The order this is worth doing in
Four steps, and they are in this order because each one becomes harder or impossible once capacity is gone. Most families do the fourth and skip the rest.
In this order
- Ask, while they can decide This is a conversation about who they want to be able to help, not about handing anything over. It is also the only step that needs nothing from anybody else.
- Turn on what the platforms already offer A recovery contact on the phone and the computer, an emergency contact in the password manager. These are the parent's own settings, they take minutes, and they work while the parent is alive.
- Read the power of attorney, or get one drafted Specifically: does it grant authority over the content of electronic communications, in those terms? A general power does not.
- Write down the two accounts everything else resets through The email address and the phone number. Without them the rest is a list of doors with no keys.
Nothing here involves being given a password, and the reason is in the last section.
If the conversation has not happened yet, that is the first thing rather than a prerequisite to skip. Being asked to hand over access reads very differently from being asked who you would want to be able to help.
What a power of attorney actually reaches
Most states have adopted a version of the same uniform act, and it draws one line through the middle of a person's accounts. Arizona and California write it in identical words, which is why it is stated here as the general rule rather than as one state's quirk — but the numbering differs everywhere and adoption is not universal, so it is worth checking your own.
The catalogThe content
The catalog is the list: which accounts exist, who was communicated with, when. The content is what the messages say. They are governed by different sections and reached by different documents.
A general power of attorneyA power of attorney that says so expressly
General authority to act is enough for the catalog. Only an express grant of authority over the content of electronic communications reaches the messages themselves.
Something you can fix laterSomething that has to be done first
The express grant has to be in a power of attorney signed while the principal has capacity. After that it cannot be added, and no court in the states read here can supply it.
| What you have | The account list and metadata | The contents of the messages |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing but a good relationship | No — ask them to add you as a recovery contact instead | No |
| A general power of attorney | Yes, on a written request and a certification that the power is in effect | No |
| A power of attorney expressly granting authority over the content of electronic communications | Yes | Yes |
| A court appointment as guardian or conservator | Usually, after a separate hearing — see below | No, in every state read here |
The catalog route is also defeasible in a way the content route is not: the principal can direct otherwise, and the power of attorney itself can provide otherwise. A power that says nothing about digital assets is not neutral — read what it does say about them before relying on it.
What the custodian will ask for is short and the same in both routes: a written request, the power of attorney itself or a copy, and a certification by the agent under penalty of perjury that the power is in effect. It may also ask for the account identifier and evidence linking the account to your parent.
Source 1Source 2Source 3Source 4The two accounts everything else runs through
Whatever the legal position, access in practice funnels through two things. Every other account resets its password by emailing one address, and confirms the reset by texting one number. Somebody who controls both controls nearly everything; somebody who controls neither is locked out of nearly everything, whatever paperwork they hold.
Establish these two, and write them down
- Which email address is the one used to sign up for the bank, the pension, the insurer and the utilities. It is often an old one they no longer read.
- Which phone number receives the verification codes, and whose name the phone contract is in. A number that lapses takes every account with it.
- Whether two-factor authentication is on, and where the backup or recovery codes are. If they were printed once and put somewhere, that somewhere matters more than any password.
- Whether an authenticator app is involved, and on which device — because replacing that device without moving the app is how a family loses access to everything at once.
- Whether the phone or the computer has a recovery contact set. On several platforms this is a setting your parent can switch on now, in a minute, and it is the single highest-return thing on this page.
Do not cancel a parent's phone number to save the monthly cost while accounts still depend on it. Move the accounts first. A recycled number is a real route into somebody else's accounts and it is a common, avoidable loss.
Being given the password
This is how most families solve it, and it is worth being clear-eyed rather than sanctimonious about it. Sharing credentials generally breaches the platform's terms of service, and the uniform act preserves those terms rather than overriding them. Practically, it also creates three problems that only show up later.
- It looks identical to the thing it is not. Where money later goes missing, or a sibling disputes a transaction, there is no record distinguishing help from exploitation — and the person who helped is the one who has to explain.
- It stops working without warning. A password change, a new phone or a security prompt ends the arrangement at the moment it is most needed.
- It leaves nothing behind. Access held informally cannot be handed to the next person, cannot be shown to a bank, and does not survive the parent's death.
None of that means a family who has done it has done something shameful. It means the informal arrangement is worth converting into a documented one while the parent can still do the converting.
Taking access covertly is a different thing again. Setting up access to a parent's accounts without their knowledge is how financial exploitation looks from the outside, whatever the intention, and it is the fact pattern adult protective services investigates.
When your parent can no longer authorize anything
If there is no power of attorney, or there is one and it says nothing about electronic communications, the remaining route is a court. It is slower, it is public, and — in each of the 6 states read here — it does not reach the messages.
Being appointed guardian or conservator is not itself the key. Each of the states below requires a separate application about digital assets specifically, and a general order over the estate may not be what a platform accepts.
What none of this reaches
Two limits are worth knowing before spending a week on the wrong thing.
- An agent gets no more rights over an account than the account holder had. A license that ends on death, or a subscription that cannot be transferred, is not made transferable by any of this.
- The rules reach the electronic record rather than the asset behind it. Access to an online banking login is not the same as authority over the money, which comes from the power of attorney or the court order rather than from the password.
There is also a practical limit that catches people out: the custodian is entitled to take time. Several states give a platform sixty days to answer a request, and a request made the week it is needed is a request that will not be answered in time.
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Sahvelo gives information drawn from statutes, agency guidance and official forms. It is not legal advice for your particular situation. Terms & disclaimer.
What changes where you live
If a court has to be involved, what it can order differs — and so does who has to ask.
