Digital assets in a Florida estate plan are your online accounts, files, currencies, and login-protected property — email, photos, social media, cloud storage, cryptocurrency, domain names, and even loyalty points — that need a clear plan for who can access them after you die or become incapacitated. Under Florida’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), found in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, you can grant your personal representative, trustee, or agent legal authority over these assets. Without that authority and a way to actually find the accounts, much of your digital life can be locked away from the people you leave behind.
I’ve sat across the table from a lot of young South Florida families who have a will for the house and the life insurance, but have never once thought about the four thousand photos of their kids living in a phone that nobody else can unlock. This is the part of planning people forget, and it’s the part that causes the most heartache after a loss.
What counts as a digital asset?
The term is broader than most people assume. A digital asset is essentially any electronic record in which you have a right or interest. Some have real monetary value; others are priceless only to your family. Both matter.
- Financial accounts with no paper trail: online-only banks, brokerage apps, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle balances.
- Cryptocurrency and NFTs: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and anything held in a wallet or on an exchange like Coinbase.
- Email and cloud storage: Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox — often the master key to everything else.
- Photos and personal media: the family archive most people would fight hardest to keep.
- Social and content accounts: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube channels that may earn revenue.
- Business and income assets: domain names, websites, e-commerce stores, online courses, subscriber lists.
- Loyalty and reward programs: airline miles and hotel points, some of which transfer at death and some of which simply vanish.
Notice the split between value you can spend and value you can’t replace. A solid plan handles both, because your family will care about each for different reasons.
Why a regular will isn’t enough for your online accounts
Here’s the trap. You can name your spouse in your will and still find that Apple, Google, and your bank refuse to hand anything over. That’s not your lawyer’s failure — it’s a collision between two bodies of law.
Federal statutes like the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act make it a potential violation to access someone else’s account without authorization, even with good intentions. Service providers also bind you to their own terms-of-service agreements, which often say the account is non-transferable and dies with you. So when your executor logs in using your saved password, they may technically be breaking the law and the contract at the same time. Most people never realize this until they’re standing in a probate court trying to recover an account that won’t budge.
Florida solved part of this with RUFADAA. But the law only helps if your documents are drafted to use it.
How Florida law handles digital assets: RUFADAA and Chapter 740
Florida enacted the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act in 2016, codified at Chapter 740, Florida Statutes. It creates a clear hierarchy for who controls your digital property and in what order their wishes are honored. Understanding that order is the whole game.
The three-tier priority system
- Online tools come first. If a provider offers an in-platform setting — Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Facebook’s Legacy Contact, for example — and you use it, that choice overrides everything else, including your will. This is the most overlooked planning step in existence, and it takes five minutes.
- Your estate documents come second. If you didn’t use an online tool, the directions in your will, trust, or power of attorney control — provided those documents specifically grant digital-asset authority.
- The terms-of-service agreement comes last. If you addressed neither, the provider’s fine print decides, and that almost never favors your family.
The practical lesson: don’t let a default terms-of-service contract write your estate plan by accident. Use the online tools, then back them up with documents that speak the statute’s language.
Content versus a catalogue of communications
Florida law also draws a line between the content of your communications — the actual words inside your emails and messages — and the catalogue, meaning the metadata about who you contacted and when. Providers will more readily release the catalogue. To get the content itself, your documents generally need to grant that access expressly. A well-drafted estate plan says so in plain terms, so your personal representative isn’t stuck negotiating with a support chatbot months after your funeral.
Building digital assets into your plan: the practical steps
Good news for first-time planners: you don’t need to be technical to do this well. You need to be organized and you need the right language in your documents.
1. Make an inventory (and keep it out of the will)
List your accounts, what they’re worth, and where to find them. Crucially, never put passwords in your will — a will becomes a public record once it’s filed in probate. Keep the credential list in a secure password manager or a sealed document, and reference its location in your plan. Update it when you open or close major accounts.
2. Use every provider’s legacy tool
Set up Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Apple’s Legacy Contact, and Facebook’s Legacy Contact today. Because Florida law treats these as the top of the priority list, they are the single highest-leverage move you can make.
3. Grant fiduciary authority in the right documents
Your will, your revocable living trust, and your durable power of attorney should each contain specific RUFADAA-compliant language authorizing access to digital assets and electronic communications. The power of attorney matters enormously here, because incapacity — not just death — can lock you out of your own accounts while you’re still alive. If a trust holds your assets, the trustee needs the same authority; this is one reason many families pair a with explicit digital-asset provisions.
4. Plan for crypto and the keys problem
Cryptocurrency is unforgiving. There is no help desk and no password reset. If your heirs don’t have the private keys or seed phrase, the coins are gone forever — and a meaningful share of all crypto already is, for exactly this reason. Document where keys are stored and how to reach a hardware wallet, without ever exposing the keys themselves in a public filing.
