Access to Digital Assets of Decedents

Overview

Terms of service agreements and privacy policies govern access to social media and email accounts, and may expire when a user dies. Surviving family members were unable to access social media accounts or valuable digital assets until recently, since state laws that govern the actions of personal representatives or executors were enacted before email and social media became widespread and did not account for digital property. 

However, at least 49 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands have now enacted laws addressing access to email, social media accounts, microblogging or other website accounts, or other electronically stored assets, upon a person’s incapacity or death. Of those states, 46 have adopted either the Uniform Law Commission's (ULC) Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA) (2014) or the revised version of UFADAA--the Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Revised (2015), which give internet users the power to plan for the management and disposition of their digital assets in the same way they can make plans for their tangible property.

Legislation is pending in Massachusetts in 2022 (HB 1749, HB 1864, SB 973, SB 1033).

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