Best key recovery & inheritance in 2026

Key recovery and inheritance services evaluated on whether your heir can move the coins with the vendor gone, what actually enforces the handover, who is on the hook in a public register, and what a lapsed payment does to the plan.

#1 of 9 · published ranking

Liana (Wizardsardine)

81ChainChoice Score

Why it leads

Best in the pool on recovery without the vendor and trigger enforcement and wrongful release

Cost

Not priced · No comparable price is published

Below the table

How this ranking works

Everything the table draws on continues here: how firm the #1 is, the per-criterion arithmetic behind each score, who pays ChainChoice, and the full guide to choosing.

Direct answer

What is the best key recovery & inheritance in 2026?

Liana (Wizardsardine) ranks #1 overall for key recovery & inheritance on ChainChoice. Open-source Bitcoin wallet whose inheritance plan is a miniscript output descriptor plus an on-chain timelock — the vendor holds no key, publishes a Bitcoin Core-only recovery procedure, and the individual edition is free. It holds that rank under an affiliate-blind methodology scored across 4 published, weighted criteria — the code that ranks providers physically cannot read affiliate payouts (CI-enforced), so a payout can't move a rank. The verdict re-computes on every fee change, incident, or regulatory action; full reasoning and the audit receipt are below.

Best picks

Best key recovery & inheritance in 2026

Weighted on recovery without the vendor (32), what enforces the handover (28), who is on the hook (24), and lifetime cost and lapse (16). The heaviest is survivorship: whether the person you chose can move the coins with no server, no support desk and no proprietary app still running. The most uncomfortable number is on the second axis — only one of the nine makes the handover fire on its own, and five of nine leave it to a document review a human at the vendor has to approve. Two require a death certificate. That is the difference between a rule and a promise, and it is not on anyone marketing page.

Best overall

Liana (Wizardsardine)

Data checked Aug 2026

Open-source Bitcoin wallet whose inheritance plan is a miniscript output descriptor plus an on-chain timelock — the vendor holds no key, publishes a Bitcoin Core-only recovery procedure, and the individual edition is free. Strongest on if this company is gone in twenty years, can the person i chose still move the coins? (10/10): The complete artefact is named, the buyer is told to export it at setup, and a vendor-published procedure recovers the coins with Bitcoin Core alone. Weakest on if this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can i find their number in a register? (5/10): HONEST DISCLAIMED SELF-CUSTODY, STATED IN THE TERMS AND MATCHING THE MECHANISM — read on https://lianawallet.com/legal/terms/ (2026-08-17): "By default, Wizardsardine does not receive, collect, or store any data from Liana Wallet — no wallet descriptors, private keys, seed phrases, transaction history, IP addresses… Published price: Liana Wallet, Community Edition is free to download and is designed for everyone to be able to set up and use. Please note that technical support is not provided.

Best for: Recovery without the vendor — 10/10

Why this score4 published criteria · leads 3 of 4

Published criterionWtScore, and the best hereGap/10Pts

If this company is gone in twenty years, can the person I chose still move the coins?7.7·1010.2

What actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? And who can start it without me?6.7·98.1

If this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can I find their number in a register?5.8−353.8

What does this cost me every year until I die, and what happens to my heir if I stop paying?3.8·105.1

Σ methodology points27.3/32

Each bar is the score on that criterion’s own 0–10 scale, never rescaled to the pool. The dark line is the best any product here reached on that axis. Wt is the most the criterion can add to the 86-point weighted total. Pts is weight × score × 32; the sum is the methodology score, and each weighted point behind the leader costs 2.6 on the displayed score. how these are weighted

Considered and not ranked

7 products we looked at and left out

A shortlist is only honest if it says who it turned away. Each of these was assessed against the same published criteria as the ranked table and excluded for a stated reason — not overlooked.

We assessed 11 products here and rank 4 — 36% of what we looked at. That share is of the products we assessed, not of the category: how many exist is not something we can count, so we do not claim a number for it.

