Digital Assets and Online Accounts in Your Florida Estate Plan: A Snowbird’s Guide

Including digital assets in your Florida estate plan means granting your chosen fiduciary the legal authority to access, manage, and distribute your online accounts, files, and electronic records after death or incapacity. In Florida, this is governed by the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740, Florida Statutes), which took effect July 1, 2016. Without express authorization in your will, trust, or power of attorney, the people you trust most may be locked out of accounts you assumed they could simply log into.

I’ve sat across the table from a lot of Miami families over the years, and the same scene keeps repeating. A spouse passes away, and the surviving partner knows the bills were paid online, the photos lived somewhere “in the cloud,” and the brokerage statements stopped arriving in the mailbox years ago. But nobody knows the passwords. Nobody has legal authority to demand them. And the company on the other end of the screen is bound by federal privacy law and its own terms of service to say no.

For retirees and seasonal residents who split the year between Florida and somewhere colder, this problem is sharper than most people realize. Your financial life is increasingly digital, often spread across two states, and your paper trail keeps shrinking. Here’s how to fix it before it becomes your family’s problem.

What Counts as a Digital Asset Under Florida Law

Florida Statute 740.002 defines a “digital asset” as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. That’s a broad definition on purpose. It does not, however, automatically include the underlying money or property an account holds, only the electronic record itself, unless that asset is itself an electronic record.

In plain terms, your digital estate is larger than most people assume. It typically includes:

• Financial accounts accessed primarily online: bank logins, brokerage and retirement portals, and paperless statement systems
• Email accounts, which are often the master key, because password resets for everything else flow through them
• Cloud storage and photos on services like Google, Apple iCloud, and Dropbox, holding a lifetime of family memories
• Subscription and loyalty accounts, from airline miles to streaming services that keep charging a credit card long after death
• Social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn that need to be memorialized or closed
• Cryptocurrency and digital wallets, which can be permanently lost if no one has the private keys or seed phrase
• Domain names, online businesses, and digital storefronts that generate income or hold goodwill

One distinction matters a great deal. Chapter 740 separates the content of electronic communications, the words inside your emails and messages, from a catalogue of communications, meaning the record of who you communicated with and when. The content enjoys stronger privacy protection under both federal law and the Florida statute, which is exactly why your documents need to address it specifically rather than assume access.

Why Online Account Passwords Are Not an Estate Plan

The most common mistake I see is well-intentioned and completely ineffective: a sticky note, a spreadsheet, or a shared password manager handed off to an adult child. People assume that handing over credentials solves the problem. Legally, it often creates a new one.

When your personal representative or agent logs into your account using your password after your death, they may be violating the provider’s terms of service and, depending on the facts, federal anti-hacking statutes such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act. Custodians, the companies that hold your data, know this. That is why so many of them refuse informal requests and demand documented legal authority before they release anything.

Chapter 740 exists precisely to give your fiduciary that documented authority through the front door, so they never have to rely on a borrowed password and a hope that nobody asks questions.

The Three-Tier Priority System in Chapter 740

Florida’s law establishes a clear hierarchy that determines who gets access to your digital assets and how. Understanding this order is the single most useful thing a Florida resident can take away from the statute.

Tier One: The Online Tool

If a provider offers an “online tool”, a feature that lets you name someone to control or delete your account, your instructions through that tool override everything else, including your will. Google’s Inactive Account Manager and Facebook’s Legacy Contact are the best-known examples. Under Section 740.003, a direction made through one of these tools controls, as long as it is separate from the general terms-of-service agreement.

This is a quiet but powerful provision. If you set a Legacy Contact in your phone settings and then sign a will naming someone else, the online tool wins. The two need to point in the same direction.

Tier Two: Your Estate Planning Documents

If you have not used an online tool, your access instructions in your will, trust, or power of attorney govern. This is where the real work of planning happens. A properly drafted estate plan grants your personal representative, trustee, or agent express authority to access digital assets, including, where you choose, the content of your electronic communications.

Florida’s power of attorney statute and Chapter 740 work together here. A general power of attorney that predates this law, or one that simply doesn’t mention digital assets, frequently fails to give your agent what they need while you are alive but incapacitated. That gap matters as much during a long hospitalization or cognitive decline as it does after death.

Tier Three: The Terms-of-Service Agreement

If you’ve done nothing through an online tool or your documents, the provider’s terms of service control by default, and those terms are written to protect the company, not your family. Relying on Tier Three is how accounts get frozen, photos get lost, and grieving relatives spend months sending death certificates into a void.

Special Concerns for Florida Snowbirds and Seasonal Residents

If you maintain homes in two states, your digital estate planning carries an extra layer of complication that full-time residents don’t face.

