- with Finance and Tax Executives
- in United States
For centuries, wealth was measured in tangible terms: land, gold, art, stock portfolios and bank accounts, to name a few. These assets were static, tied to geography and institutions. Today, wealth is increasingly digital – represented by tokens, NFTs and programmable money that exists outside of traditional borders. This transformation raises urgent questions: How do we manage wealth in a borderless, omnipresent financial ecosystem? How do governments re-write the rules of financial engagement from a policy, tax and enforcement perspective? And what happens to generational wealth when private keys, not paper deeds, determine ownership?
We stand at crossroads where wealth management, taxation and technology intercept, forcing us to rethink the definition of money and by extension, wealth.
The transition from tangible wealth to digital wealth is not merely a shift in form. Tokenization allows any asset – including real estate, fine art and venture funds – to be divided, fractionalized and traded in ways that were impossible in the analog world. The future invites a shared economy.
High net worth individuals, once focused on diversification across asset classes and jurisdictions, now face an entirely new frontier: diversification across ecosystems. Should they hold assets in traditional equities, or yield-bearing stablecoins? Should they allocate an offshore fund, or participate directly in a DAO?
This evolution introduces both opportunity and complexity. Assets are liquid, borderless and accessible,yet they also challenge existing wealth management frameworks, which were designed for jurisdictions, not protocols.
Against this background sits the taxman. Governments worldwide are designing rules to adapt. Here in the U.S., Congress has been busy drafting rules of engagement through the GENIUS and CLARITY Act, respectively; the IRS has issued broker dealer reporting requirements and the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, enhancing FATCA and CRS-like reporting has been largely the current model for the rest of the world to adapt.
Still, the class between pseudonymity and transparency is stark. Blockchains can, in theory, provide perfect traceability. But wallets do not map nearly to legal entities, and new tax questions arise daily surrounding issues as to whether staking income should be taxed as it accrues or only upon realization; how should NTFs be valued; and who ultimately bears tax obligations when assets move across borders, among many others.
Wealth management, historically rooted in local institutions, is being reimagined for a borderless economy.
- Digital family offices are emerging—structures that manage not just equities and real estate, but those in wallets, tokenized funds, and on-chain investments.
- Custody is the new trust. In the past, banks and trustees safeguarded wealth; now the critical question is who holds the keys. Self-custody offers sovereignty but carries risk, while institutional custody restores confidence but reintroduces intermediaries. Blockchain was designed to replace the proverbial intermediary (ergo, a bank, an ATM machine, a trust officer).
- DAOs and programmable funds represent a new model of governance, where investment decisions and distributions are executed transparently via code.
In this new landscape, wealth managers are no longer just portfolio allocators. They must also be interpreters of code, risk managers of custody solutions, and architects of digital asset strategies.
The most underexamined aspect of digital wealth is inheritance, including its inadvertent negative consequences. Private keys do not appear in last wills and testament – unless the testator informs the heir(s). A lost seed phrase is not recoverable in probate. For families with significant holdings in digital assets, traditional estate planning tools suddenly appear fragile and incomplete. Emerging solutions include smart contracts wills that are triggered upon verified death, or programmable trusts where distributions follow code. Most importantly, who becomes the trustee or the protector in a world where code replaces the written word? Could AI provide relief? (That is an entirely separate thought...)
As digital assets evolve, money is no longer just a medium of exchange or a store of value. It is becoming intertwined with one's identity.
Wallets serve as financial passports, containing not only wealth but also transaction history, governance rights, health data points and reputational capital. This creates a tension between self-custody, anonymity and borderless freedom and compliance requirements: real-time reporting. What remains is how we will negotiate these opposing poles, between autonomy and regulation.
We are witnessing a profound rewriting of the rules of wealth. Digital assets challenge centuries-old assumptions about ownership, taxation and inheritance. Wealth managers must expand their toolkits; regulators must modernize their playbook.
The future of money will not be defined solely by blockchains, tax codes, or wealth planning structures, but by the new social contract that emerges between individuals, institutions and governments.
Are you prepared?
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
