Fiduciary Services for CRYPTO, DIGITAL & HARD-TO-VALUE ASSETS
Today, trusts and estates can include far more than traditional assets such as real estate, bank accounts, and vehicles. It might include a cold-storage hardware wallet holding six figures in bitcoin, a catalog of royalties from a song or a book, a domain portfolio, or a stake in an online business. Most trustees, and most trust companies, aren’t equipped to handle these assets. Battleborn Fiduciary Firm has the experience you need and the expertise you deserve.
The Assets Traditional Fiduciaries Miss
When an estate includes something outside the standard menu of stocks, bonds, and real estate, a typical executor or corporate trustee often does one of two things: ignores the asset because they don’t know how to value or secure it, or mishandles it in a way that puts real value at risk. Battleborn works specifically with the kinds of assets that fall into that gap, including:
Cryptocurrency and Digital Wallets
Including hardware wallets, exchange accounts, and multi-signature arrangements that require secure access, careful management, and accurate documentation.
Private Equity and Fund Interests
Including ownership interests in private or early-stage companies where valuation, liquidity, and transfer restrictions may require specialized attention.
Digital Business Assets
Including websites, domain names, online businesses, and other digital holdings that may require specialized valuation, management, and transfer procedures.
NFTs and Tokenized Assets
Including non-fungible tokens and other blockchain-based assets that require ownership verification, secure wallet access, valuation, and careful transfer or distribution.
Equity in Early-Stage or Closely Held Companies
Founder shares, LLC membership interests, and stakes in family or closely held businesses, where buy-sell agreements, transfer restrictions, and the absence of a public market make valuation and distribution genuinely difficult.
Naming these assets specifically matters, because “unique assets” or “digital property” as a catch-all doesn’t tell an individual anything about what’s actually at risk or what a fiduciary needs to know how to do. Precision here isn’t just a style choice; it’s the difference between an asset being properly secured and an asset quietly disappearing.
Why Crypto and Digital Assets Require Specialized Handling
Cryptocurrency doesn’t behave like a bank account. There’s no customer service line to call, no automatic notification to an institution when someone passes away, and no way to recover a lost private key. If the person who dies was the only one who knew where a wallet was stored or how to access it, that asset can be gone permanently, not because anyone did anything wrong, but because nobody knew what questions to ask.
To resolve this issue, Nevada has adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), codified under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 722. This gives fiduciaries a legal framework for accessing a user’s digital assets and online accounts, subject to the terms of service the user originally agreed to and any instructions they left behind. In practice, this is the legal mechanism that allows an executor or trustee to request account access or account closure from a custodian, such as an exchange or online platform, rather than being locked out entirely. Knowing how to use that framework, and how to work with individual custodians’ compliance processes, is a meaningful part of what a crypto-literate fiduciary actually does.
Intellectual Property and Royalties: Protecting an Ongoing Legacy
Intellectual property is a very different skill set than managing a lump-sum inheritance because it often keeps producing income long after the person who created it has passed away. A book still sells, a song still gets streamed, a patent still generates licensing revenue. Managing that well means understanding the specific royalty or licensing agreements involved, keeping accurate accounting of ongoing income, and making sure the rights themselves are protected and properly transferred to whoever is meant to inherit them. Battleborn brings this to bear specifically for creators, authors, musicians, and other individuals.
If You've Just Inherited Crypto or Digital Assets
If you’ve inherited cryptocurrency, a royalty stream, or a stake in a digital business, you’re in a different position than someone administering an estate. The asset is already yours. What you may not have is any way to manage it safely, value it accurately, or even confirm it was legitimately transferred into your name in the first place.
That’s a common place to be, and a reasonable one. Battleborn works with beneficiaries directly in these situations — securing the asset properly, sorting out the tax implications alongside your CPA, and helping you decide whether to hold it, manage it, or liquidate it. You won’t be expected to already speak the language of cold wallets and smart contracts.
Our Approach to Niche Asset Fiduciary Work
We start by identifying every asset the estate or trust holds, including the ones a standard inventory would miss. For digital assets, that means working to secure access, whether through the deceased’s own documented instructions, a custodian’s compliance process under RUFADAA, or coordination with a specialized recovery service where needed. For intellectual property, it means reviewing existing agreements and royalty arrangements before making any decisions about ongoing management. Throughout, we coordinate with the estate’s attorney and CPA on the legal and tax implications, since valuation and tax treatment for these assets can be genuinely complex and outside the fiduciary role itself.
Led By Andrea Lalen-Kasten, Independent Fiduciary — Reno, NV | 21+ Years of Experience
Niche asset fiduciary work at Battleborn is led by Andrea Lalen-Kasten, an independent fiduciary with more than two decades of trust and estate experience, including hands-on work with the kinds of complex, non-traditional assets that most firms decline to handle.
If your trust includes cryptocurrency, intellectual property, or other hard-to-value assets, Battleborn has the experience to manage these complex holdings as part of the trust administration process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Under Nevada’s RUFADAA framework, a fiduciary may be able to access certain digital assets and accounts, subject to the platform’s terms of service and any instructions the person left behind. Access varies by custodian and account type, and specific cases should be reviewed individually.
Valuation typically depends on the type of IP and its income history, and often requires a specialized appraiser or valuation professional. Battleborn coordinates with the right specialists rather than estimating a value internally.
Yes, always. Digital assets need to be documented and addressed in your estate plan just like any other asset, and a fiduciary can only help secure what they know exists.
This is common and one of the reasons a thorough inventory early in the process matters so much. We work through each platform’s own compliance and disclosure process individually, since custodians vary widely in what they require and how quickly they respond.
