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Imagine your family cannot access your bank account because it is online only. Your photos from the last decade are locked in iCloud. Your cryptocurrency exists somewhere, but no one knows where the keys are. Your email contains instructions you intended for your loved ones, but no one can legally open it.
This is not a hypothetical. It is the situation thousands of Florida families face every year when a loved one dies without addressing digital assets in their estate plan. Most Florida wills and trusts were written before online banking, cryptocurrency, and cloud storage became central to daily life — and most have never been updated to reflect that shift.
If your estate plan does not specifically address your digital assets, it is incomplete. Here is what Florida law requires, what your documents need to say, and what you should do right now.
Most people underestimate how much of their financial and personal life now lives online. Under Florida law, a digital asset is broadly defined as any electronic record in which a person has a right or interest. That covers far more than most people expect:
If it requires a password and exists electronically, Florida law likely treats it as a digital asset — and the question of who can access it after your death is a legal one, not just a practical one.
Florida enacted the Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act under Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, based on the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA). This law gives your personal representative, trustee, and power of attorney agent the legal authority to access your digital assets — but only if you have explicitly authorized it in your estate planning documents.
Without that authorization, platforms have no legal obligation to provide access — even to immediate family members.
The law establishes a three-tier priority system that determines whose instructions control:
The practical implication is significant: your will does not automatically give your family access to your accounts. The authorization must be specific and properly worded to meet the requirements of Chapter 740. This is one of the most common oversights in Florida estate plans, and one of the most consequential.
For a broader look at why updating your estate planning documents regularly matters, see 5 Times You Should Revisit Your Florida Estate Plan Immediately.
Mistake 1: Putting passwords directly in a will
A will becomes a public document once it is filed for probate. Any passwords, account numbers, or login credentials written into the will are exposed to public record the moment the estate is opened. The correct approach is a separate, private letter of instruction — referenced in the will but never reproduced in it.
Mistake 2: Assuming family members can just log in
Logging into a deceased person’s account without legal authorization can technically violate the federal Stored Communications Act. While family members acting in good faith are unlikely to face prosecution, platforms can permanently lock accounts when they detect access from unfamiliar devices or following a death notification. This is especially destructive for accounts holding financial assets or irreplaceable photos.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the platform tools that override your will
Google, Apple, Facebook, and other major platforms offer legacy contact and inactive account tools that, under Florida’s priority system, legally override what your will says. Activating these tools takes minutes and costs nothing. Most people never do it — and their estate plans are weaker for it.
Each document in your estate plan has a distinct role when it comes to digital assets. None of them work correctly for this purpose without specific, RUFADAA-compliant language.
Will
Your will should explicitly authorize the personal representative to access, manage, distribute, and terminate digital assets. It should give guidance on what to do with specific categories — which accounts to close, which to transfer, which to memorialize. It should reference a separate secure inventory rather than containing sensitive credentials.
If your will was drafted before 2016, when Florida’s digital asset law took effect, it almost certainly does not contain adequate authorization. For more on what makes a valid Florida will and what it should cover, see Wills in Florida: Legal Requirements for a Valid Will.
Revocable Living Trust
A trust that holds or governs digital assets needs RUFADAA-compliant language authorizing the trustee to access and manage those assets. This is particularly important for cryptocurrency — placing a crypto wallet under trust ownership and giving the trustee clear instructions is one of the most practical ways to ensure digital assets are actually transferred rather than lost. For more on how trusts work in Florida, see Setting Up Trusts in Florida.
Durable Power of Attorney
Your power of attorney governs what your agent can do while you are alive but incapacitated — not just at death. Without digital asset authorization in this document, your agent may be legally blocked from managing your online bank accounts, paying bills through online platforms, or accessing email containing critical financial information during a period of incapacity. This authorization needs to be there now, not only in your will.
Letter of Instruction
This is not a legal document, but it is essential. A private, secure letter of instruction lists your accounts, their approximate values, and how to access them. It is stored separately from your will — in a fireproof safe, with your attorney, or in a secure password manager your representative knows how to access. It should be reviewed and updated regularly as your digital life changes, because accounts and platforms change far more frequently than wills do.
For a full overview of the documents every Florida estate plan should include, see Essential Estate Planning Documents You Need for Your Florida Estate Plan.
Cryptocurrency is categorically different from every other digital asset in one critical respect: there is no institution to call. No bank. No account recovery team. No customer service line.
