I was wondering if any of the ewallet providers have some form of dead man's switch. Let's say Bob has 200 BTC in an ewallet, and another 5000 offline somewhere. Could Bob set up a system so that, if he dropped dead, his wife or kids would get an email with detailed and fool-proof instructions as to how to retrieve both amounts?
The better question is, why do you not trust your wife enough to tell her NOW: honey, on this here piece of paper there is stored 5,000 bitcoins.
First of all, it's Bob's wife
Second, this isn't about trust, although that seems to be the direction the thread has taken, but about ease of use. Bob can print and laminate keys, then give them to his wife, but if he suddenly dies, she won't know what on earth to do with them.