It depends on one thing: what the person who must recover can actually do, on a bad day, without you. If they cannot run a hardware wallet and handle a seed phrase, then every model that needs them to is out, however well it scores for you. That leaves the models where the recoverer deals with institutions and documents: multi-institution custody, a qualified custodian, or collaborative multisig only where the provider documents an assisted inheritance path they can follow with support. The trade is explicit: less for your spouse to do means more reliance on institutions, so the columns to read are who can move funds and what happens when one party fails.
Fit engine rules 0.1 (1 Nov 2026), with this situation's inputs preset. Adjust the inputs to your own case. Proof of Custody is published by Onramp Bitcoin, which appears here where its custody model fits and is scored by the same methodology as every other platform.
Recovery: Identity and authority documents to the institutions; no device, seed or ceremony on the heir's side.
Recovery: The brokerage's beneficiary or estate process; no keys involved.
Recovery: Identity and authority documents to the custodian; the custodian's own succession procedure.
Recovery: Prove identity and, for an estate, present letters of administration to the company's support desk.
Excluded by the rules: Collaborative multisig (Recovery floor: this model requires the recoverer to run a hardware wallet and handle a seed phrase, and the person you named cannot be expected to.); Self-managed multi-vendor multisig (Recovery floor: this model requires the recoverer to run a hardware wallet and handle a seed phrase, and the person you named cannot be expected to.); Single-signature hardware wallet (Recovery floor: this model requires the recoverer to run a hardware wallet and handle a seed phrase, and the person you named cannot be expected to.)
These are custody models that fit the situation described, by Proof of Custody's published rules, version 0.1 (1 Nov 2026). They are not a recommendation to buy, sell, move or hold anything, and not legal, tax or estate advice.
The buyer will not store a device, will not write down a seed phrase, and will not be responsible for anything physical.
The holder wants a spouse with no bitcoin experience to be able to reach the funds after their death without hiring an expert.
Agent tool: fit_custody_setup. Primary sources: poc-scores. Refresh: rules versioned. All routes.
Free, read-only, no key. Every answer carries its source URL, as-of date and the publisher disclosure.