Digital Assets and Online Accounts in Your Florida Estate Plan

Digital assets in your Florida estate plan are the electronic records and online accounts you own or control — cryptocurrency, brokerage and bank logins, email, cloud-stored files, domain names, loyalty points, and social media — together with the legal authority you grant a fiduciary to manage them after death or incapacity. Under Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740, Florida Statutes), your personal representative, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney can lawfully access those assets only if your documents and the platform’s own tools say they can. Left unaddressed, a seven-figure crypto wallet or a profitable e-commerce account can become legally and practically unreachable.

For high-net-worth families in Miami and across South Florida, this is no longer a niche concern. A meaningful share of net worth now lives behind a password rather than in a deed box, and the rules governing who may open that door are different from the rules that govern your real estate or your bank ledger. This article explains what counts as a digital asset, how Florida law treats fiduciary access, and the concrete steps that keep your wealth from evaporating into a forgotten inbox.

What Counts as a Digital Asset Under Florida Law

Florida Statutes section 740.002 defines a “digital asset” broadly as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. That definition is deliberately wide. It does not, however, include the underlying asset or liability unless that asset is itself an electronic record — a distinction that matters when you start mapping your estate.

In practice, the digital assets we see in high-net-worth Miami estates tend to fall into a handful of buckets:

• Stored-value and investment accounts: cryptocurrency wallets, exchange accounts (Coinbase, Kraken), online brokerage logins, and fintech balances. These often hold real, transferable value.
• Income-producing digital property: e-commerce stores, monetized YouTube or social channels, domain name portfolios, app revenue, and licensing accounts.
• Records and communications: email, cloud storage, photo libraries, and document vaults — frequently the master key to everything else, because account recovery runs through email.
• Loyalty and stored credits: airline miles, hotel points, and gift-card balances, some of which are transferable at death and some of which are forfeited by contract.
• Reputational and sentimental assets: social media profiles, blogs, and personal websites that carry no cash value but enormous family or brand significance.

One assumption trips people up constantly: you may not actually own some of what you think you do. A Kindle library or a streaming purchase is typically a non-transferable license, not property. The Bitcoin in your self-custodied wallet, by contrast, is fully yours — but only your private key controls it, and no court order can recreate that key. The legal character of each item drives how we plan for it.

Why a Traditional Will Does Not Solve This

A will can say “I leave my digital assets to my daughter,” and that disposition is valid. But the will does not, by itself, give your personal representative the technical access or the contractual right to log in. Many platforms’ terms of service prohibit password sharing and treat accounts as non-transferable. Federal computer-fraud and privacy statutes can turn an heir’s well-meaning login into unauthorized access. Florida’s digital-assets law exists precisely to bridge that gap between owning the value and being allowed to reach it.

How Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act Works

Florida adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, codified at Chapter 740, Florida Statutes, effective 2016. The statute creates a tiered system of authority that every Florida estate plan should be drafted against.

1. The online tool controls first. If a platform offers its own legacy-designation feature — Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Apple’s Legacy Contact, Facebook’s Legacy Contact — the choice you make there overrides conflicting instructions in your will or trust. This is the highest-priority directive under section 740.04.
2. Your estate documents control next. If you have not used an online tool, the directions in your will, trust, or power of attorney govern. This is why express digital-asset language in those documents is not optional for serious planners.
3. The terms-of-service agreement controls last. Absent both an online tool and document language, the platform’s own contract decides — and those contracts frequently default to deletion or denial of access.

The Act also draws a line between the content of electronic communications (the body of your emails and messages) and a mere catalogue (the metadata — who you emailed and when). A fiduciary generally needs an explicit, additional grant of authority to reach the content of private communications, because of overlapping federal privacy law. Good drafting addresses both layers expressly rather than hoping a generic clause covers them.

Personal Representatives, Trustees, and Agents Are Treated Differently

Chapter 740 grants distinct default powers depending on who the fiduciary is. A personal representative of a probate estate, a trustee holding assets in a trust, and an agent under a durable power of attorney each access digital assets under their own statutory provisions, with their own consent requirements. For incapacity planning, the durable power of attorney must specifically authorize digital-asset access; Florida’s power-of-attorney statute (Chapter 709) requires certain powers to be expressly enumerated rather than implied. A boilerplate POA signed years ago almost certainly does not cover your crypto exchange login.

Building Digital Assets Into a High-Net-Worth Plan

For affluent Miami families, digital-asset planning is really asset-protection planning. The goal is continuity of control and confidentiality — not a list of passwords stapled to a will, which becomes a public record once filed in probate. Here is the structure we generally recommend.

Use a Revocable Living Trust as the Hub

Because trusts in Florida avoid probate and stay private, a fully funded revocable living trust is the natural home for digital wealth. Assets titled to or directed into the trust pass under terms no one outside the family ever reads, and the successor trustee steps in immediately on incapacity — no court, no delay, no public docket exposing what you hold. For families layering in tax planning, creditor shielding, or beneficiaries with special circumstances, the trust framework also coordinates with the rest of the structure. If your planning crosses state lines or you maintain ties to New York, our colleagues handle sophisticated that dovetails with the same principles.

