diff --git a/identity-account/src/stronghold/hint.rs b/identity-account/src/stronghold/hint.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ad7a7c378e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/identity-account/src/stronghold/hint.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+// Copyright 2020-2021 IOTA Stiftung
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+use iota_stronghold::Error;
+use iota_stronghold::RecordHint;
+
+use crate::error::Result;
+
+pub fn hint<T>(data: &T) -> Result<RecordHint>
+where
+  T: AsRef<[u8]> + ?Sized,
+{
+  RecordHint::new(data.as_ref()).map_err(Error::from).map_err(Into::into)
+}
+
+pub fn default_hint() -> RecordHint {
+  RecordHint::new([0; 24]).unwrap()
+}
diff --git a/identity-account/src/stronghold/mod.rs b/identity-account/src/stronghold/mod.rs
index 05aad9ef97..58cf6d2926 100644
--- a/identity-account/src/stronghold/mod.rs
+++ b/identity-account/src/stronghold/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright 2020-2021 IOTA Stiftung
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
+mod hint;
 mod records;
 mod result;
 mod runtime;
@@ -10,6 +11,8 @@ mod vault;
 
 pub(crate) use self::runtime::Runtime;
 
+pub use self::hint::default_hint;
+pub use self::hint::hint;
 pub use self::records::RecordIndex;
 pub use self::records::RecordTag;
 pub use self::records::Records;