How are families preparing to pass digital assets to the next generation?

The scale of what is coming

Research houses and private banks have for several years put the coming intergenerational wealth transfer in the tens of trillions over the next two decades. The precise figures vary by source and methodology, and should be treated as estimates rather than facts. What is not in dispute is the direction: a very large amount of wealth is due to change hands, and a growing share of it is held in digital form.

Surveys of wealthy families also consistently report the same discomfort. A large proportion say they feel underprepared for the transfer, and that conversations with the next generation have not really happened.

Why crypto complicates the picture

Traditional estate planning assumes an intermediary. A bank, a broker or a registrar holds the asset, keeps a record of ownership, and can be compelled to act by an executor with the right paperwork. Self-custodied digital assets break that assumption. If nobody can reach the keys, there is no institution to appeal to, and the value is simply gone.

There are further complications. Valuation can move sharply between the date of death and the date of distribution, which matters where a tax charge is calculated by reference to a valuation date. Heirs may lack the technical knowledge to hold or manage the assets safely. And in some families, holdings are spread across chains, wallets and platforms in a way that nobody but the original owner fully understands.

What families are actually doing

Three strands come up repeatedly. The first is documentation. Families build a clear, current inventory of what is held and where, alongside a secure explanation of how access works, stored so that the right people can reach it at the right time without exposing it during life.

The second is governance. Rather than leaving decisions to be improvised under stress, families agree in advance who decides, how assets are to be held, what happens in volatile markets, and who the trusted technical and professional advisers are.

The third is education. Where the next generation will inherit assets they do not understand, families invest time in preparing them, sometimes with a phased handover of responsibility rather than a single transfer at death.

Where structures fit

Legal structures, including trusts, foundations and insurance based structures such as PPLI, are one part of this picture rather than the whole of it. Their attraction in this context is that they can provide continuity: a defined holder of the assets, a named set of beneficiaries, professional custody, and a decision-making framework that survives the death of the person who built the wealth.

They do not, however, solve the access problem by themselves, and they carry cost and complexity of their own. Nor is any structure universally appropriate. Recognition and treatment differ by jurisdiction, and a structure that works well for a family in one country may be inefficient or ineffective for a family in another.

Questions worth raising with your own advisers

Common questions include: what exactly is held, and could someone else find and reach it if I could not tell them? Who would be responsible for the assets, and are they equipped for it? What would the tax and reporting position be on death, in each country that could claim jurisdiction? Should assets be held personally or through a structure, and what does that change? How will the next generation be prepared, and when should that conversation begin?