Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act

What it means

The Act sets an order of authority. What the account holder recorded in the provider's own online tool comes first; then what they said in a will, trust or power of attorney; then the provider's terms of service.

It generally distinguishes the contents of communications, which need explicit consent, from a catalog of who was communicated with, which is easier to obtain.

It does not force a provider to give a password. It gives a fiduciary a legal basis to ask, and a process for asking.

Why it matters

It is the reason the setting inside an account — a legacy contact, an inactive account manager — matters more than anything written in a will.

It is also why logging in as somebody else is the wrong route: there is a lawful one, and using the unlawful one can forfeit it.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a family cannot reach a parent's accounts.
• When setting up your own digital legacy.
• When a provider refuses to discuss an account.

How this varies by state

Whether a state has adopted the Act, in which version, and what it permits are all set by state law.

Related terms

• Catalog of electronic communicationsThe list of who was written to and when — as distinct from what the messages said.
• Content of an electronic communicationWhat the messages actually said — the half of a digital account that is hardest to reach, and impossible to arrange for after capacity is gone.
• Custodian (of a digital asset)The company holding the account — and, under the digital-assets statutes, the party an executor or agent is actually asking.
• Digital assetAn online account or file that has value or meaning — email, photographs, cloud storage, domains, currency accounts, loyalty balances.
• Durable power of attorneyA power of attorney that keeps working after the person who signed it loses the ability to make decisions — which is usually the whole point of signing one.
• ExecutorThe person named in a will to carry it out — once a court actually appoints them.
• Fiduciary dutyThe obligation to act for somebody else's benefit rather than your own — and to be able to show you did.
• Legacy contactA person you name inside an online account itself, whom the provider will let reach it after you die. It usually beats anything written in a will.
• TrusteeThe person or institution that holds and manages trust property for the people it is meant to benefit.

Official sources

The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.

• Uniform Law Commission — the uniform acts, and which states have enacted each (opens in a new tab)

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Digital legacy