Self-custody means nobody can take your bitcoin away. It also means nobody can hand it over once you no longer can. There is no bank to write to, no support desk that unlocks anything against a certificate of inheritance. What your heirs have is what you left behind — and as a rule that is too little. The Estate Planner is a single HTML file that turns your notes into a set of printable forms: no server, no connection, nothing stored. Free, part of the workshop pack for the forthcoming German volume 4 on self-custody.
⚠ Never recovery words, never keys
The Estate Planner never asks for your seed words, a passphrase or a password — and you never type them anywhere. It describes structure and routes: which wallet exists, how it is built, where to look, in which order to proceed. Anything that would reveal a location is printed as a blank line and filled in by hand afterwards. The generator never sees those entries.
For the real plan: save the file, disconnect, open it offline. It works exactly the same.
Get the file and use it offline
Right-click → “Save link as”, compare the checksum, disconnect, open it.
↓ save estate-planner.html ↓ instruction sheet (PDF, German)SHA-256 of the file (v0.12, as of 28 August 2026):
a8fc8f1adb3fa388afa09fdb746a56b5d8815f928c37168c404ac95ca9b2532d
Check it: Linux/macOS sha256sum estate-planner.html · Windows PowerShell Get-FileHash estate-planner.html.
If the value differs, discard the file and download it again. The file is the same in both languages —
the switch sits inside it.
Just to look at it: → open the Estate Planner in the browser
What it produces
Thirteen sheets in three classes, each with a coloured edge, a version number and page counting:
- Class A — proof of existence. A single sheet that may lie in the open: that digital assets exist and where the instructions are kept. No amounts, no locations, no devices. This is the sheet for the will, the lawyer, or the drawer everybody finds.
- Class B — access instructions. Confidential, to be stored separately: rules of conduct before the first move, wallet inventory, physical locations, software and order of work, time-critical matters, plus brokerage accounts, precious metals, storage, foreign accounts, direct registration and tax.
- Class P — record. Version number, which version this one replaces, a destruction note and the result of the dry run.
The three rules that make the difference
- Two levels of information. Your heirs should know while you are alive that there is bitcoin and where the pointer is kept — not how much and where the keys are. That is why sheet A and sheet B are separate.
- Separate what is typed from what is handwritten. Everything public may be printed. Anything that reveals a location becomes a blank line. That way no single file, printer or screen can ever give away the whole plan.
- Untested plans do not work. The record sheet asks for a dry run: walk the route your heirs are meant to walk, once, and write down what did not work.
What it does not do for you
A filled-in sheet is not a will. It does not decide who gets what — it makes sure your heirs find what is theirs anyway. Deciding the distribution needs a will or a notary; the Estate Planner replaces neither and does not try to. It is no substitute for tax or legal advice either. The notes on the sheets name known pitfalls and deadlines so that you ask in time, not so that you skip asking.
⚠ This planner covers German inheritance law
Structure and the Bitcoin side are universal, and they are fully translated. The legal and tax passages are not: certificate of inheritance, the three-month notification under German inheritance tax law, bonded warehouses and import VAT, the estate-tax treaty with the United States. Those passages stay in German on purpose and carry a badge saying so — a translation would claim they apply everywhere. Check the law of your own jurisdiction, and treat those sheets as a checklist of questions for a local professional.
Why offline, why a single file
A tool that knows the structure of your assets has no business talking to the network. So everything sits in one file: no external scripts, no fonts, no images, no analytics. Nothing is stored — no server, no browser storage, no cookie. Reloading the page clears every entry. To keep your work, export it as a file encrypted with AES-256 (PBKDF2-SHA256, 1,000,000 iterations); that file too holds only the typed public details, never anything handwritten. A Content Security Policy forbids the file every load and every send. Check for yourself: F12 → Network tab → apart from loading the page itself, no request appears.
The descriptor stays with the backups
With multisig you need the wallet configuration alongside the keys — the output descriptor. It contains no keys, but it reveals every address and the entire balance. The Estate Planner therefore does not push you to type it out: by default it assumes the printout from your coordinator lies with every backup, and the printed sheet merely points to it, in language someone without any Bitcoin knowledge can follow. If you do want it on the sheet, switch the setting — then the field appears, along with a QR code.
Scan such a printout only with wallet software on a computer or an air-gapped signing device. Never with a phone camera: image recognition, QR history and cloud photo backup carry it out of the house.
Both languages in one file
There is a DE | EN switch at the top right of the tool. It takes effect immediately and
without a connection — which is why both languages live in the same file instead of two
separate downloads: a link into the network is worth nothing to someone working offline. The sheets print
in the language you selected. One exception is deliberate: the passages on German
inheritance certificates, inheritance tax, bonded warehouses and foreign custody stay in German and are
marked as such.
Help while filling it in
Every field that needs explaining carries a ?. One click and it says what is meant, where to
find the value and what it looks like — from the master fingerprint through the derivation path to the
question of why a passphrase can make the rest of the plan worthless when its location is missing. On top
of that, grey examples sit in the empty fields. They disappear at the first keystroke and can technically
never end up in a printout or an export, because they never belong to your data. If you want it plain,
switch them off in the bar at the bottom.
Open and checkable
The Estate Planner is MIT licensed. The source is the file itself — there is no build step and no hidden part: right-click → view source. Found a bug? kontakt@alien-investor.org or the “Report a bug” button in the tool.
Legal and tax notes as of August 2026, German law. Version 0.12 is a prototype — feedback goes into the next one.