Bitcoin Estate Planning Switzerland 2026 Guide

I work in the crypto self-custody space, and the question I hear most often from Swiss Bitcoin holders in their forties is not about tax rates. It is about what happens to their Bitcoin if they get hit by a bus tomorrow.

The answer most of them have right now is nothing useful. The seed phrase is on a piece of paper in a drawer. The hardware wallet is somewhere on a shelf. No one else knows the PIN, the passphrase, the address, or even which exchange accounts exist. A carefully accumulated Bitcoin position that took years to build can be permanently and irreversibly inaccessible within a week of the holder's death.

This post is the operational framework for fixing that. It is not the tax post. Cantonal inheritance tax rates, ESTV Kursliste valuation, and the Zurich bracket math are covered in Bitcoin Inheritance Tax Zurich. This post is about the mechanics: how to structure access so heirs can legally receive the Bitcoin, technically access it, and comply with Swiss disclosure obligations.

TL;DR

Swiss Bitcoin estate planning requires action on two parallel tracks: legal and technical. On the legal track, an Erbvertrag with offentliche Beurkundung under ZGB Art. 512 is required for any binding inheritance contract; Pflichtteil quotas under ZGB Art. 470 to 480 mandate minimum shares for direct heirs (50% of statutory share for descendants and spouse post-2023 reform); and AMLO-FINMA Art. 51 requires full disclosure of digital assets in the Erbschaftsinventar. On the technical track: build a Bitcoin inventory, choose a seed backup scheme (BIP-39 single-seed or SLIP-39 Shamir), optionally set up 2-of-3 multisig, prepare a sealed executor envelope with access instructions (not the seed itself), and run a recovery drill with the heir who will be doing this in practice. Skip any one of these and the plan has a gap.

Why self-custody Bitcoin is uniquely dangerous to inherit

Most Swiss assets come with institutional support at death. A bank account has a relationship manager who will work with the estate. A brokerage account has a regulated process for transferring holdings to heirs. Swiss real estate has a legal framework that the cantonal Grundbuchamt administers.

Bitcoin in self-custody has none of that. There is no institution to call. There is no password reset. There is no support ticket. The seed phrase is the Bitcoin. If it is inaccessible, the Bitcoin is inaccessible permanently. Not temporarily, not until a court order, permanently.

The estimate of lost Bitcoin from undiscoverable wallets and lost seed phrases runs into millions of coins by some analyses, but no single authoritative figure exists for this number and I will not invent one. What is verifiable is the mechanism: private keys that cannot be found cannot be used, and on-chain Bitcoin that cannot be used is Bitcoin that does not exist in any practical sense.

This is the problem estate planning solves.

Swiss legal framework for Bitcoin inheritance

Before the operational steps, the legal constraints that govern them.

No federal inheritance tax. Switzerland levies no federal Erbschaftssteuer. DBG Art. 44 explicitly excludes inheritance receipts from federal income tax. Cantonal inheritance tax is the only layer. For Zurich-specific rates and bracket math, see Bitcoin Inheritance Tax Zurich.

Pflichtteil mandatory shares. Under ZGB Art. 470 to 480, Swiss law protects minimum shares for direct heirs. Following the 2023 inheritance law reform, descendants are entitled to 50% of their statutory intestate share, and the surviving spouse or registered partner is entitled to 50% of their statutory intestate share. Parents no longer hold a Pflichtteil. You cannot will 100% of your Bitcoin away from protected heirs. An Erbvertrag that violates Pflichtteil rules is challengeable via Herabsetzungsklage for up to ten years.

Erbvertrag formal requirements. If you want a binding inheritance contract rather than a revocable will, ZGB Art. 512 requires offentliche Beurkundung, formal notarial certification. A private signed agreement between you and an heir is not legally sufficient as an Erbvertrag. It must be notarially certified. The notary can also hold the original in the notarial archive.

Disclosure obligations. AMLO-FINMA Art. 51 requires heirs to include all inherited digital assets above reporting thresholds in the Erbschaftsinventar submitted to the cantonal authority. Bitcoin held in self-custody on a hardware wallet, Bitcoin at a Swiss exchange, and Bitcoin at a foreign exchange are all part of the taxable estate. Omitting them is a criminal matter, not an administrative one. The asset is on a public blockchain. It is findable.

The 7-step estate planning procedure

Step 1. Build a complete Bitcoin inventory

List every Bitcoin address, hardware wallet, exchange account, and custodian balance you hold. For each on-chain address, record the derivation path (BIP-44, BIP-84, or BIP-86), the hardware wallet model and firmware version, and the CHF value using the current ESTV Kursliste rate published at estv.admin.ch. For exchange accounts, record the platform name, account email, and any 2FA backup codes stored separately from the seed.

