Relationships change. So can the heir, at any point before a claim has finalized.
Making the change
- 01
Open the inheritance screen
Your current heir and their confirmation status are shown there.
- 02
Enter the new address
Verified the same way as the first time — out of band, character by character. See choosing your heir.
- 03
Approve the change
One transaction. It takes effect immediately.
- 04
Have the new heir accept
Confirmation is reset by the change. Until the new heir signs, no claim is possible from anyone.
What the change does
- The old heir
Loses all standing immediately. They cannot claim, and they can no longer reach the vault items that were scoped to them.
- Confirmation
Reset to unconfirmed. The new heir must accept in their own right.
- A live claim
Cancelled. Changing the heir is owner activity, which clears any challenge in progress.
- Your timer
Reset. The change counts as a check-in.
- Deposited assets
Untouched. They stay in the inheritance vault, now destined for the new heir.
- Vault items
Untouched, and now readable by the new heir under the same release scope.
There is a gap while nobody has accepted
Between the change and the new heir's acceptance, the switch cannot fire at all. If you died in that window, nothing would transfer. Close the gap promptly.
Removing an heir without naming another
There is no way to leave the heir field empty — the program always holds one address. In practice you have two options:
- Point it at another wallet you control. The estate then returns to you if the switch ever fires. This is the closest thing to switching inheritance off, and it means nothing is ever released to a third party.
- Leave it unconfirmed. Naming someone who never accepts also prevents any claim, but it is a passive arrangement that is easy to forget you made.
The first is clearer. Whichever you choose, remember that vault items scoped to "heir" become readable by whoever ends up in that slot after a finalization — review your release scopes when you change heirs. See release settings and scope.
After a claim has finalized
The heir cannot be changed once an estate is finalized — that transition is treated as terminal by design, so a returning owner cannot strip an heir of something already granted.
If you are alive and a claim finalized while you were unreachable, there is a separate reclaim path with its own grace period. See I missed my check-in.
Tell them
Both of them. The new heir needs to accept, and the old heir deserves to know they are no longer expected to do anything. Neither is notified automatically.