Digital assets in a Florida estate plan are the online accounts, files, and electronic property you own — email, photos, social media, cryptocurrency, cloud storage, domain names, and loyalty points — that you authorize someone to access and manage after your death or incapacity. Under Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740, Florida Statutes), the people you name as executor, trustee, or agent generally cannot reach those accounts unless your planning documents and online settings give them clear permission. Planning for digital assets means deciding, in advance and in writing, who gets access to what.
If you are putting together your first estate plan as a young family in South Florida, this is the piece almost everyone forgets. You think about the house, the life insurance, and who raises the kids. You rarely think about the 4,000 photos in your phone, the crypto wallet on a thumb drive, or the email account that quietly holds the password reset link to your entire financial life. Let’s fix that.
What counts as a digital asset under Florida law
Florida defines a “digital asset” broadly. Section 740.002, Florida Statutes, describes it as an electronic record in which a person has a right or interest. That covers a lot more than you might assume. In practice, your digital estate usually breaks down into a few buckets:
- Sentimental and personal: photos and videos in iCloud or Google Photos, personal email archives, a blog, journaling apps.
- Financial: online banking and brokerage logins, PayPal and Venmo balances, cryptocurrency and NFTs, airline miles and credit-card reward points.
- Income-producing or business: a domain name, an e-commerce store, a YouTube or Instagram account with monetization, freelance platform accounts, intellectual property stored in the cloud.
- Access keys: password managers, two-factor authentication apps, and the primary email account that controls password resets for everything else.
One important distinction the law draws: your fiduciary may gain access to the asset without automatically gaining access to the content of your electronic communications. The actual words inside your emails and private messages get extra protection. That nuance is exactly why generic planning language often fails — it grants too little or asks the platform for something it is not allowed to give.
Why a Florida will alone usually isn’t enough
Most people assume that if they leave a will, their executor can simply log in and sort things out. That assumption runs into two walls.
The first wall is federal and contractual. Logging into someone else’s account using their password — even with good intentions — can violate the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the platform’s terms of service. Anti-hacking law was not written with grieving families in mind, but it still applies.
The second wall is the order of authority Florida sets up. Chapter 740 establishes a three-tier hierarchy for who controls access:
- An online tool provided by the platform itself (for example, Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Apple’s Legacy Contact). If you use one of these and name someone, that choice wins.
- Your estate-planning documents — your will, trust, or durable power of attorney — if you did not use the online tool.
- The platform’s terms-of-service agreement, which controls only when you left the first two blank.
Read that order again, because it changes how you should plan. If you set a Legacy Contact in your iPhone but your will says something different, the iPhone setting can override your will for that account. Your documents and your account settings have to agree. When they conflict, families end up in limbo — or in court.
The three documents that actually grant access
Your will and the appointment of a personal representative
In Florida, the person who administers your probate estate is called a personal representative (what many states call an executor). Your will should contain language that expressly authorizes that personal representative to access, manage, distribute, copy, and delete your digital assets, and to consent to disclosure of the content of electronic communications where you choose to allow it. Without that consent language, the personal representative may be limited to the catalog of an account rather than its contents.
Remember that a will only operates after death and only over assets that pass through probate. It does nothing while you are alive but incapacitated — which is where the next document matters far more for a young family.
Your durable power of attorney
If you are in an accident and survive but cannot manage your affairs, your will is useless; it hasn’t taken effect. A durable power of attorney is what lets your chosen agent step in during your lifetime. Florida’s power of attorney statute (Chapter 709) requires that significant authority be specifically enumerated, and digital-asset access is precisely the kind of authority that should be spelled out, not assumed. For a couple with small kids, this document quietly does more day-to-day work than the will ever will.
Your revocable living trust
Assets you place in a revocable trust avoid probate and are managed by your trustee under the terms you set. Many young families use a trust to keep things private and to provide for minor children without court supervision. A well-drafted trust should give the trustee the same digital-access powers your will grants your personal representative. If you are weighing whether a trust fits your situation, the fundamentals of how apply across state lines, and the structure is similar whether the firm’s team or another office prepares it.
A practical step-by-step for South Florida families
You don’t need to be wealthy or tech-savvy to do this well. You need to be organized once and then keep it current. Here is the workflow we walk first-time planners through:
- Inventory. List your accounts in three columns: what it is, why it matters (sentimental, financial, or business), and what should happen to it. You do not have to list passwords here.