The inventory is not the seed phrase. It is the map an executor needs to identify what exists and where. Store it in a sealed envelope held by your executor or notary, separate from any seed material. Update it after every significant purchase, withdrawal, or hardware change. An inventory that is six months stale will create real problems for your executor at the worst possible time.

For the self-custody concepts underlying wallet addresses and derivation paths, Bitcoin Self-Custody covers the full setup walkthrough.

Step 2. Choose your seed backup scheme

Single-seed BIP-39 (12 or 24 words) is the default for most hardware wallets and the simplest for heirs to restore. Trezor Safe 3 ships with a 20-word SLIP-39 Single-share Backup as default, with 12 or 24 BIP-39 selectable in advanced setup. SLIP-39 Shamir Backup, also available on Trezor Safe 3 and Safe 5, splits the seed into shares with a configurable threshold (for example 2-of-3), so that no single share alone restores the wallet.

Coldcard MK4 operates via PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions) for airgapped signing, which is the appropriate workflow for multisig estate setups. Foundation Passport uses open-source firmware and supports BIP-39 and multisig coordination.

Choose SLIP-39 Shamir if you have a technically capable heir who can manage share assembly. Choose single BIP-39 if simplicity for a non-technical spouse matters more. Whatever scheme you choose, stamp the seed into a steel backup plate (Cryptosteel Capsule or Blockmit) for fire and flood resistance. A paper seed in a house fire is a permanently lost Bitcoin position.

Step 3. Set up a 2-of-3 multisig vault

Multisig requires M-of-N keys to sign any transaction. For estate planning, a 2-of-3 structure distributes key custody across three parties so the Bitcoin cannot be moved without cooperation from at least two keyholders, but the estate can be accessed even if one key is permanently lost.

Casa and Unchained both offer collaborative custody models where one of the three keys is held by the service, providing heir-access protocols as part of their offering. Onramp offers a comparable institutional structure. Check current pricing on each vendor's pricing page directly before committing, as fee schedules change.

For a fully self-managed route without a third-party keyholder, Sparrow Wallet and Specter Desktop support 2-of-3 multisig with Coldcard, Trezor, and Passport devices. The tradeoff is full recovery responsibility on the estate. Document the multisig configuration file (wallet descriptor or XPUB set) and store it with the sealed executor instructions. Without the wallet descriptor, the multisig wallet cannot be reconstructed even if all three keys are present.

Step 4. Prepare a sealed executor instruction envelope

The Erbvertrag and the legal framework tell heirs what they should receive. The sealed executor envelope tells them how to access it.

The envelope must contain: the Bitcoin inventory from Step 1, hardware wallet models and physical locations, the bank vault number if applicable, the multisig wallet descriptor or XPUB set if applicable, the name and contact details of any collaborative custody service, the exchange account names and email addresses, and instructions for contacting the notary.

The envelope must not contain the seed phrase or any SLIP-39 shares. The envelope is the map. The seed is the key. They must be stored separately.

Use a tamper-evident bag so the executor can verify the envelope has not been opened. Store one copy with the executor and a second in the bank vault or with the notary. Update it whenever the inventory changes. An executor who knows where to look but cannot find the hardware wallet is not much better off than one who has no instructions at all.

Step 5. Deposit an Erbvertrag with a Swiss notary

An Erbvertrag is a binding inheritance contract between the testator and one or more heirs. Under ZGB Art. 512, it requires offentliche Beurkundung, formal notarial certification, to be legally valid. This is not a formality that can be skipped. A private written agreement between you and an heir is not an Erbvertrag under Swiss law.

The Erbvertrag should include a clause naming the Bitcoin custody structure, referencing the sealed executor envelope and its location, and specifying the intended beneficiary for each component of the Bitcoin estate. The notary can hold the original in the notarial archive and issue certified copies to named heirs.

Pflichtteil constraints apply to the Erbvertrag the same way they apply to a will. Under ZGB Art. 470 to 480, you cannot exclude a protected heir below their mandatory minimum share. If your Bitcoin is your primary asset, the Pflichtteil calculation applies against it. A licensed Swiss Notar will identify these constraints before drafting.

If you are interested in whether a Swiss foundation structure under ZGB Art. 80 to 89bis might suit your situation (generally only relevant for very large estates with specific governance or charitable goals), that is a question for a Notar and an attorney, not a calculation you can do from a blog post.

Step 6. Run a recovery drill with your heir

The Erbvertrag and the sealed envelope exist on paper. The seed phrase restore must work in practice.

Schedule a recovery drill with the heir who will be responsible for Bitcoin access, at minimum once per year and after any hardware or firmware change. For a non-technical spouse, the drill covers: locating the hardware wallet device, connecting it to a computer running Trezor Suite or the appropriate companion software, restoring from the seed phrase, confirming the first Bitcoin address matches the inventory record, and confirming the on-chain balance is visible.

