Step 1 - Secure before you search
Before you look for anything, control access to the deceased's home, safe, devices and paperwork. Key material is small, portable, and looks like nothing - a metal plate, a card of words, a USB-shaped device. It walks out of houses during the week after a death more often than anyone admits.
Do not announce the existence of Bitcoin to the wider family. Restrict knowledge to the executor and professional advisers until custody is secured.
Step 2 - Locate the briefing, not the keys
Find the memorandum of digital assets or executor briefing referenced in the will. It should tell you what wallets exist, what custody structure is used, who the professional contacts are, and where key material and descriptors are held.
If no briefing exists, look for evidence rather than secrets: exchange emails, bank transfers to exchanges, tax records showing crypto disposals, hardware wallet packaging, and recovery-phrase cards. Do not enter any seed phrase into any website or app during this stage.
Step 3 - Establish authority
Obtain the grant of probate. Exchanges will require it, along with a death certificate and identity documents, before releasing custodial balances. Self-custodied coins do not require probate to move technically - but you should still obtain it before distributing, or you are personally exposed.
Notify the deceased's accountant early. There is a capital gains position to determine and a date-of-death valuation to record.
Step 4 - Verify with a test transaction
Once you have assembled the keys and the descriptor, rebuild the wallet in watch-only mode first and confirm the balance matches the briefing. Then move a small test amount - a few dollars - to an estate-controlled destination and confirm it settles.
Only after a successful test should you move the full balance. Executors who skip the test and fat-finger an address on a seven-figure transfer have no recourse. There is no reversal on Bitcoin.
Step 5 - Distribute and document
Decide with the beneficiaries and the accountant whether to transfer in specie or to liquidate. In-specie transfer to a beneficiary generally does not trigger CGT at the estate level, whereas selling does. That decision belongs to the accountant, not the executor's instinct.
Document everything: the addresses used, the dates, the market value at date of death, the transaction IDs, and the beneficiary confirmations. Your record is the only audit trail that exists.