- Use the platforms’ own legacy tools. Set up Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Apple’s Legacy Contact, and Facebook’s Legacy Contact. Because of the Chapter 740 hierarchy, these often control more than your will does.
- Secure your passwords properly. Use a reputable password manager and make sure your fiduciary can reach the master credential through your attorney or a sealed instruction — never inside the will itself, which becomes a public record in probate.
- Update your documents. Add explicit digital-asset authority to your will, durable power of attorney, and trust. Generic boilerplate from a download site rarely tracks the current statute.
- Plan for crypto separately. Cryptocurrency and self-custodied wallets die with the seed phrase. If no one can recover it, the asset is gone forever — no court can order a private key back into existence. Document recovery in a secure, non-public way.
- Revisit annually. Your digital life changes faster than your physical one. Review the inventory each year, or whenever you change your primary email or phone.
Special situations worth flagging
A few scenarios come up often enough in our consultations that they deserve their own mention.
Children with special needs. If part of your planning involves protecting a child’s eligibility for public benefits, digital assets and recurring online income have to be coordinated with the trust that holds everything else, so an inheritance doesn’t accidentally disqualify them. A properly structured handles that coordination, and the same care should extend to any digital accounts or monetized platforms that benefit the child.
Small online businesses. If you run a Shopify store, a monetized social account, or own domains, those are income-producing assets. They need a named successor with operational access so the revenue and customer relationships don’t simply evaporate during probate.
Blended families. When access is sentimental — the family photo library, for instance — naming the wrong person can cause as much conflict as a disputed bank account. Be deliberate about who controls memories, not just money.
Common mistakes we see
- Listing passwords directly in a will, which is filed with the court and becomes public.
- Setting an Apple or Google legacy contact that contradicts the will, creating a conflict the platform resolves against the will.
- Relying on a downloaded power of attorney that never mentions digital assets, so the agent is powerless during incapacity.
- Assuming a spouse “already knows the passwords” — until a phone is locked, wiped, or protected by two-factor authentication no one else can satisfy.
- Forgetting crypto recovery phrases, the single most common way real value is lost permanently.
When to bring in a Florida estate planning attorney
If your digital life is limited to a couple of email accounts and some photos, you can do most of the inventory and platform setup yourself this weekend. The moment you have cryptocurrency, an online business, monetized accounts, minor children, or a blended family, the drafting needs to be precise — and that is where a Florida attorney earns the fee. Pairing your inventory with a properly drafted will, durable power of attorney, and trust is what turns a good intention into an enforceable plan. If you would like a review of where your accounts stand, you can schedule a consultation, and if probate has already started for a loved one, our overview of the Florida probate process explains what comes next.
Estate planning used to be about the box of papers in the closet. Today, more of your life — and more of what your family will need — lives behind a login screen. A plan that ignores that is only half a plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my Florida will let my executor access my online accounts?
Only if it is drafted to. Under Chapter 740, Florida Statutes, your personal representative needs express language consenting to disclosure of digital assets and, where you allow it, the content of electronic communications. A standard will without that language often limits access. Account-level legacy tools (like Apple or Google) can also override your will, so your documents and settings must agree.
What is the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act?
It is Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, enacted in 2016, which governs how executors, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney may access a person’s digital assets. It sets a three-tier priority: a platform’s own online tool first, then your estate-planning documents, then the terms-of-service agreement. Whichever you completed highest in that order controls.
How do I handle cryptocurrency in my estate plan?
Cryptocurrency requires special care because access depends on a private key or seed phrase that no court can recover if lost. Document the recovery information securely and privately (never inside your will, which becomes public in probate), and name a fiduciary who knows how to reach it. Without that, the crypto is effectively unrecoverable after death.
Should passwords go in my will?
No. A will filed in Florida probate becomes a public record, so listing passwords there exposes them. Instead, use a reputable password manager and leave secure, separate instructions so your fiduciary can reach the master credential through your attorney or a sealed document, while your will simply grants the legal authority to act.
What happens to my digital assets if I become incapacitated, not deceased?
Your will does nothing during incapacity because it only takes effect at death. A durable power of attorney is the document that lets your chosen agent manage your digital accounts while you are alive but unable to act. Under Florida’s Chapter 709, that digital-asset authority should be specifically stated, not assumed.