For a multisig setup, the drill must also cover assembling the wallet descriptor from the XPUB set and confirming the multisig wallet displays correctly before any transaction is attempted. Running this once with no time pressure and no emotional stakes is a different experience from doing it for the first time under probate proceedings.

The annual drill converts the estate plan from a document into a tested operational procedure. If the heir cannot complete the restore with the instructions provided, the instructions are not sufficient. Fix them now.

For guidance on wallet recovery mechanics and the technical process of restoring from a seed phrase, the BTCRecover tutorial covers recovery tooling in detail.

Step 7. Run an annual review of keys, beneficiaries, and exchange accounts

Bitcoin estate plans decay. Keys rotate, firmware updates, exchanges get acquired, and beneficiary circumstances change.

Set a calendar reminder for the same date each year. The annual review covers: updating the Bitcoin inventory with current ESTV Kursliste CHF values from estv.admin.ch, confirming hardware wallet firmware is current, rotating keys if any key material may have been exposed, updating exchange account beneficiary designation forms where offered (check each platform's current policy as this varies by exchange), verifying the Erbvertrag still reflects intended distribution (a new child or a changed relationship may require a notarial amendment), and confirming the sealed executor envelope is still sealed and its location has not changed.

If you have added a new hardware wallet, moved Bitcoin to a new address, or changed a multisig configuration since the last review, update the inventory and the executor envelope before the year closes. Estate plans that are not actively maintained become traps for the heirs they were meant to protect.

The seed phrase problem in Swiss probate

The most common failure mode in Bitcoin inheritance is not legal. It is technical. The testator held Bitcoin in self-custody, named an heir in the will, and failed to transmit the seed phrase or hardware wallet access in any usable form.

The cantonal Nachlassbehörde can open probate proceedings. It can name an executor. It can issue orders. It cannot recover a lost seed phrase. No Swiss court, no government authority, and no technology in existence can recover Bitcoin from a hardware wallet whose seed is permanently inaccessible. The Bitcoin remains on-chain, visible to anyone who knows the address, and permanently frozen.

The operational solution is what Step 4 describes: a sealed executor envelope that maps what exists and where, stored separately from the seed material itself, held by someone who will outlive the testator and knows to retrieve it.

This is also why the recovery drill in Step 6 matters. An heir who has the envelope, the seed, and the hardware wallet but has never performed a restore in a low-pressure environment will struggle to do it correctly under probate time pressure for the first time.

For additional context on the security considerations around seed phrase storage and what constitutes a recoverable versus unrecoverable wallet configuration, see BIP-39 Brute Force Attack for the security implications of weak seed entropy.

Exchange accounts and custodian assets

Not all Bitcoin is in self-custody. Some Swiss Bitcoin holders keep a portion at regulated exchanges or custodians.

Bitcoin held at a Swiss-regulated custodian or licensed platform is part of the taxable estate. The cantonal authority will notify the custodian as part of standard probate proceedings. The custodian will freeze the account until inheritance is legally resolved and heirs present the required documentation.

Some platforms offer beneficiary designation forms that simplify the transfer process. Check each platform's current policy directly, as this varies by exchange and changes over time. A beneficiary designation on file at an exchange can reduce probate friction significantly compared to a standard estate claim process.

Foreign exchange accounts (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance) are also part of the Swiss estate. The AMLO-FINMA Art. 51 disclosure requirement applies to all digital asset holdings regardless of where the platform is domiciled. Heirs must report them in the Erbschaftsinventar even if the foreign exchange has no presence in Switzerland.

Summary checklist

A working Bitcoin estate plan for a Swiss resident has these components in place:

1. A current Bitcoin inventory (addresses, devices, exchange accounts, ESTV Kursliste CHF values)
2. A chosen and documented seed backup scheme (BIP-39 or SLIP-39 Shamir)
3. For larger holdings, a 2-of-3 multisig with the wallet descriptor stored in the executor envelope
4. A sealed executor envelope with access instructions but no seed material
5. An Erbvertrag notarially certified under ZGB Art. 512 with a Bitcoin custody clause
6. A tested recovery drill completed with the heir who will execute access
7. An annual review calendar entry to keep all of the above current

Each item on its own is necessary but not sufficient. The legal document without the technical access instructions leaves the heir with rights but no access. The technical access instructions without the legal framework leave the heir with access but no rights. Both tracks must be complete.

This is education, not legal or tax advice. Bitcoin estate planning combines Swiss inheritance law, custody mechanics, and AML disclosure rules. Consult a licensed Swiss Notar and Steuerberater before signing an Erbvertrag.