Digital Asset Advisory

Digital assets are increasingly held by businesses and families without the governance that would be applied to any other asset of the same value. Custody is undocumented, ownership is unclear, and succession planning frequently does not address the holding at all.

Our work is on the structure around the asset rather than the asset itself: how it is held and by whom, what happens if a key holder is unavailable, how it appears in the accounts, and what policy the board or family council should adopt.

What we are asked about

• A company holds digital assets and its auditors have raised questions the finance team cannot answer.
• A family holds assets whose custody arrangements exist only in one person's head.
• Only one individual can actually access the holding, and no one has planned for their absence.
• A succession plan covers every other asset and is silent on this one.
• A board has exposure on its balance sheet and no policy governing it.
• A treasury function has been asked to take a position and wants a framework before it does.

Custody and key risk

Custody is the question most often left undocumented and most likely to cause a loss. The work is establishing what is actually held, where, and under whose control; whether access depends on a single person or device; what recovery arrangements exist and whether they have ever been tested; and how those arrangements are recorded without creating a new vulnerability by writing them down badly.

Where the answer points to a change — a different custody arrangement, multiple approvers, an institutional custodian — that is a governance decision for the board or the family, taken on the risk rather than on the technology.

Recording, reporting and coordination

Assets that do not appear properly in the accounts create problems well beyond the accounts. We work on how holdings are recorded, what supporting evidence exists for balances and movements, and how the position is reported alongside the rest of the business or the family's assets.

Accounting treatment and tax consequences are settled with your auditors and tax advisers; we prepare the underlying information and coordinate the conversation so it is not had for the first time during an audit.

Succession and inheritance

A digital-asset holding can be irrecoverable on the death or incapacity of the person who controlled it — a failure mode that has no equivalent in property or shares. Planning for it is partly legal and partly practical, and both parts have to be addressed by people qualified to address them.

We coordinate the financial side and work with the family's advocates on the instruments themselves, so that the holding is capable of passing and someone other than the original holder is capable of receiving it.

What you receive

• A documented statement of holdings, custody arrangements and control.
• A custody-risk assessment with the single points of failure identified.
• A treasury or family policy for board or family-council adoption.
• Record-keeping and consolidated reporting arrangements.
• Coordination with your auditors, tax advisers, advocates and any licensed virtual-asset or investment professionals involved.