a letter detailing how to access the account. The
letter was not made part of the will, only referenced in it. This puts a
lot of faith in the PR, bu my client trusts his PR - another way  to do it
if the client does not want the PR to have the keys now might be to put the
details into some kind of real or electronic safe deposit box that the PR
would only get access to on being appointed PR by the court.



Lynn Clare
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20220111/aa7c1ad8/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3334 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20220111/aa7c1ad8/image001.jpg>