# Inheritance Failure There have been many cases of inheritance failure when a key holder fails to adequately prepare for their death. The family of Ripple mogul [Matthew Mellon](https://cryptopotato.com/500-million-worth-of-ripple-lost-after-owner-dies-suddenly/) lost assets worth $500 million when he died suddenly and unexpectedly without an inheritance plan. To protect his holdings against theft, he kept the storage details of his cryptocurrency wallets secret, but it was so secret that nobody could recover them after his death. This is an especially heartbreaking way to lose crypto assets, as the surviving family is motivated to partake in painful and often fruitless scavenger hunts in search of the deceased's fortune. **Mitigation:** * Have an inheritance plan. Don’t assume that your heirs will be able to recover your funds without guidance. * Use Casa's built-in inheritance functionality in order to share keys with your executor / beneficiary. * Learn more about how [Casa Inheritance works here](https://docs.casa.io/wealth-security-protocol/chosen-features/inheritance). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.casa.io/wealth-security-protocol/threat-overview/inheritance-failure.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.