Zengo· Ranked elsewhereSafe Recovery / social-recovery modulesCoinbase Wallet recovery· Ranked elsewhereSerenity ShieldTrustVerse· Evidence incompleteInheriti (SafeTech)· Evidence incompleteLoopring Smart Wallet

Why it ranks first

Why Liana (Wizardsardine) leads this category right now

Best for

Recovery without the vendor — 10/10

Main tradeoff

The thing that will actually bite is that a Liana inheritance plan has TWO failure modes no seed-phrase wallet has, and both are chores. First, the descriptor is a second mandatory artefact that cannot be regenerated from the seeds — the vendor says so without softening it: "Without the descriptor, your funds are likely gone." and "Without the descriptor there is no reliable way to reconstruct which addresses belong to your wallet." (https://lianawallet.com/resources/guides/recovering-your-wallet/, 2026-08-17). The heir must be given it, must still have it in twenty years, and must not have thrown it away as gibberish. Second, the plan is armed by INACTIVITY, so staying alive is an ongoing on-chain obligation: "The timelock only matures if your wallet is completely inactive for the full configured period. To prevent this during your lifetime, make at least one transaction (send, receive, or a refresh sweep to yourself) before the timelock expires." (https://lianawallet.com/resources/guides/inheritance/, 2026-08-17). Miss a refresh sweep while hospitalised or travelling and the heir's key goes live while you are alive, with no human anywhere in the system able to stop it — which is precisely the price of the vendor-independence that scores this product a 10 on the first criterion.

Verify before signup

Liana Wallet, Community Edition is free to download and is designed for everyone to be able to set up and use. Please note that technical support is not provided. [https://lianawallet.com/community/, read 2026-08-17] | Business tier, read on https://lianawallet.com/business/prices/ 2026-08-17: "Ongoing Service" / "0.016%" / "/mo." / "Billed monthly or annually"; "Onboarding packages" — "Standard" "0.02 BTC" "(one-off)"; "Bespoke from" "0.1 BTC" "(one-off)", "Up to 10 hours of specialist consultation (extra hours billed at 0.005 BTC per hour)". Homepage states the base: "0.016%" "of" "bitcoin secured" "/month" [https://lianawallet.com/, read 2026-08-17]. NOT PUBLISHED: the optional insured Safety Net has no price on any lianawallet.com page, including https://lianawallet.com/business/prices/, which is the page that should have carried it.

Recommendation summary

What should decide this category

If this company is gone in twenty years, can your heir move the coins without it?

What actually makes the handover happen — a timelock, a contract, or somebody reviewing a document?

Can your executor look the counterparty up in a public register, and does the plan survive a lapsed payment?

Quick picks

Strong options in this category

Start with the lead choice first, then use the shortlist only if you still need a challenger or stronger fit for a specific setup.

Best overall

Liana (Wizardsardine)

Best for: Recovery without the vendor — 10/10

If this company is gone in twenty years, can the person I chose still move the coins? · 32%

10/10

What actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? And who can start it without me? · 28%

9/10

If this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can I find their number in a register? · 24%

5/10

What does this cost me every year until I die, and what happens to my heir if I stop paying? · 16%

10/10

Quick pick

Nunchuk

Zero-KYC Bitcoin-only collaborative-custody multisig whose $480/year Honey Badger plan sells two inheritance protocols under one price: an on-chain Miniscript timelock that drops Nunchuk's Platform Key at expiry and is recoverable in Bitcoin Core or Sparrow from a BSMS file the owner can export at any time, or an off-chain timelock that Nunchuk's own servers enforce and co-sign. Strongest on if this company is gone in twenty years, can the person i chose still move the coins? (9/10): TOP-BAND TEST MET ON FOUR SEPARATE VENDOR PAGES, ALL READ 2026-08-17. Weakest on if this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can i find their number in a register? (4/10): NO LICENCE, NO INSURANCE, NO NAMED UNDERWRITER - AND NO CLAIM OF ANY. Published price: honey badger | 480 | / year | "Our flagship inheritance package. Choose between maximum autonomy (on-chain timelock) or assisted flexibility (off-chain timelock).

Best for: Recovery without the vendor — 9/10

If this company is gone in twenty years, can the person I chose still move the coins? · 32%

9/10

What actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? And who can start it without me? · 28%

7/10

If this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can I find their number in a register? · 24%

4/10

What does this cost me every year until I die, and what happens to my heir if I stop paying? · 16%

