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.
LI
#1 of 9 · published ranking
Liana (Wizardsardine)
81ChainChoice Score
4199
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
No provider can pay for a position in this table. The code that computes this order cannot read which links earn us a commission, and every build proves it. Every score below rebuilds from the published criteria.Ranking 2026.08 · 4 criteria · 9 products · same inputs, same order
Personal comparison
Key Recovery & Inheritance ranked comparison
No comparable price is published; ranking still uses verified product evidence.
Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 32/28/24/16, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20, evidence depth 18, ease of use 10, institutional trust 8. Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.
Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.09.15
published 2026-09-16
Providers tracked
980+
across 119 categories
Last verified
2026-08-17
newest dated pricing or sentiment read
Named on the roster
2 people
managing directors · 6 automated processes
Decision guide
What matters most before choosing in this category
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.
What matters most before choosing in this category
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.
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?
Current editor lead
Expert review and scoring weights
LI
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.
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 forRecovery without the vendor — 10/10
Main tradeoffThe 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 signupLiana 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.
Methodology
How this category is reviewed
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?.
The order on this page is the published ranking for this category. Every criterion, weight and source behind it is on the methodology page.
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.
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
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