Special situations young families should think about
A few scenarios come up again and again in my South Florida practice, and they tend to surprise people.
Memorializing versus deleting accounts
Some families want a parent’s Instagram preserved as a memorial; others want everything scrubbed. Both are valid, but the provider needs instructions, and the cleanest instructions come from your legacy-tool settings plus your estate documents working together.
Income-producing digital property
A monetized YouTube channel, an Etsy shop, an app, or a portfolio of domain names is a real business asset that can outlive you. It needs a successor who knows how to log in, transfer ownership, and keep the revenue flowing — or wind it down responsibly. Treat it the way you’d treat a small business, because that’s what it is.
Planning when a child has special needs
Digital accounts and recurring online benefits can complicate eligibility for needs-based government programs. For families supporting a child or sibling with a disability, coordinating digital assets with a properly structured helps make sure an inheritance — including online accounts and balances — doesn’t accidentally disqualify a loved one from essential benefits. The principles travel across state lines, and our attorneys handle these structures in both New York and Florida.
What happens if you do nothing
Without planning, your family faces a slow, expensive scramble. They’ll petition the probate court for authority, send certified death certificates to a dozen support departments, and wait — sometimes for months — while photos, messages, and money sit frozen behind the terms of service. Some assets they’ll recover. Many they simply won’t, because no one knew the account existed. The whole purpose of an estate plan is to spare the people you love that experience, and digital assets are now a core part of that promise. You can learn more about how our team approaches , and how the digital piece fits alongside your will and the broader Florida probate process.
If you’re just getting started, you don’t need to solve all of this at once. Build the inventory, set up the legacy tools this week, and then sit down with an attorney to get the authorizing language right. Reach out to our South Florida office when you’re ready to put it on paper.
Frequently asked questions
Can my executor legally access my email and online accounts in Florida?
Yes, but only if you’ve granted that authority. Florida’s RUFADAA law (Chapter 740) lets your personal representative or agent access digital assets when your will, trust, or power of attorney expressly authorizes it — or when you’ve set the provider’s online legacy tool. Without one of those, federal privacy law and the platform’s terms of service can block access entirely.
Should I put my passwords in my will?
No. A will typically becomes a public record once filed in probate, so listing passwords there exposes them. Keep credentials in a secure password manager or sealed document and simply reference its location in your estate plan, keeping it updated as accounts change.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I die without a plan?
If your heirs can’t locate the private keys or seed phrase, the cryptocurrency is permanently unrecoverable — there’s no reset or customer-service recovery. Document where the keys and any hardware wallet are stored, separately from any public filing, so your family can actually claim the assets.
Do Google and Apple legacy tools override my will in Florida?
Yes. Under Florida’s priority system, a provider’s online tool — like Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Apple’s Legacy Contact — takes precedence over your will if you’ve used it. That’s why setting those tools is one of the most effective planning steps you can take.
What’s the difference between digital assets in a will versus a trust?
A will directs assets through probate after death, while a funded revocable trust can let your trustee manage digital assets immediately and privately, often avoiding probate. Both documents should contain specific digital-asset authorization, and your durable power of attorney should too, so access is covered during incapacity as well as after death.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my executor legally access my email and online accounts in Florida?
Yes, but only if you’ve granted that authority. Florida’s RUFADAA law (Chapter 740, Florida Statutes) lets your personal representative or agent access digital assets when your will, trust, or power of attorney expressly authorizes it, or when you’ve set the provider’s online legacy tool. Without one of those, federal privacy law and the platform’s terms of service can block access entirely.
Should I put my passwords in my will?
No. A will typically becomes a public record once filed in probate, so listing passwords there exposes them. Keep credentials in a secure password manager or sealed document and reference its location in your estate plan, updating it as accounts change.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I die without a plan?
If your heirs can’t locate the private keys or seed phrase, the cryptocurrency is permanently unrecoverable, because there is no reset or customer-service recovery. Document where the keys and any hardware wallet are stored, separately from any public filing, so your family can actually claim the assets.
Do Google and Apple legacy tools override my will in Florida?
Yes. Under Florida’s priority system, a provider’s online tool such as Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Apple’s Legacy Contact takes precedence over your will if you’ve used it, which makes setting those tools one of the most effective planning steps you can take.
What's the difference between handling digital assets in a will versus a trust?
A will directs assets through probate after death, while a funded revocable trust can let your trustee manage digital assets immediately and privately, often avoiding probate. Both documents should contain specific digital-asset authorization, and your durable power of attorney should too, so access is covered during incapacity as well as after death.
