Planning for Your Online Accounts: Digital Assets in a Florida Estate Plan

Many people spend years building a traditional estate plan that addresses real property, bank accounts, and personal belongings, while overlooking an entire category of assets that now makes up a meaningful part of daily life: digital accounts. Email inboxes, social media profiles, cloud storage, cryptocurrency wallets, and online banking portals all hold value or important information, yet they are frequently left out of wills, trusts, and powers of attorney. Understanding how Florida law treats these accounts can help residents think more comprehensively about what a complete estate plan should include.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

A digital asset generally refers to any electronic record in which a person has a right or interest. This can include email accounts, photo and video storage, social media profiles, online subscription services, digital photo libraries, loyalty or rewards programs, and virtual currency. Some of these assets carry financial value, while others hold sentimental or informational value, such as family photographs stored only in the cloud or records needed to manage a decedent’s remaining affairs.

How Florida Law Addresses Access to Digital Assets

Florida adopted the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, found in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, to establish a framework for how personal representatives, trustees, guardians, and agents under a power of attorney may access a person’s digital accounts. The law recognizes that online platforms often have their own terms of service governing account access, and it creates a process for fiduciaries to request disclosure of digital assets from custodians such as email providers or social media companies.

Under this framework, a user can direct how their digital assets should be handled after death or incapacity, either through an online tool offered by the custodian itself or through language in a will, trust, or power of attorney. When no such direction exists, the statute sets out default procedures a fiduciary must follow, which often require documentation such as certified copies of a death certificate or letters of administration before a custodian will grant access.

Why This Matters for Estate Planning

Without clear instructions, a personal representative or family member may face significant delays or obstacles when trying to access a loved one’s digital accounts, even when doing so is necessary to settle an estate, locate financial records, or preserve sentimental content. Some platforms will not disclose account contents absent a court order or specific authorization. Building digital asset provisions into a will, trust, or durable power of attorney, and keeping a private, updated list of accounts and how to handle them, can reduce friction for the people left to manage these matters later.

It is also worth remembering that access rights under Chapter 740 are still subject to each custodian’s terms of service and other applicable law, meaning outcomes can vary from one platform to another. This is part of why digital asset planning tends to work best as one piece of a broader, coordinated estate plan rather than a standalone afterthought.

Thinking through how online accounts fit into a broader estate plan can feel unfamiliar, particularly as the number and variety of digital accounts most people maintain continues to grow. Because outcomes depend on the specific documents in place and the policies of each online platform, many residents find it helpful to have these questions reviewed as part of a full estate plan. Our Port St. Lucie estate planning attorneys are available to discuss how digital accounts and other modern assets can be incorporated into a will, trust, or power of attorney. If you have questions about updating your estate plan to reflect the accounts and records that matter to you, contact Baginski Brandt & Brandt to learn more.

Source:

flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2018/Chapter740/All