Crypto Inheritance in Poland: What Your Family Needs

Marek is 58 and has held bitcoin on a hardware wallet for nine years. He dies suddenly. His wife and two adult children deal with everything they can: the death certificate, the estate case at the notary, the bank, the insurer. The device in his desk drawer just sits there, and nobody knows what to do with it. They have a document saying everything is theirs. They have no access to the funds.

(This story is made up, but every part of it could happen.)

That’s what crypto inheritance looks like. The law treats crypto as ordinary property. The technology needs something no office can issue.

This article describes Polish law. Rules differ between EU countries, so if your family is spread across more than one, check locally.

Is crypto part of the estate?

Yes. The heir acquires the estate when it opens, which is when the deceased dies (Article 925 of the Polish Civil Code). The estate includes the deceased’s property rights. Bitcoin, ether or the balance on an exchange account is property, so it passes to the heirs like a flat or savings in a bank.

Two things are worth knowing straight away:

• The estate includes debts too. The heir has six months to file a statement accepting or rejecting the estate, counted from the day they learned of the basis of their succession (Article 1015 of the Civil Code). If they file nothing, the estate is accepted with the benefit of inventory.
• The law makes no exception for “digital” property. There’s no special procedure for crypto and no ban on inheriting it.

The difficulty comes later, with access itself.

Statutory succession or a will?

Succession arises by statute or by will (Article 926 of the Civil Code). Without a will, the statutory order applies. Children and the spouse inherit first, in equal parts, but the spouse gets at least a quarter of the estate (Article 931). Next come parents, siblings and further relatives under the intestacy rules.

A will lets you change that: name a different heir, split your property your own way, leave something to a specific person. It has limits, though. Close relatives who would inherit by statute are entitled to a reserved share (zachowek), which is half the value of the share they would have received, or two thirds if the person is a minor or permanently unable to work (Article 991 of the Civil Code).

Situation	Who inherits	What to watch for with crypto
No will, spouse and children	Spouse and children, in equal parts (spouse at least ¼)	The estate is shared, so everyone has to agree who runs the case and who holds the keys
No will, no spouse or children	Parents, siblings, further relatives under the statute	The family often doesn’t know the crypto exists
Handwritten will	The people named in the will	The paper can get lost or cause a dispute, and it may not mention crypto at all
Notarial will	The people named in the will	The document is solid, but it still doesn’t give access to the wallet

What to put in a will and what to leave out is covered in the guide crypto in your will.

Notarial certificate of succession or court decision?

An heir needs a document that confirms their rights. There are two routes. A court confirms the acquisition of the estate on request (a postanowienie), or a notary draws up a notarial certificate of succession (akt poświadczenia dziedziczenia, Article 1025 § 1 of the Civil Code). Against a third party who doesn’t claim rights to the estate, an heir can prove their rights only with one of these documents (Article 1027). Neither is issued before six months have passed since the estate opened, unless all known heirs have already filed their statements accepting or rejecting it (Article 1026).

	Notarial certificate of succession	Court decision
Who issues it	A notary	A court
How it works	The notary records the succession protocol with all interested persons (Article 95b of the Notaries Act) and draws up the certificate if there’s no doubt about who the heir is and the size of the shares (Article 95e)	On application by a person with an interest in it (Article 1025 of the Civil Code)
Typical use	The family agrees	There are disputes, or not every interested person can take part
Cost	Notarial fee	Court fee

A notary won’t draw up the certificate if there’s doubt about the heirs or the shares. Then the court is the route. Your notary will settle the details for your case. A short definition is in the glossary: notarial certificate of succession.

Why a document doesn’t open the wallet

A bank, an insurer or an office has one thing in common: show them a succession document and they release the money to the heir. They have a procedure, a counter and an employee who checks the paperwork.

Bitcoin works differently. Nothing on the network can confirm an heir’s identity. Whoever holds the private key controls the funds. In practice the key can be restored from the recovery phrase (seed), which is twelve or twenty-four words. Whoever knows them can send the funds. Whoever doesn’t can do nothing, even with the best court order.

Two conclusions follow:

1. The right to the estate and access to the estate are two separate matters. Each is handled differently and by different people.
2. A seed in someone else’s hands is a risk even while the owner is alive. Whoever knows it can withdraw the funds right away, without waiting for an inheritance. So handing over the seed “just in case” isn’t a good solution. Better setups, including the 2-of-3 wallet, are described in the pillar how to secure crypto.

Exchange or self-custody wallet after the owner’s death

Everything depends on where the funds sit.

An exchange account is a custodial setup: the exchange holds the funds, and the customer has a login. After the owner dies, the family doesn’t log in to the account. They contact the exchange with documents. Requirements and timing differ between platforms, so start with the terms of the specific exchange. One thing is common: if nobody knows the account exists, nobody asks. We describe the procedure in the guide exchange account after the owner’s death. The two models are compared in the pillar exchange vs self-custody.

A wallet of your own is a self-custody setup: nobody but the owner has access, so the family has nobody to write to either. There’s no support desk that will verify an heir. There’s only a seed, a device and the knowledge of what to do with them.