The person who holds the private key or seed phrase holds the asset. If your representative cannot find the private key, the cryptocurrency is permanently inaccessible — not locked, not recoverable, gone. This has happened to real families with significant amounts of money at stake, and it continues to happen because most estate plans say nothing about it.
Several practical steps reduce this risk:
This is an area where general estate planning documents are genuinely insufficient without specific attention. If you own cryptocurrency of any meaningful value, speak with an estate planning attorney before assuming your existing documents handle it.
Here is what the most widely used platforms currently offer for legacy and estate access:
| Platform | Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Inactive Account Manager | Designates who receives your data or deletes the account after a period of inactivity | |
| Apple | Digital Legacy | Allows designated contacts to request access to Apple ID data after death |
| Legacy Contact | Manages your memorialized profile; can request account removal | |
| Memorialization Request | Family can request memorialization; limited data access | |
| Microsoft | Next of Kin Process | Family can request account content through a formal process |
| Coinbase | Estate Process | Requires legal documentation and death certificate; no automatic transfer |
Two important notes: platform policies change without notice, and activating these tools does not replace proper legal documentation — it supplements it. The safest approach is always to have both: platform designations activated and properly worded authorization in your legal documents.
1. Create a digital asset inventory
List every account, its approximate value, and how to access it. Keep this document private and secure — never inside your will.
2. Activate legacy and inactive account tools today
Google’s Inactive Account Manager and Apple’s Digital Legacy take minutes to set up and carry legal weight under Florida’s priority system. Do this regardless of whether your estate plan is updated.
3. Review your existing will and power of attorney
If either document was drafted before 2016 or does not mention digital assets, it needs to be updated. This is not a minor gap — it is a legal authorization problem that your family will encounter at the worst possible time.
4. Address cryptocurrency specifically
If you own any cryptocurrency, ensure the private keys or seed phrases are documented in a format your representative can access, and discuss with an attorney whether a trust structure makes sense for your situation.
5. Update your documents with proper RUFADAA language
This is the step that makes everything else enforceable. An estate planning attorney can add specific, compliant digital asset authorization to your existing documents or incorporate it into a new estate plan.
Your digital life is already part of your estate. The only question is whether your legal documents reflect that. An attorney who handles Florida estate planning and understands how RUFADAA works in practice can ensure your accounts, your crypto, and your online property are handled exactly as you intend — and that your family is not locked out when they need access most.
If your estate plan has not been reviewed recently, this is a good reason to do it now. Contact Jeffrey Stoll to schedule a consultation with a Plantation estate planning attorney.
What is RUFADAA and does it apply to my Florida estate plan?
RUFADAA — the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act — is the model law Florida adopted under Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes. It governs who can legally access your digital accounts and assets after your death or during incapacity. It applies to all Florida estate plans, and your documents need specific language to take advantage of the protections it provides. For a full overview of what your estate plan should include, see Essential Estate Planning Documents You Need for Your Florida Estate Plan.
Can my family access my email or social media after I die without legal authorization?
Not legally, and not reliably. Platforms are not required to provide access without proper legal documentation, and many will permanently lock accounts when they learn of a death. Without RUFADAA-compliant authorization in your estate planning documents, your family may have no recourse regardless of how straightforward the circumstances are.
Should I put my passwords in my will?
No. Once your will is filed for probate, it becomes a public document. Any passwords, account numbers, or login credentials in it are publicly accessible. Use a separate, private letter of instruction stored securely — and reference it in your will without reproducing its contents.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I die without an estate plan in Florida?
If you die without a will in Florida, your estate passes through intestate succession under Florida law, which determines who inherits based on family relationships. However, intestate succession only works if your representative can actually access the asset. Cryptocurrency held in a private wallet without documented keys or seed phrases is effectively inaccessible regardless of who is legally entitled to it. An estate plan with specific crypto provisions is the only reliable protection. For more on what happens without a plan, see The Importance of Having a Will in Florida.
Do I need to update my existing will to cover digital assets?
If your will was drafted before 2016 or does not contain specific digital asset authorization language, yes. The addition of RUFADAA-compliant language is not a complete rewrite — but it must be done formally through a properly executed amendment or a new will. An attorney can review your existing documents and advise whether an update or a new plan is the right approach.
What is a digital executor and do I need one?
A digital executor is a person you designate — either formally in your estate plan or informally in a letter of instruction — to specifically manage your digital assets. Florida law does not require a separate digital executor; your personal representative or trustee can handle digital assets if properly authorized. However, designating a person who is technically comfortable and familiar with your digital life as your primary representative, or at minimum providing them with clear instructions, significantly improves the practical outcome for your family.
