If your spouse cannot run a hardware wallet, what do you need? The answer is a custody model before it is a company. Answer what you can; every question is optional and nothing you enter is stored.
Two rules run before anything is ranked. The recovery floor: no model may demand more than the least capable person who must recover can do. The exposure ceiling: above 10 BTC, any setup where one device, company or person can lose the coins is flagged. Every rule that fires is shown. Methodology.
Exchange or single-custodian account
One company holds the keys; you hold a claim on the company.
Recovery needs: identity documents and a guided process. Single point of failure.
Spot bitcoin ETF
A fund holds the bitcoin at a custodian; you hold shares in a brokerage account.
Recovery needs: identity documents and a guided process. Single point of failure.
Qualified custodian
A regulated institution holds keys in segregated accounts under a legal framework built for it.
Recovery needs: identity documents and a guided process. Single point of failure.
Collaborative multisig
You hold most keys, the provider holds one, and no single party can move funds alone.
Recovery needs: a hardware wallet and a seed phrase. No single point of failure.
Multi-institution custody
Separate institutions each secure a key under their own ceremony; it takes more than one of them to move funds.
Recovery needs: identity documents and a guided process. No single point of failure.
Self-managed multi-vendor multisig
You build and run the quorum yourself, across devices from different vendors.
Recovery needs: a hardware wallet and a seed phrase. No single point of failure.
Single-signature hardware wallet
One device, one seed, entirely yours.
Recovery needs: a hardware wallet and a seed phrase. Single point of failure.