Digital accounts can hold financial assets, family memories, creative work and information needed to manage everyday life. A useful estate plan considers both who should have legal authority and how that person could obtain appropriate access without compromising security.
Make a private inventory
Think about email, cloud storage, photographs, social media, websites, online businesses, financial accounts and any cryptocurrency. Some items have financial value; others matter because they preserve a family’s history or make it possible to locate important records.
Record where accounts are held, what they contain and whom to contact. Decide whether you want particular material preserved, transferred where permitted, memorialized or deleted. Account terms and the nature of the rights involved may limit what can be transferred.
Coordinate legal instructions with provider tools
Knowing a password is not the same as having legal authority to use an account. A fiduciary may need documents, consent or a court order before a provider will disclose information.
Florida’s digital-assets law gives priority to certain provider online tools. If a qualifying tool lets the user change or delete a disclosure direction at all times, that direction overrides a conflicting instruction in a will, trust or power of attorney. When no such direction applies, an appropriate estate-planning document may allow or prohibit disclosure.
The content of electronic communications, such as email messages, receives specific treatment. A personal representative seeking disclosure must satisfy the statutory conditions, including the applicable consent or court-direction requirements and supporting documentation.
Review online directions alongside your estate plan so they do not unintentionally conflict.
Protect practical access information
Use strong, unique passwords and appropriate multifactor authentication. A carefully selected password manager may help, but its security features, recovery options and intended emergency-access process should be evaluated. No particular product is necessary for every family.
Keep passwords, recovery codes and other secrets out of the will, which may become part of a court record. Store sensitive instructions securely and let the appropriate trusted person know how to locate them when legally authorized. Update the arrangement when devices, accounts or security settings change.
Understand cryptocurrency custody
An account held through a custodian may have an estate-transfer process that differs from a self-custodied wallet. With self-custody, loss of private keys or recovery information may make the assets inaccessible; disclosure to the wrong person may enable theft.
The plan should identify the holdings, the custody arrangement and a secure recovery process. A legal document alone cannot reconstruct a lost private key, and access instructions alone do not settle ownership or tax questions.
Keep the plan usable
Digital estate planning works best when legal authority, privacy wishes and practical instructions are considered together. We can help coordinate those decisions with the rest of your plan.
Sources: Florida digital-asset directions and online tools; Disclosure of a deceased user's communications; CISA guidance on strong passwords and password managers; SEC cryptocurrency custody guidance.
Updated October 26, 2026.