What can a court give a guardian or conservator?
The answer in 6 states
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Arizona
A conservator, after an opportunity for a hearing, on a certified order that gives authority over the digital assets specifically — a general order over the estate may not be accepted. What it delivers is the catalog. Arizona also carries a power most of this branch does not: a conservator with general authority to manage the assets may ask a custodian to suspend or terminate an account for good cause. Shutting something down is easier than reading it.Source 5 -
California
A conservator, after a noticed hearing, on a certified order giving authority over the conservatee's digital assets. The word guardian does not appear in the section at all. The catalog is the ceiling, and the whole part is expressly made subject to the sections governing what a conservator of the person may do — so the digital order sits underneath the conservatorship's own limits rather than beside them. The section was added effective January 2025.Source 6 -
Illinois
The catalog, after a hearing, and never the contents. Illinois calls the adult a person with a disability rather than a ward, and § 14 begins with the court rather than the platform: after an opportunity for a hearing under the Probate Act, the court may direct disclosure to the guardian. Being appointed guardian is not itself the key.Source 7 -
Michigan
There is no guardian route at all — the conservator is the one with a path. Michigan's digital-assets act defines guardian and then leaves guardians out of the definition of fiduciary, which is a choice made with the word in hand. A conservator needs a hearing and then a certified court order that gives authority over the digital assets specifically; a general order over the estate may not be accepted. What it delivers is the catalog.Source 8Source 9 -
North Carolina
The catalog, after a motion in the cause filed in the existing guardianship file rather than a fresh proceeding — but still a hearing and still an order that has to be obtained before a platform will move. The contents are outside what the order can deliver.Source 10 -
Virginia
A guardian or a conservator, after a hearing, on a certified court order giving authority over the digital assets of the protected person. Virginia names both roles where Michigan names only one, and the entitlement is the same as everywhere else in this branch: the catalog, and not the content of the messages.Source 11
Sahvelo has read all six of these states at their own sources. Another state's rule may differ, and we would rather say that than generalize.
Questions people ask about this
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Can I just use their phone when they hand it to me?
Using a device your parent has handed you, with their knowledge, to do a thing they have asked you to do, is not what any of this is about. The problems start when the arrangement becomes standing rather than occasional, when it outlasts their ability to ask, or when somebody later needs to tell the difference between help and something else. Those are the moments to have documentation for, and they arrive without warning. -
Our power of attorney says nothing about digital assets. Is it useless?
Not useless. General authority to act is enough for the catalog — the account list, the metadata — under the uniform act's own terms. What it does not reach is the content of the messages, which needs an express grant. If your parent still has capacity, the fix is a new or supplemental power of attorney with the express language in it, and it is worth doing this week rather than this year.Source 1Source 2 -
What exactly should the power of attorney say?
Ask for an express grant of authority over the content of electronic communications, in those words, plus specific authority over digital assets generally. Sahvelo does not draft documents and the wording belongs to whoever does — but the thing to ask for is specific enough to check, and a power that is silent on it is a frequent version of this problem. -
The bank will not give me online access under the power of attorney. What now?
Many institutions will accept their own form signed alongside the power of attorney, and online access is often governed by that form rather than by the document itself — a ten-minute job while your parent is well and impossible afterwards. Ask each institution what it needs for online access specifically, in writing, and keep the answer with the document. If the refusal is of the power of attorney itself rather than of the online access, that is a different problem with its own answer. -
Does any of this carry over after they die?
No. A power of attorney ends at death, and the rules for a deceased person's accounts are a separate set of sections with a separate set of documents — a death certificate, letters or a small-estate affidavit, and in most states the contents of messages only where the person recorded consent. That is covered separately.Source 2 -
How long does a platform have to respond?
Several states give a custodian sixty days from receiving what the statute requires, with an application to the court available if it does not comply. Treat this as a step with a lead time rather than something that can be done in the week it becomes urgent.
Official links you'll need
Every link goes directly to the issuing agency or the official tool, and opens in a new tab.
Where this sits in the process
Related
- Power of attorneythe document this whole question turns on
- Digital legacythe same rules after a death, which work differently
- Essential documentswhere the access details belong once you have them
- Account inventorythe list this is access to
- Which authority reaches whatauthority over the money, as distinct from access to the login
- Financial exploitationwhat informal access looks like from the outside when something goes wrong
- Guardianshipthe route once capacity has gone, and what it does not deliver
- Helping from a distancewhy a verification code is where a remote arrangement actually breaks
Sources
The uniform act, as two states write it for a living principal, and as four states write it for a court-appointed guardian or conservator.
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That an agent reaches the content of messages only on an express grant.
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A.R.S. § 14-13110 (Disclosure of other digital assets of principal) (opens in a new tab)
That the catalog comes to an agent with general authority to act.
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California writing the same express-grant requirement, added effective January 2025.
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Cal. Prob. Code § 879.2 (Disclosure of other digital assets of principal) (opens in a new tab)
California writing the same catalog rule.
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Arizona's conservator route, and its power to have an account suspended or terminated.
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California's conservator route, and that it is subject to the conservatorship powers sections.
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Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (2015), 755 ILCS 70/14 (opens in a new tab)
Illinois: a hearing first, and the catalog only.
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Michigan leaving guardians out of the definition of fiduciary.
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Michigan's conservator route, and the order that has to name digital assets.
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North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 36F, ss. 36F-2 and 36F-14 (opens in a new tab)
North Carolina's motion in the cause, and the cap on what it delivers.
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Virginia naming both guardian and conservator, and stopping at the catalog.
Sources last reviewed 2026-08-20. Where a source is marked pending re-verification, the page says so wherever the claim appears.