Claim a vault you have inherited

This guide is for someone who holds keys to a vault whose owner has died and needs help with the last step. It is written for a stranger, so you do not need a SignBit account and you will not be asked to create one. Read the first step before anything else, because you may not need us at all.

1. You may not need us

SignBit holds at most one key on a vault, and never enough to move money on its own. If you hold enough keys to meet the vault's own threshold, you can spend from it today without asking anyone, using the printed recovery plan and ordinary Bitcoin software. That is faster than anything else on this page, and it needs nothing from us. You do not have to sign in, ask our permission, or even be able to reach us. Our guide on recovering without SignBit walks through it. Come back here only if you are exactly one key short.

2. Is this for you?

This process is slow on purpose, and it only fits a few situations. Check yours before you start.

When it fits

Your partner or parent has died and left you one of their vault's keys and the printed recovery plan, and the rest of their keys went with them.
You share a family vault with someone who has died, and between you, the keyholders who are left are exactly one key short.
You are the executor of an estate, and the keys and recovery plan are among the papers you were given.
The owner is still alive but will never be able to act again, for example after a severe stroke or advanced dementia. Expect this to take well over a year.

When it does not fit

You already hold enough keys to meet the vault's threshold. You do not need us, so follow the guide on recovering without SignBit.
The owner is alive and has only lost a key, a phone or a password. That is their own recovery, and they can do it with the keys they still have.
The owner is alive but not answering you, because they are travelling, ill for a while, or you have fallen out. We write to them, and one reply from them ends the request.
You are named in a will or listed as a beneficiary, but hold no key. Being named is not enough on its own. Talk to the people who hold the keys, or to the estate's executor.
The coins are part of a divorce or a family dispute. That is a matter for a solicitor or a court. We do not decide between living people.
You are locked out of your own SignBit account. See the guide on getting back in without your two-factor app.
SignBit holds no key on this vault. Then there is nothing for us to add, and only the vault's own keys can move the coins.
You need the money soon. Nothing moves for months, whatever you can prove.

3. What you will need

Three things. The vault reference, which is printed on the recovery plan and looks like a long string of letters and numbers. The keys you hold, on whatever device or backup holds them, because you will be asked to sign with each one. And a Bitcoin address you control, where the coins should go. Check that address twice, because it is written into everything you sign and a mistake there cannot be undone.

4. Open the request

Start at the inheritance page and enter your name, an email address we can reach you at, the vault reference, and the destination address. We email the vault's owner the same day to tell them a request has been made, and we keep trying throughout. If they answer, the request stops there. That is deliberate, and it is the reason this process can be trusted at all.

5. Prove which keys you hold

The page lists the key slots on the vault and asks you to prove the ones you hold. For each, it shows a short block of text that names the destination you chose, and you sign that text with your key. Fountain, our signing app, does this offline, and a hardware wallet through compatible software can too. Your key never leaves your device and we never see it. Read the destination in that text before you sign, because you are approving where the money goes and not just proving who you are. Take the time you need to find a key, but do not leave the request untouched. If no further key is shown to us for thirty days it closes itself, and you can open a new one whenever you are ready.

6. What happens next, and how long

Two clocks have to run out and one decision has to be made. The owner's account must have been silent for at least twelve months, and a ninety-day window has to pass while we try to reach them by every route we have. Separately, a member of our senior staff reads the case, looking at what the owner recorded about their heirs, what you have told us and what we could confirm. They can decline, and proving keys does not oblige them to agree. What proving keys does mean is that no amount of paperwork can substitute for it. Someone who proves nothing receives nothing, however convincing their story.

7. Sign the transaction

When the window closes and the request has been approved, we prepare the transfer and email you. You sign it with the same keys you proved, retype the destination address to confirm it, and send it back. SignBit adds the last signature and broadcasts it. We sign last on purpose, so that nothing can move until that moment and you never have to hand us a key. If the coins were moved elsewhere in the meantime, or the vault is empty, we will tell you rather than leave you waiting.