Who Gets the Guns, Gold, and Crypto?

These are the assets families most often find by accident, or never find. A bank account sends statements. A gun safe, a box of coins, and a hardware wallet in a drawer don’t. The plan has to do two jobs: say who gets each asset, and make sure the person in charge knows it exists and can legally take it.

Law verified against Prob. Code §§37, 871 to 873, 6132, 6400 to 6402 and 8200, Fam. Code §297.5, and Pen. Code §§16720, 16990, 27545, 27875 and 27920, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice for your situation.

Who gets them if there’s no will or trust?

Anything not effectively disposed of by will passes to your heirs under the intestacy statutes (Prob. Code §6400). A surviving spouse takes a share (Prob. Code §6401), and a surviving registered domestic partner has the same rights as a widow or widower (Fam. Code §297.5(c)). The rest goes to your children, and if there are none, to your parents, then to your brothers and sisters and their descendants, and outward from there (Prob. Code §6402).

That order doesn’t know that your hunting partner was promised the rifle, or that one grandchild shares your interest in coins. A partner you never married or registered with the Secretary of State isn’t on the list at all (Prob. Code §37(a)). If you want a particular firearm, collection, or wallet to go to a particular person, you have to write it down in a will or trust. More on the default rules is in intestate succession in California.

Do these assets avoid probate?

No, not on their own. A gun, a gold bar, or a wallet held in your individual name with no trust behind it is part of your probate estate like anything else. A will doesn’t change that. The person holding your original will must deliver it to the superior court clerk within 30 days of learning of your death (Prob. Code §8200(a)(1)), and the estate goes through probate if it’s over the small estate limit.

A funded living trust avoids that for the assets it holds. Tangible items like firearms and coins are usually moved into the trust with a written assignment of personal property. Getting the trust funding right is what makes the plan work.

What happens to firearms when the owner dies?

California normally requires private firearm transfers to go through a licensed dealer (Pen. Code §27545). Inheritance has some exceptions, each with conditions.

• Executor or personal representative. An executor of an estate that includes a firearm takes possession “by operation of law” (Pen. Code §16990(a)). The executor doesn’t need a dealer transfer if they aren’t prohibited from owning firearms and report to the Department of Justice within 30 days of taking possession (Pen. Code §27920(a)(1)).
• Trustee of a living trust. A successor trustee of an ordinary living trust also takes by operation of law (Pen. Code §16990(q)). This trustee must report to the Department of Justice within 30 days and must get a firearm safety certificate before taking title or possession (Pen. Code §27920(a)(2)).
• Children and grandchildren. A transfer by bequest or intestate succession between parent and child or grandparent and grandchild can skip the dealer if the transfer is infrequent, the recipient is 18 or older, holds a firearm safety certificate, and reports to the Department of Justice within 30 days (Pen. Code §§16720, 27875(a)).
• Everyone else. A sibling, nephew, or friend isn’t an “immediate family member” under Pen. Code §16720, so that transfer generally has to go through a dealer (Pen. Code §27545).

Pick an executor or trustee who is willing to handle this and isn’t prohibited from possessing firearms. Keep an inventory listing each firearm’s make, model, serial number, and where it’s stored. My post on transferring firearms in California probate walks through the paperwork.

Who is taking the firearm	Dealer transfer needed?	Conditions	Authority
Executor or personal representative	No	Not prohibited from owning firearms, and reports to the Department of Justice within 30 days of taking possession	Pen. Code §§16990(a), 27920(a)(1)
Successor trustee of an ordinary living trust	No	Reports to the Department of Justice within 30 days and gets a firearm safety certificate before taking title or possession	Pen. Code §§16990(q), 27920(a)(2)
Child or grandchild, by bequest or intestate succession	No, if the conditions are met	The transfer is infrequent, the recipient is 18 or older, holds a firearm safety certificate, and reports within 30 days	Pen. Code §§16720, 27875(a)
Sibling, nephew, or friend	Generally yes	Not an “immediate family member” under Pen. Code §16720	Pen. Code §27545

How do you leave gold, coins, and jewelry?

Gold, collectible coins, jewelry, and art have no title document and no institution tracking who owns them. If your executor or trustee doesn’t know they exist, they can sit in a closet or get sold for a fraction of their value.

California gives you a simple tool for smaller items. A will can refer to a separate writing that directs who gets your tangible personal property, and that writing is given effect as if it were in the will (Prob. Code §6132(a), (c)). The statute defines tangible personal property to include jewelry and “precious metals in any tangible form, such as bullion or coins” (Prob. Code §6132(h)(1)). The writing must be dated and either handwritten or signed by you, and must describe the items and recipients with reasonable certainty (Prob. Code §6132(a)(2), (3)).

The total value of items passing under the writing can’t exceed $25,000, and any single item worth more than $5,000 passes under the will’s residue instead (Prob. Code §6132(g)). Ordinary legal tender is excluded, though coins held for collectible or investment value aren’t (Prob. Code §6132(a), (h)(2)). For a large bullion holding, name the recipient in the trust itself.

Whatever you use, keep appraisals, purchase records, and photographs with your estate planning documents.

Why is cryptocurrency different from a bank account?

California’s Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act governs when a custodian must give your executor, trustee, or agent access to your digital assets (Prob. Code §§871, 872). A digital asset is “an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest” (Prob. Code §871(h)(1)).

If an exchange or platform offers an online tool for naming who gets access, a direction you give there overrides a contrary direction in your will or trust (Prob. Code §873(a)). If you haven’t used an online tool, your will, trust, or power of attorney can allow or prohibit disclosure to your fiduciary (Prob. Code §873(b)). Either kind of direction overrides the platform’s terms of service (Prob. Code §873(c)).

That covers coins held on an exchange. A self-custody wallet has no custodian to ask. The private keys or seed phrase are the only way in, and if nobody else has them, the funds are gone. See why a cold wallet isn’t immune to probate and my page on digital asset estate planning.

Where should you keep the access information?

Not in the will. A will is delivered to the court clerk after death (Prob. Code §8200(a)(1)), so a seed phrase written into it could end up in a court file. Keep a separate, private inventory of wallets, exchanges, and access instructions in a secure place, and tell your successor trustee or executor where to find it. The same inventory should list firearms and valuables with their locations. The trust says who’s in charge and who inherits. The inventory tells them what exists and how to get to it.

What to do now

List every firearm, precious metals holding, and crypto account you have. Decide who gets each one, and check that each recipient can legally take a firearm. Then make sure the trust is funded and the inventory is somewhere your trustee will find it. I handle this planning by phone and Zoom, and a mobile notary comes to you for signing.