What would you do if you accidentally threw away $700 million?
It sounds like a fictional disaster, but for a computer engineer from Wales named James Howells, it’s been a decade-long, very real nightmare. In 2013, Howells mistakenly threw away a hard drive during an office cleanup. He later realized that drive contained the private key to access his biggest asset, 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC) he had mined years earlier —now worth over $700 million. At Bitcoin’s peak, his lost fortune was valued at $848 million, and depending on who’s projections you’re reading it may eventually be worth more than $1 billion.
Since then, Howells has taken extraordinary steps to recover it. He’s petitioned local officials for permission to search the landfill, offered a share of the profits to the city, and even proposed buying the entire site. He’s been repeatedly denied. British courts concluded his efforts had “no realistic prospect of success,” and his last hope now rests with a case he plans to bring before the European Court of Human Rights. For an in-depth look at James Howells’ ongoing efforts to recover his lost Bitcoin fortune, read Fortune’s article on his $749 million ‘treasure hunt’.
While most of us won’t misplace a billion-dollar Bitcoin wallet, this story underscores a critical truth: If you don’t know what you own, where it is, and how to access it — your assets and your legacy — are at risk.
The Modern Risk of Untracked Assets
Howells’ mistake was tragic, but it’s not far-fetched. In today’s digital world, our lives are scattered across platforms, portals, and cloud-based accounts. Without a clear, up-to-date inventory, it’s alarmingly easy for assets to disappear. Thirty years ago, this wasn’t an issue. If you were hospitalized, or unfortunatley passed away, your loved ones would merely have to pick up your mail for 30-90 days, and they’d know every asset, debt and bill that you had. In today’s digital age, things just aren’t that simple anymore.
Ask yourself: Would your loved ones know how to find and access all of your financial account, your cryptocurrency, life insurance policy, retirement accounts, or even sentimental digital files? Would they know the username and passwords of all of your important online accounts, financial, social media, e-mail, or whatever may be important to you. If your answer is no — or even “not really” — you’re not alone. And that’s precisely the problem.
Untracked assets don’t just create confusion. They can lead to permanent loss. In fact, over $70 billion in financial property has already been turned over and is being held at this very moment by our state governments in the U.S. as unclaimed. And that’s just what we know about. https://unclaimed.org/
In Illinois alone, the State Treasurer’s Office reports that it has returned more than $1.5 billion in unclaimed property, and new claims are added every week (icash.illinoistreasurer.gov). If your estate plan doesn’t include a clear and current inventory of your assets, your property could easily become part of these statistics. Fortunately, tools like MissingMoney.com make it easier to search for and recover unclaimed funds for you and your family members — but the smarter solution is to prevent your assets from ever going missing in the first place.
If you want to understand how quickly property gets lost and what you can do to prevent it, this article explains how unclaimed assets pile up—and how smart estate planning helps you avoid it.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
Without a comprehensive asset inventory:
- Property may go completely unclaimed
- Your loved ones may not even know certain assets exist
- Probate may drag out and become more expensive
- Digital assets may remain locked behind passwords and encryption
- Personal items with emotional value may be thrown away during transitions
Even a well-drafted Will or Trust can fail to protect what you own if your assets aren’t clearly identified and accessible. When no one knows what to look for or how to access your information, assets go missing — and legacies disappear. To the tune of $70 billion dollars at this very moment in our country.
What We Do Differently at FWLLS
At Family Wealth & Legacy Legal Solutions (FWLLS), we go beyond traditional estate planning. Our process starts by helping you create a complete and accurate asset inventory — because without one, even the best legal documents can fall short.
We’ll walk you through a detailed process to identify everything you own: real estate, bank accounts, retirement plans, cryptocurrency, insurance policies, digital accounts, and even family keepsakes. We also provide secure systems, so that you and your family can organize passwords and digital access credentials so that nothing meaningful — or valuable — is left behind.
Your plan doesn’t end there. Because life changes, we include regular reviews to ensure and assist your family keeps your plan aligned and your inventory current. We also guide you on how to communicate your plan to loved ones while keeping your private details secure during your lifetime — and we’re here for your family after you’re gone.
Real Planning Prevents Real Problems
When you think of estate planning, don’t picture a dusty binder in a drawer. True planning is proactive, comprehensive, and evolving. Without an asset inventory, even a trust can be undermined by missing details.
For example, if your home is in a trust but your homeowner’s insurance isn’t updated accordingly, you could be left without coverage. Learn more about how that works in this blog post on what happens when your trust and insurance aren’t in sync to prevent losing your home.
Don’t Let What You’ve Built Slip Away
James Howells lost hundreds of millions due to a simple oversight. You don’t need to have cryptocurrency — or millions — to suffer the consequences of disorganization. Even modest estates can unravel without proper tracking and planning. The simple fact is that no one would want their life savings and all that they’ve worked so hard to build to be lost and turned over to their state treasurer, instead of their loved ones, when it could easily have been prevented.
Let us help you take control. During your Family Wealth Strategy Session™, we’ll help you get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and start building a plan that protects your family from the unknowns.
Click here to schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation and learn how to get started today.
If you enjoyed reading this article and made it to the end, please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts and your biggest takeaway. If you think your family and friends could benefit, please share it on social media to spread the word.
This article is a service of Family Wealth & Legacy Legal Solutions (FWLLS). At FWLLS, we do not just draft documents; we ensure you make educated, informed and empowered decisions for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth & Legacy Strategy Session™, during which you will get educated and begin to prepare to avoid life’s most common legal problems and get a plan in place to make the best possible choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth & Legacy Strategy Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $900 session at a significantly discounted rate, or even for free.