First is the question of domicile. Your fiduciary’s authority and the probate process generally follow your legal domicile. If you intend Florida to be your home state, with its favorable homestead protections and absence of a state income tax, your estate plan should reflect that clearly and consistently. Inconsistent records, a New York driver’s license here, a Florida voter registration there, can invite a domicile dispute that ripples into how and where your digital assets are administered.

Second, geography multiplies the password problem. The handyman in Miami, the property manager up north, the two utility companies, the seasonal insurance policies, all of it often lives behind logins that only you know. When you’re not there for half the year, an account problem can go undetected for months.

For families with assets and beneficiaries in more than one state, coordinated planning matters. Many of our clients hold property or family connections in New York as well as Florida, and we routinely coordinate with our colleagues at to keep documents aligned across both jurisdictions. If a beneficiary has a disability and you’re funding their future across state lines, a may need to dovetail with your Florida plan so that digital and financial assets reach them without jeopardizing benefits.

How to Build Digital Assets Into Your Florida Estate Plan

Putting this into practice doesn’t require you to become a technologist. It requires the right documents and a little organization. Here is the approach I walk Miami clients through:

1. Take inventory. Make a written list of your accounts by category, financial, email, cloud, social, crypto, and subscriptions. You do not need to write passwords here; you need to identify what exists so nothing is missed.
2. Use the online tools where they exist. Set a Legacy Contact on Apple and Facebook and configure Google’s Inactive Account Manager. These take minutes and sit at the top of the priority ladder.
3. Update your core documents. Your will, revocable trust, and durable power of attorney should each contain Chapter 740 language expressly authorizing access to digital assets and, where appropriate, the content of electronic communications.
4. Store credentials securely and separately. A reputable password manager with a documented recovery process keeps your living information safe while your legal documents carry the authority. Never put passwords in your will, which becomes a public record once filed in Florida probate.
5. Address cryptocurrency directly. Digital wallets are unforgiving. If no one can locate the private keys or seed phrase, the assets are gone forever, with no custodian to appeal to. These require specific, secure instructions.
6. Revisit it. You open and close accounts constantly. A plan written five years ago is already stale. Review your digital inventory whenever you update the rest of your plan.

For the document side of this work, our firm handles Florida estate planning from start to finish; you can learn more about our or simply reach out through our contact page to talk through your particular situation.

What Your Fiduciary Can Actually Do With This Authority

Once Chapter 740 authority is in place, your personal representative, trustee, agent, or guardian can request disclosure of digital assets from custodians under Sections 740.04 through 740.06. The custodian, in turn, receives statutory immunity for complying in good faith, which is precisely what makes them willing to act. Your fiduciary can typically obtain a catalogue of accounts, close or memorialize profiles, retrieve files and photos, secure financial records, and prevent the slow bleed of recurring subscription charges.

The difference between a family that spends an afternoon settling the digital estate and one that spends a year fighting customer-service departments comes down almost entirely to whether these few paragraphs made it into the documents. It is some of the least expensive, highest-value planning you can do.

Don’t Leave Your Digital Life to Chance

Your online accounts are no less real than the house in Miami or the brokerage statement that used to come in the mail. Treat them that way. Florida gave you a clear legal framework in Chapter 740; the only question is whether your documents take advantage of it. A short conversation now spares the people you love a long and frustrating ordeal later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Florida law let my family access my online accounts after I die?

Only if you authorize it. Under the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740, effective July 1, 2016), your fiduciary needs express authority, either through a provider’s online tool like a Facebook Legacy Contact, or through specific language in your will, trust, or power of attorney. Without that, providers default to their terms of service, which usually means no access.

Is it enough to just give my spouse or children my passwords?

No. Handing off passwords is convenient but legally risky. When someone logs into your account using your credentials after your death, they may violate the provider’s terms of service and federal laws like the Stored Communications Act. Chapter 740 gives your fiduciary lawful, documented authority so they never have to rely on a borrowed password.

What happens to my cryptocurrency if I don't plan for it?

It can be lost permanently. Unlike a bank, there is no custodian to appeal to with a death certificate. If no one can locate your private keys or recovery seed phrase, the assets are unrecoverable. Crypto requires specific, secure instructions that connect your fiduciary’s legal authority to the practical means of access.

I'm a snowbird with homes in two states. Does that change my digital estate planning?

Yes. Your fiduciary’s authority generally follows your legal domicile, so it should be clear and consistent that Florida is your home state. Splitting time between states also multiplies accounts and logins, so coordinated documents across jurisdictions are important, especially if you have property or beneficiaries elsewhere.

Which Florida documents should include digital asset authority?

Three of them: your will, your revocable trust, and your durable power of attorney. The power of attorney matters during incapacity while you are still living, and the will and trust govern after death. Each should contain Chapter 740 language expressly authorizing access to digital assets and, where appropriate, the content of electronic communications.