Digital assets are the electronic records you own or control during life: email and cloud storage, brokerage and crypto accounts, business files, loyalty points, domain names, and the social media you have spent years building. In Florida, the right of your executor, trustee, or agent to reach those accounts after death or incapacity is governed by the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, codified in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes and effective July 1, 2016. Putting digital assets into your estate plan means giving the people you trust clear legal authority to find, value, and manage that property, instead of leaving them locked out by passwords and provider terms of service.
For physicians, founders, and other professionals in Palm Beach, this is no longer a fringe topic. A surprising share of net worth and reputation now lives behind a login. I have watched families lose months untangling an estate not because the will was defective, but because nobody could get into the accounts where the actual value sat.
What Counts as a Digital Asset Under Florida Law
Chapter 740 defines a digital asset broadly as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. That definition is wide on purpose. It sweeps in things people rarely think of as “assets” alongside the obvious ones.
In practice, the digital property I see in Palm Beach estates falls into a few buckets:
- Financial and investment accounts — online brokerage, robo-advisors, and bank logins that may be the only practical window into where money is held.
- Cryptocurrency and tokens — Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and NFTs, often self-custodied. If the private keys or seed phrase die with you, the asset is gone. No court order recovers it.
- Email accounts — the master key to almost everything else, because password resets and account statements route through them.
- Business and professional files — a physician’s patient-adjacent records, a consultant’s client deliverables, cloud-stored intellectual property, and SaaS subscriptions tied to a practice.
- Revenue-producing digital property — domain names, monetized YouTube or Substack channels, app store accounts, and online stores.
- Sentimental and reputational accounts — photo libraries, social media, and the personal brand a professional has built over a career.
One critical distinction runs through Chapter 740: the law separates the content of an electronic communication (the actual text of your emails or messages) from a catalogue of communications (the log of who you corresponded with and when) and from other digital assets. Fiduciaries get easier access to the catalogue and to non-communication assets than to the private content itself. That structure, drawn from the federal Stored Communications Act, is why a simple instruction in a will is often not enough on its own.
The Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Explained
Florida’s version of the uniform act creates a tiered system of authority. Understanding the order of priority is the whole game, because the document that controls is not always the one you would expect.
The hierarchy of control
Florida courts and custodians look to authority in this sequence:
- The provider’s online tool. If a platform offers an account-specific setting that lets you name who can access the account after death — Google’s Inactive Account Manager and Facebook’s Legacy Contact are the common examples — and you actually use it, that direction controls. It overrides even your will.
- Your estate planning documents. If you have not used an online tool, then the directions in your will, trust, or power of attorney govern. This is where your attorney can grant or restrict access deliberately.
- The provider’s terms-of-service agreement. Only if neither of the above applies does the click-through contract you accepted years ago decide the outcome — and those terms frequently default to no access.
The lesson is practical. If you click a provider’s legacy tool one way and your will says the opposite, the tool usually wins. The two have to be coordinated, and that coordination is exactly what a thoughtful plan provides.
What your fiduciaries can and cannot do
Under Chapter 740, a personal representative, trustee, agent under a durable power of attorney, or court-appointed guardian who is acting within the scope of their duties is treated as an authorized user. That status matters: it shields them from Florida’s computer-crime exposure under Chapter 815 when they access accounts in good faith on the estate’s behalf. Custodians, in turn, receive immunity for acting in good-faith compliance with the statute, which is part of why providers will cooperate when the paperwork is right and stonewall when it is not.
Why Generic Documents Leave Professionals Exposed
I see two failure modes again and again, and high earners are unusually vulnerable to both.
First is the silent will. A will drafted before 2016, or one that never mentions digital assets, gives your executor no express authority over your accounts. The executor then has to ask each provider, each of which may demand a court order before releasing the content of communications. For a physician with patient-related cloud files or a business owner with a dozen SaaS logins, that delay is not academic. Subscriptions auto-renew, domains lapse, and time-sensitive business data sits inaccessible.
Second is the password list as a plan. Writing your logins in a document and handing them over is tempting, and it is a mistake on two counts. It is a security disaster the moment that list is lost or stolen, and using someone else’s credentials can violate the provider’s terms of service and federal law even when your intentions are good. Legal authority, not a borrowed password, is what protects your fiduciary. The credentials should live in a secure password manager; the authority to use them belongs in your estate plan.
Florida’s homestead, elective share, and creditor rules already make a do-it-yourself estate plan risky for affluent residents. Digital assets compound that risk because the value can evaporate before anyone realizes it was there. If you are weighing how digital property fits alongside trusts and tax planning, our team and the attorneys at Morgan Legal’s regularly coordinate the two for Palm Beach professionals.
