Last month, a client in Suwon called us because she had purchased a new Ledger, migrated her holdings, and could not remember whether she had wiped the old device. The old unit sat in a desk drawer, unlabelled, beside a USB cable and a pair of reading glasses. Without a written record, she faced two bad options: assume it was empty and risk leaving funds on a forgotten key, or assume it held funds and maintain an unnecessary backup set.
Memory is not inventory
Human memory degrades predictably. Device purchases blur together. Firmware updates change behaviour. Family members who “know where everything is” relocate, fall ill, or simply forget. A paper inventory — updated after every device change — costs an hour and prevents days of uncertainty.
What belongs on the list
For each device, record the manufacturer, model, serial number, purchase date, firmware version at last check, and which addresses it currently signs for. Note the passphrase policy (standard, hidden wallet, none) without writing the passphrase itself. Add the location where the device is stored and who else knows that location.
When to update
After every migration, factory reset, new purchase, or change in storage location. Annually at minimum, even if nothing has changed — the act of reviewing catches drift between what you believe and what exists.
The cost of skipping
In our practice, the average client with five or more years of holding history has 1.4 “orphan” devices they forgot about. One in eight has a backup set stored in violation of their own written policy. These are not catastrophes — they are fixable — but only if someone looks.
A written inventory is the cheapest insurance a cold storage holder can maintain. We audit them professionally, but you can start one tonight with a notebook and thirty minutes.