What to Tell Your Spouse About Your Hardware Wallet

The hardware wallet sits in a drawer. Your spouse knows it exists. They may not know what happens to the funds inside it if something happens to you. This gap is the most common finding in our initial consultations.

What They Need to Know

Your spouse does not need your seed phrase during this conversation. They need four categories of information:

1. That funds exist — approximate scale (not exact balance), held in cold storage
2. That recovery depends on a written phrase — stored separately from the device
3. Where to find the location index — the document that describes storage points without revealing content
4. Who to call — attorney, consultant, or technically knowledgeable contact

What They Do Not Need Yet

• The seed phrase itself
• Your PIN or passphrase
• Exchange login credentials
• Transaction history or portfolio details

Sharing too much too early creates anxiety. Sharing too little creates catastrophe. The balance is structural knowledge without cryptographic access.

How to Start

Choose a quiet evening with no distractions. Frame the conversation around household preparedness, not investment performance. Say: “I want to make sure you can find things if I am not available.” Hand them a blank index template and fill it together over the next week.

If the conversation stalls on technical terms, our Executor Briefing provides a neutral third party to walk through the document structure while you remain present.

After the Conversation

Store the completed index in a location both of you agree on — often with estate documents or in a known filing cabinet. Review it annually or whenever you acquire a new wallet.