Building Digital Assets Into a Palm Beach Estate Plan
A durable plan does not try to list every account, because accounts change. It builds a framework that adapts.
Grant explicit authority in the right documents
Your will and revocable trust should each contain language that specifically authorizes your fiduciary to access, manage, distribute, and dispose of digital assets, including the content of electronic communications. That last phrase is deliberate — without it, a custodian may withhold the substance of your email and messages even from a properly appointed executor. Your durable power of attorney needs parallel language so your agent can act during incapacity, not only after death. Many older powers of attorney are silent here.
Use the providers’ built-in tools
Set Google’s Inactive Account Manager, designate a Facebook Legacy Contact, and configure Apple’s Legacy Contact. Because these tools sit at the top of the Chapter 740 hierarchy, ignoring them can quietly undo what your will says. Confirm that whoever you name in those tools matches the people named in your documents.
Keep a living inventory, stored securely
Maintain a current list of your digital assets — what exists and where, not the passwords themselves — and keep credentials in a reputable password manager with a documented emergency-access or successor protocol. The inventory tells your fiduciary what to look for; the manager gives them a lawful, secure way in. Review both at least annually.
Plan crypto with special care
Self-custodied cryptocurrency is unforgiving. There is no help desk and no court that can reissue a lost seed phrase. Document the existence of wallets and the secure mechanism for recovering keys without writing the keys into a discoverable document. For larger holdings, consider a trust as the vehicle and discuss multi-signature or institutional custody arrangements with your attorney.
Coordinate with incapacity, not just death
Digital access matters most when you are alive but unable to act — during a long hospitalization, for instance. Make sure your power of attorney and any revocable trust give your agent and successor trustee the same digital authority your executor would have. Asset-protection-minded clients often pair this with broader incapacity planning; for those exploring lifetime protection structures, Morgan Legal’s overview of a shows how trust planning and fiduciary authority work hand in hand, and the firm’s handles the incapacity side directly.
Once your authority language is in place, it should be integrated with the rest of your documents. If you are starting from scratch, see our pages on Florida wills and what to expect from Florida probate so you understand how the digital provisions interact with the broader administration.
What Happens Without a Plan
When digital assets are ignored, the estate inherits a slow, expensive cleanup. Executors petition for court orders to pry content from providers. Crypto worth six or seven figures becomes permanently unrecoverable. Auto-billing drains accounts for services nobody is using. Sentimental photo archives are deleted under inactivity policies before the family even learns they existed. And a professional’s hard-won online reputation is left to drift, with no one authorized to memorialize or close the accounts.
None of that is inevitable. A few precise provisions, a coordinated set of provider tools, and a maintained inventory turn a months-long ordeal into routine administration.
Take the Next Step
If your estate plan predates 2016, or you have never specifically addressed your accounts, your digital life is almost certainly under-protected under current Florida law. A focused review can close the gaps without rebuilding everything. Contact our Palm Beach estate planning team to align your documents, your provider settings, and your digital inventory under Chapter 740.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my Florida will automatically give my executor access to my online accounts?
Not unless it says so. Under Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, your documents need language specifically authorizing your fiduciary to access digital assets, including the content of electronic communications. Wills drafted before 2016 or those that are silent on digital assets often leave executors locked out and forced to seek court orders.
What is the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act?
It is Florida’s law, codified in Chapter 740 and effective July 1, 2016, that lets fiduciaries such as personal representatives, trustees, agents under a power of attorney, and guardians lawfully access and manage a person’s digital assets. It sets a priority order: a provider’s online legacy tool controls first, then your estate planning documents, then the platform’s terms of service.
Can I just leave my passwords in a document for my family?
It is not a reliable plan. A password list is a security risk if lost or stolen, and using another person’s credentials can violate provider terms of service and federal law even with good intentions. Store credentials in a secure password manager and put the legal authority to use them in your will, trust, and durable power of attorney.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I die without planning for it?
If your private keys or seed phrase are not securely documented for your fiduciary, self-custodied cryptocurrency is generally lost permanently. No court order can recover it. For larger holdings, plan ahead by documenting recovery without exposing the keys, and consider holding the assets in a trust with multi-signature or institutional custody.
Do I need to update my power of attorney for digital assets too?
Yes. Digital access often matters most during incapacity, before death. Many older powers of attorney say nothing about digital assets, which can leave your agent unable to act while you are alive but incapacitated. Your durable power of attorney and any revocable trust should grant the same digital authority your executor would have.
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