Add Express Digital-Asset Language to Every Core Document

Your will, trust, and durable power of attorney should each contain a clause that (1) defines digital assets broadly, (2) grants the fiduciary authority to access, control, transfer, and close accounts, and (3) specifically consents to disclosure of the content of electronic communications under Chapter 740. Three documents, three grants — because the personal representative, trustee, and agent draw their powers from different parts of the statute.

Create a Living Inventory Kept Outside Your Will

The legal authority is useless if the fiduciary cannot find the assets. We have clients maintain a confidential, regularly updated digital-asset inventory — stored in an encrypted password manager or a secured letter of instruction — that lists accounts, the existence (not necessarily the keys) of crypto holdings, and where recovery information lives. This document is referenced by, but never embedded in, the will, so it stays private and can be revised without re-executing your estate plan.

Handle Cryptocurrency and Private Keys With Special Care

Self-custodied crypto is the single most common point of total, permanent loss in modern estates. If the private key or seed phrase dies with the owner, the asset is gone — no statute, fiduciary, or judge can recover it. Planning options include multi-signature wallets requiring more than one keyholder, instructions split between a trusted person and a secured custodian, or moving holdings onto a regulated platform that honors fiduciary access requests. Whatever the method, the key-recovery plan must be documented securely and tested, not assumed.

Coordinate Beneficiaries With Special Needs

When digital wealth is meant to benefit a loved one who receives government benefits, an outright transfer can disqualify them. The same care you apply to titling cash and securities applies to crypto and account balances. A properly structured supplemental needs trust preserves eligibility while still allowing the beneficiary to benefit — for cross-jurisdiction families, our New York team’s work on the illustrates how digital assets can be funneled into a protective vehicle rather than handed over directly.

Common Mistakes Miami Families Make

• Relying on a password list. Passwords change, lists go stale, and a list in a will becomes public. Legal authority plus a living inventory beats a static password dump every time.
• Assuming the executor “can just log in.” Doing so may violate platform terms and federal access laws. Authority must be granted, not borrowed.
• Ignoring the online-tool tier. A Google or Apple legacy setting silently overrides your trust. We audit these designations so they align with your documents instead of contradicting them.
• Treating crypto like a bank account. Banks have a customer-service desk and a death-claims process. A cold wallet has neither.
• Letting documents go stale. A POA or will signed before you owned an exchange account almost never reaches it.

If your existing documents predate your digital holdings, a focused review is the fastest fix. Our Florida estate planning attorneys handle exactly this kind of , and we routinely update plans that were perfectly sound a decade ago but silent on the assets that now matter most.

Putting It Together

Digital assets are not a separate, optional module bolted onto a “real” estate plan — for many Miami families they are now a core part of net worth and of the asset-protection picture. The Florida statute gives you the tools; the plan has to actually use them. That means express grants in your will, trust, and power of attorney, a private and current inventory, deliberate handling of crypto keys, and online-tool designations that reinforce rather than override your wishes. Coordinated well, your fiduciary inherits both the value and the lawful means to reach it. Coordinated poorly, your heirs inherit a lockout.

If you want your existing plan reviewed for digital-asset exposure, or you are building a new plan around significant crypto, business, or online holdings, contact our Miami estate planning team to start the conversation. You can also review how Florida probate treats assets that fall outside a trust, so you can see what a well-built plan helps your family avoid.

This article is general information about Florida law and is not legal advice. Statutes and platform policies change; consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Florida will give my executor access to my online accounts and cryptocurrency?

Not automatically. A will can dispose of your digital assets, but under Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes your personal representative needs an express grant of authority to access accounts and to read the content of private communications. If a platform’s online tool (like Google’s Inactive Account Manager) is set, that designation can override your will entirely. The safest approach is express digital-asset language in your will, trust, and power of attorney, paired with online-tool settings that match your wishes.

What is Florida's Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act?

It is Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes, Florida’s version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, effective 2016. It sets a three-tier priority system: a platform’s online tool controls first, your estate documents control next, and the terms-of-service agreement controls last. It also distinguishes between the content of communications and mere metadata, requiring an explicit grant to reach private content.

How should I plan for cryptocurrency in my estate?

Crypto held in a self-custodied wallet is lost forever if the private key or seed phrase is lost, because no court or fiduciary can recreate it. Plan by documenting key-recovery securely (not in your public will), considering multi-signature wallets or split custody, possibly using a regulated platform that honors fiduciary access, and listing holdings in a confidential, updated inventory referenced by your estate documents.

Should digital assets go in my will or my trust?

For high-net-worth Florida families, a funded revocable living trust is usually the better hub because it avoids probate and keeps your holdings private, while still giving a successor trustee immediate authority on incapacity or death. A will becomes a public record in probate, so it is a poor place to list valuable digital accounts. Most plans include express digital-asset clauses in the will, the trust, and the durable power of attorney.

Can a digital asset be left to a beneficiary who receives government benefits?

Yes, but an outright transfer of crypto or account balances can disqualify a beneficiary from means-tested benefits. Directing those assets into a properly drafted supplemental or special needs trust lets the beneficiary benefit without losing eligibility. Coordinating digital assets with the rest of the beneficiary’s structure is essential and should be done by an experienced estate planning attorney.