QuadrigaCX and the Estate of Gerald Cotten

Digital Planning Podcast

In this episode of Digital Planning Podcast, hosts Jennifer Zegel, Ross Bruch, and Justin Brown welcomed Sheona McDonald, an accomplished filmmaker, who discussed her recently released documentary Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery, now available on Discovery Plus. The documentary chronicles the investigation post-collapse of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, QuadrigaCX; the company's subsequent bankruptcy proceedings; and attempts to piece together what happened. Sheona also wrote the Foreword to the book Digital Asset Entanglement: Unraveling the Intersection of Estate Laws & Technology (LexisNexis/March 2022), authored by Digital Planning Podcast co-host Jen Zegel and veteran Digital Planning Podcast guest Sharon Hartung, who also join the podcast discussion. Their book focuses on the ways technology has disrupted the traditionally paper-based estate industry and raises awareness on the importance of digital asset planning and the challenges associated with managing digital assets. The book sets forth a personas-based framework to help advisors begin to analyze a client's planning needs by their digital behavior and applies this framework through a comprehensive case study of QuadrigaCX and the estate of its late CEO, Gerald Cotten. For comments, questions, or suggestions, email us at [email protected].