Who Gets Access to Your Digital Life? Planning for Online Accounts and Digital Assets

Most estate plans are still written as if a person’s life exists only on paper and in bank vaults. But today, a meaningful part of what someone leaves behind lives online: email accounts, social media profiles, photo libraries, cloud storage, cryptocurrency, and financial accounts accessed entirely through an app. Without planning, these digital assets can become surprisingly difficult for a family or executor to access, even when there’s a will in place.

The core problem is that access to most online accounts is governed by a terms-of-service agreement between the user and the platform, not by traditional property law. Historically, that meant an executor named in a will had no automatic right to log into a decedent’s email or social media accounts, and platforms had little legal guidance on what to do when a user died or became incapacitated. Recognizing this gap, most states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have adopted versions of the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, giving fiduciaries a clearer legal path to manage digital property. New Jersey enacted its version in 2017 (N.J.S.A. § 3B:14-61.1 et seq.), while Pennsylvania adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act in 2020, effective January 2021, as Chapter 39 of its Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code (Act 72 of 2020).

These laws establish a clear order of priority when it comes to who controls a digital account after death or incapacity. First, if a platform offers its own “online tool,” such as Facebook’s Legacy Contact feature or Google’s Inactive Account Manager, and the user has actually used it, that designation generally controls and overrides anything stated elsewhere. Second, if no online tool has been used, the instructions in a person’s legal documents, such as a will, trust, or power of attorney, take priority. Third, if neither an online tool nor a legal document addresses the account, the platform’s own terms of service govern by default, which often means limited or no access for a fiduciary at all (American Bar Association).

There’s also an important distinction between the existence of an account and its actual content. Under the RUFADAA/UFADAA framework, a fiduciary can generally obtain a catalog of electronic communications, essentially confirming that certain messages exist, without much difficulty. Gaining access to the actual content of those communications, such as reading the body of emails or private messages, generally requires the user’s explicit consent, whether given through an online tool, a will, or another legal document. Fiduciaries are also bound by the same rules the account holder was; the law does not give an executor or agent greater rights than the user themselves had under the platform’s terms of service.

For clients, the practical takeaway is that digital estate planning now deserves the same intentional attention as naming a beneficiary on a bank account. This can start with something as simple as keeping an organized, securely stored inventory of major accounts, financial platforms, and cloud storage, so your executor at least knows where to look. From there, using the legacy or account management tools many platforms already offer, and making sure your will or power of attorney expressly authorizes your fiduciary to access and manage digital assets, gives your executor or agent clear legal authority rather than leaving them to negotiate with a platform’s customer service department during an already difficult time. For anyone holding cryptocurrency or other assets that exist only through a private key or password, this planning becomes even more critical, since there may be no institution to call for help at all.

Digital assets are no longer a peripheral consideration in estate planning. As more of daily life moves online, making sure your fiduciaries have clear, legally recognized authority to step into that part of your life can be just as important as the plan you’ve made for your physical and financial property.