Where the crypto is	Who can help the family	What the family must have
Exchange	The exchange, once it has the succession documents	Knowledge that the account exists, the exchange’s name, the email address on the account, the succession document
Hardware wallet, single seed	Nobody, it all depends on knowing the seed	The seed, the device, restore instructions, the PIN or a way to recover it
2-of-3 wallet (multisig)	Nobody, but losing one key doesn’t lock the funds	At least two of the three keys, the configuration file, instructions
Wallet app on a phone	Nobody	The phone, its unlock code, the seed from the backup
Wallet with an extra password (passphrase)	Nobody	The seed and the passphrase, stored separately

Without the passphrase, the seed opens a different, empty wallet. The family finds that out on the first restore attempt, if nobody told them about the extra password.

What the family needs to know

The list fits on one sheet of paper, but the sheet has to exist before the death. The family needs to know:

1. That the crypto exists. Without that, nobody starts looking.
2. Where it is: exchange, hardware wallet, app. Not the amount, the place.
3. Whom to call when something doesn’t work.
4. Where the keys are and in what order to get them.
5. What not to do. Don’t type the seed into any website, don’t send it to anyone who offers to “help”, don’t take photos.

We call this document access instructions for your family. It contains no seed and no amounts. The guide what access instructions for your family contain covers it in detail. What we do in this service is on the page For your family.

The instructions don’t replace the formalities. A notary or court runs the estate case, and a tax adviser handles the tax office. We don’t do either.

Scenarios and what the family must have

What a family needs changes with how someone holds their crypto. The table below collects the most common scenarios.

Scenario	What the family must have	What’s usually missing
Crypto only on an exchange	Knowledge of the account, the succession document, details for contacting the exchange	Any sign that the account exists
One hardware wallet, seed on paper	The device, the seed, restore instructions, knowledge of any passphrase	A copy of the seed outside the home and a test that it works
2-of-3 wallet	Two of three keys, the configuration file, signing software, instructions	Knowing where the third key is and what the file is for
Shared inheritance, several heirs	Agreement on who runs the case and who holds the keys, the succession document	Arrangements between the heirs before anyone touches the device
Owner has died, a will exists but says nothing about crypto	The succession document and a search: devices, paper, exchange emails	Any hint of where to start
Owner is alive but can’t act	A power of attorney, instructions, knowledge of the accounts	A legal basis to do anything

The table shows one thing: the less the family has to guess, the better. Every gap in the third column means hours of searching, and in the worst case lost funds.

The most common ways a family loses crypto

Typical situations:

• Nobody knew the crypto existed, so nobody looked for it.
• The seed was lost along with the paper: a fire, a flood, thrown out during a clear-out.
• The family found the seed but didn’t know about the passphrase, restored an empty wallet and concluded there had never been anything in it.
• A “helpful” stranger offers to recover the funds and asks for the seed. That’s a scam.
• One family member took the device and didn’t tell the others.

One sheet of instructions and one test can limit every one of these.

When the owner is alive but can’t act

Inheritance starts only with death, but before it come illness, accidents or loss of legal capacity. For crypto that raises different questions: who can instruct the exchange, who may use the wallet, and on what basis. A power of attorney gives you neither the seed nor the knowledge of how to use it. We cover this in the guide incapacity and crypto.

Vindication legacy and crypto

A vindication legacy (zapis windykacyjny) is a provision in a will under which the named person acquires the object of the legacy when the estate opens. The Polish Civil Code allows it only in a will made as a notarial deed (Article 981¹ § 1). The object can be, among other things, a transferable property right (§ 2 point 2).

Whether crypto falls into that category, and how to describe it in the legacy, is a question for a notary. The law doesn’t mention crypto directly, and the right wording depends on where the funds sit: on an exchange, at your own address, in a multisig. A legacy also doesn’t give access to the keys. More in the guide crypto in your will.

Inheritance tax in brief

Under Polish law, acquiring an estate is subject to inheritance and gift tax. A spouse, descendants, ascendants, a stepchild, siblings, a stepfather and a stepmother are exempt if they report the acquisition to the competent head of the Polish tax office within six months (Article 4a of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act). When the period starts depends on the document confirming the acquisition, so check that in your own case. The report is made on the SD-Z2 form. Tax rules differ between EU countries, so check locally if the heir lives elsewhere.

That’s where our outline ends. The guide inheritance tax on crypto in Poland and the SD-Z2 form explains it step by step. Discuss amounts and consequences in your own case with a tax adviser.

What to do if you inherit crypto

The order usually looks like this:

1. Don’t assume you know how much there is. First find out where the funds are.
2. Find the devices, papers and accounts, but don’t touch them until you know what is what.
3. Don’t give the seed to anyone who promises “help with recovery”. That’s a common scam.
4. Start the estate case in parallel and watch the six-month deadline for the statement.
5. Write down what you found before you change anything.

Details are in the guide inherited crypto, what next. If you need someone to sit with you at the device and show you the first safe steps, we describe that on the page For your family. We can’t see your keys and have no access to the funds.

What you can do today

1. Tell one trusted person that you have crypto and where it is. No amounts.
2. Check whether your seed would survive a fire or a flood. Paper won’t. A steel plate will.
3. Write one sheet of instructions for your family and walk through it with one of them on a test wallet.
4. Test restoring your own backup: an empty wallet, your words, the same address at the end.
5. Book a notary and decide what to add to your will.

If you’d rather do it with someone, start with the check-up: an hour’s conversation online, after which you know what’s fine and what needs fixing. Access instructions for your family are a separate service, described on the page For your family.

This is not legal or tax advice. We describe the rules so you know what to ask. For your own case, ask a notary, lawyer or tax adviser. Shellcrew Vault doesn’t draw up wills or handle estate cases.

Accurate as of 19 October 2026.