Market dips send holders rushing to their hardware wallets. That urgency rarely produces careful documentation. In our Busan office, the clients who fare best are those who picked a calendar date — often unrelated to price — and treated the review like a household maintenance task.
The cost of waiting for a trigger
Reactive checks tend to skip steps. A holder worried about a price drop may confirm a balance and close the device without verifying that backup envelopes still match the current passphrase scheme. Six months later, a firmware update prompts another hurried session, and the same gaps remain.
What a scheduled review includes
An annual cycle gives you room to walk through inventory, backup locations, and address labels without time pressure. You can note that a steel capsule moved from your office drawer to a relative’s safe in Daegu, or that a second Trezor now carries a hidden wallet you added in March.
Choosing your month
Pick a month with low personal stress — not tax season, not a family holiday. Some holders align reviews with daylight-saving changes; others use a birthday or company bonus month as a reminder. The specific date matters less than keeping it consistent.
When to review sooner
Life events override the calendar: new device purchases, passphrase changes, inheritance conversations, or moving backups to a new location. Treat these as mini-reviews using stages three through five of our checklist, even if the full six-stage session waits until your annual date.