8/10

Quick pick

Casa

Collaborative 2-of-3 / 3-of-5 multisig membership whose inheritance feature shares copies of the owner's keys with a named Recipient and releases them after a fixed, Casa-run six-month verification period the owner can veto — with a fully published Sovereign Recovery path (descriptors, Sparrow, Electrum, Bitcoin Core, Safe) that works without Casa for the OWNER, but not, on Casa's own key-split, for the heir. Strongest on if this company is gone in twenty years, can the person i chose still move the coins? (7/10): READ ON https://support.casa.io/knowledge/what-happens-to-my-funds-if-casa-shuts-down (2026-08-17, HTTP 200, page-stamped 'May 21, 2026'), Casa states its own disappearance in its own words: "If Casa ever ceased to exist, shut down, went offline, or was otherwise unavailable, you would still be able to access and move… Weakest on if this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can i find their number in a register? (5/10): HONEST DISCLAIMED SELF-CUSTODY, AND THE DISCLAIMER MATCHES THE MECHANISM. READ ON https://casa.io/terms-of-service (2026-08-17, HTTP 200, effective 2025-02-21): "The Services are a platform for managing cryptographic keys and nodes. Published price: casa.io/pricing, read 2026-08-17: Standard — "$21" "/mo" "1 month free, then $250 billed annually." (features include "Inheritance"); Premium — "$175" "/mo" "$2,100 billed annually"; Private Client — "Custom Pricing", with "* Includes a 75-minute consultation…

Best for: Recovery without the vendor — 7/10

If this company is gone in twenty years, can the person I chose still move the coins? · 32%

7/10

What actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? And who can start it without me? · 28%

5/10

If this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can I find their number in a register? · 24%

5/10

What does this cost me every year until I die, and what happens to my heir if I stop paying? · 16%

7/10

Quick pick

Vault12 Guard

Non-custodial Shamir-sharded seed-phrase vault whose inheritance path is a 48-hour owner veto followed by a 2-of-3 guardian quorum reassembling the vault off-line — with a published, MIT-licensed recovery utility that runs without Vault12's servers, but no vendor sentence anywhere about Vault12 itself ceasing to exist. Strongest on what does this cost me every year until i die, and what happens to my heir if i stop paying? (6/10): SCORED 6 — the rubric names this exact case and pins it: silence on lapse never scores above 6, and Vault12's fully published price keeps it off the floor. THE PRICE IS FULLY PUBLISHED AND COMPUTABLE, read on https://vault12.com/pricing 2026-08-17 (HTTP 200). Weakest on if this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can i find their number in a register? (5/10): SCORED 6 — top of the 5-6 honest-disclaimed-self-custody band, exactly where this rubric puts it. Published price: GUARDIAN | Free forever (Invite only) — BACKUP | "19.99" "per month (30 day trial)" — INHERITANCE | "29.99" "per month (30 day trial)".

Best for: Lifetime cost and lapse — 6/10

If this company is gone in twenty years, can the person I chose still move the coins? · 32%

5/10

What actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? And who can start it without me? · 28%

5/10

If this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can I find their number in a register? · 24%

5/10

What does this cost me every year until I die, and what happens to my heir if I stop paying? · 16%

6/10

Frequently asked

Questions people ask before choosing key recovery

Is this not just a backup? I already write my seed down.

A backup answers 'I lost my device'. This answers 'I am dead, incapacitated, or locked out for a decade' — and those need different machinery. A seed in a safe still requires somebody to find it, know what it is, and be legally and practically able to act on it. Every product ranked here adds a second party or a second rule: a co-signer, a timelock, a named heir, an executor process. Metal plates and phrase durability are scored in seed_backup, on their own axes; nothing about survivorship is scored there and nothing about fire is scored here.

Why is the trigger weighted so heavily when everyone advertises the recovery?

Because the trigger is where the pool actually differs, and it is the axis nobody markets. Only one of the nine makes the handover fire on its own, through a rule that executes without anyone approving it. Five of nine score at or below the midpoint, because the handover runs on a document review a person at the vendor has to accept — two of them require a death certificate. A mechanism that fires on its own and a mechanism that fires when a support desk agrees are sold with identical language and are not the same product.

Does a licence or an insurance policy mean my heirs are protected?

Not by itself, and this category is where the distinction bites. Eight of the nine hold no licence relevant to key custody at all. The ninth carries an SEC adviser registration that its own record states is not a licence for holding keys. Insurance is a different thing again: a genuine Lloyd's coverholder placement is real and was verified against the Lloyd's market directory rather than the vendor's own claim — but an insurance placement is not a licence, and cover for the custodian is not a promise your heir can enforce. What you can check is whether the entity resolves in a public register at all.

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How this ranking is built

Reviewed on if this company is gone in twenty years, can the person i chose still move the coins?, what actually makes the handover happen — code, a contract, or somebody's goodwill? and who can start it without me?, if this fails, who is actually on the hook — and can i find their number in a register?, and what does this cost me every year until i die, and what happens to my heir if i stop paying?.

Data checked Aug 2026 · Independent rankings · We show our work

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research