After her father died, Elena, a daughter in Orlando, faced a wall she never expected. He had managed everything online: bank statements, a brokerage account, a small cryptocurrency holding, decades of family photos, and a side business run entirely through a payment app. The probate paperwork was straightforward. Getting into his digital life was not. Two of the companies refused to talk to her without a court order, and the crypto, locked behind a password no one had, may be gone forever.
This is the modern estate problem. Most Florida plans were built for paper assets and paper records. Your digital footprint needs its own strategy.
What Counts as a Digital Asset
Digital assets cover far more than cryptocurrency. They include online bank and investment access, email and cloud storage, social media accounts, domain names, loyalty and airline miles, photos and videos, e-commerce stores, and any business records that live only in the cloud. Some have real monetary value. Others have deep sentimental value. Both can be lost if no one can reach them.
Florida Law Gives Your Fiduciary a Path
Florida adopted the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, found in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes. It gives personal representatives, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney a legal route to access and manage a person’s digital assets after death or incapacity. This was a major step forward, because before it, fiduciaries were often stuck behind company terms-of-service agreements.
But the law has a clear hierarchy. If a platform offers its own tool to name who can access your account, often called an online tool or legacy contact, that choice usually wins. Below that, your estate planning documents control. To make Chapter 740 work for your family, two things have to happen: your will, trust, and durable power of attorney under Chapter 709 should expressly grant authority over digital assets, and you should use the platforms’ own legacy tools where they exist.
The Inventory Most People Skip
A statute granting access does your fiduciary little good if they don’t know the assets exist. Elena’s father had a crypto wallet no one knew about, and the law cannot conjure a lost private key. The practical fix is a current inventory: a list of accounts, platforms, and where access information is stored. Critically, do not put passwords directly in your will. A Florida will becomes a public record once filed in probate. Instead, reference a secure password manager or a separately stored, regularly updated list, and tell your fiduciary how to find it.
Don’t Forget Incapacity
Digital access matters during life too, not just after death. A robust Florida durable power of attorney that specifically authorizes the agent to manage digital assets lets a trusted person pay bills, manage accounts, and keep a business running if you become incapacitated. Without that language, your agent may face the same locked doors Elena did, while you are still alive and needing help.
Special Care for Crypto and Business Accounts
Cryptocurrency and online businesses deserve their own attention. Self-custodied crypto is only as recoverable as your instructions for the keys; lose those, and even a court order cannot retrieve it. Online businesses tied to a single login can stall the moment the owner is gone. For these, spell out succession clearly and make sure at least one trusted person knows how recovery works.
This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice. The right approach depends on which platforms and assets you use and how your documents are written. A licensed Florida estate planning attorney can update your will, trust, and power of attorney to grant proper digital authority and build a plan your family can actually use.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of Florida estate planning. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles New York elder law.