Digital assets in your estate plan are the online accounts, files, and electronic records you own or control — email, cloud photos, financial logins, social media, cryptocurrency, domain names, and loyalty points — together with the legal authority you grant a fiduciary to access them after death or incapacity. In New York, that authority is governed by the Administration of Digital Assets Act, codified at Estate Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) Article 13-A. Without explicit, properly drafted permission, your executor or agent may be legally locked out of accounts that hold real value and irreplaceable records.
Most Long Island families build their estate plans around the house, the brokerage account, and the life insurance. Those still matter. But an increasing share of what you own — and a surprising share of what your family will need just to settle your affairs — now lives behind a password. If your plan doesn’t address that, the people you trust most can end up staring at a login screen they have no legal right to open.
What Counts as a Digital Asset in New York
New York’s definition is deliberately broad. Under EPTL Article 13-A, a “digital asset” is an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. That sweeps in far more than people expect. A useful way to think about it is by category.
- Financial accounts that are online-only or paperless: bank and brokerage logins, PayPal, Venmo, robo-advisor platforms, and crypto exchange accounts.
- Cryptocurrency and digital tokens: Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and NFTs — often stored in wallets that no one but you can unlock.
- Communications: email accounts and the electronic communications inside them, which receive separate, stricter treatment under the statute.
- Cloud-stored content: photos, videos, documents, and backups on iCloud, Google, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
- Revenue-producing or business assets: domain names, websites, e-commerce stores, monetized social or video channels, and customer lists.
- Loyalty and rewards programs: airline miles, hotel points, and credit card rewards — some transferable at death, many not.
- Social media and personal profiles: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and similar accounts that families often want memorialized or closed.
One important distinction: owning a digital asset is not the same as owning the platform it sits on. You generally license access to most online services under a terms-of-service agreement; you don’t own the service. That is exactly why statutory authority and clear drafting matter — the law has to bridge the gap between your ownership of the content and the provider’s control of the account.
Why Long Island Homeowners Can’t Treat This as Optional
Homestead-minded clients sometimes assume digital planning is for tech entrepreneurs. In practice, the most painful lockouts happen to ordinary households. The property tax bill, the homeowners insurance policy, the HELOC statement, and the closing documents from the last refinance increasingly arrive only by email or live in a paperless portal. When an estate’s anchor asset is the home, the family often needs digital access just to keep that asset insured, paid, and out of foreclosure while the estate is administered.
There’s also a quieter risk. Recurring digital subscriptions and auto-payments keep draining a decedent’s account long after death because no one knows they exist or can reach them to cancel. And on the value side, a forgotten crypto wallet or an unmonetized domain can be worth more than people realize — or can be lost forever if the private key dies with the owner.
How New York Law Lets Your Fiduciary Get In
EPTL Article 13-A — New York’s enactment of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) — creates a tiered system of authority. Knowing the order of priority is the whole game, because it determines whether your wishes or a tech company’s default settings win.
1. The provider’s online tool controls first
If an online service offers a dedicated planning feature — Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact, or Apple’s Legacy Contact — and you use it, those instructions generally override everything else, including your will. This is the most powerful and most overlooked step in the entire process. Setting these up takes minutes and costs nothing.
2. Your estate planning documents control next
If you haven’t used a provider’s tool, the directions in your will, trust, or power of attorney govern. This is where careful drafting earns its keep: the documents should expressly grant your fiduciary authority over digital assets and, critically, over the content of electronic communications, which the statute treats more protectively than the mere existence of an account.
3. The terms-of-service agreement controls last
If you’ve done neither, the provider’s terms of service decide what your fiduciary can or cannot access — and those terms are written to protect the company, not your family.
The practical lesson is simple: don’t leave it to step three. A plan that combines provider tools with explicit document language puts you in the first two tiers, where your intentions actually carry weight.
Drafting That Actually Works
Boilerplate “digital assets” clauses are common and frequently inadequate. Effective drafting addresses a few specific things.
- Explicit consent to disclose content of electronic communications. Under EPTL 13-A, general fiduciary powers are not enough to unlock the content of your emails and messages. The grant has to be express. This single point trips up otherwise solid plans.
- Authority across all your instruments. Your will speaks at death, but incapacity often comes first. A New York statutory power of attorney and any revocable trust should each carry consistent digital-asset language so your agent can act before probate is even open.
- A coordinated inventory — kept separate from the documents. Never list passwords inside a will; a probated will becomes a public record. Maintain a secure, regularly updated inventory of accounts and where credentials are stored, referenced by your documents but held apart from them.
- Special handling for crypto and self-custodied assets. No private key, no asset. Plans holding cryptocurrency need a secure, lawful method for the fiduciary to obtain seed phrases or hardware-wallet access without exposing them prematurely.
For families with both New York roots and Florida ties — a common pattern on Long Island, where many homeowners eventually keep a second residence south — coordination across jurisdictions matters too. If you have property or accounts tied to Florida, our colleagues handle Florida estate planning and can align the two plans. The same coordination logic applies when digital planning is folded into a broader strategy involving , which can hold and pass certain digital and financial assets outside of probate entirely.
Incapacity, Not Just Death
Digital-asset planning is half of a bigger picture, and the half people forget is incapacity. If you’re hospitalized or develop a cognitive condition, your agent may need to pay the mortgage online, manage automatic bill pay, or reach an insurer’s portal long before any will takes effect. This is where digital authority and overlap directly. A power of attorney that grants digital-asset authority under EPTL Article 13-A keeps the lights on — sometimes literally — during a period when the family is already stretched thin.
A Practical Starting Checklist
- Set up the provider tools you actually use — Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple and Facebook Legacy Contacts — today.
- Create a written inventory of accounts, devices, and where credentials live; update it when accounts change.
- Have your will, power of attorney, and any trust reviewed for express EPTL 13-A digital-asset and electronic-communications language.
- Document a secure path to any cryptocurrency keys and hardware wallets.
- Identify and note recurring subscriptions and auto-payments so a fiduciary can stop the bleed quickly.
- Coordinate digital authority with your incapacity planning, not only your death documents.
Done well, none of this is complicated — but it has to be deliberate. The default outcome, when no one plans, is a grieving family arguing with customer-service queues while bills pile up against a house that should have been protected. A plan built on New York’s statute and the providers’ own tools quietly avoids all of it.
Talk to a Long Island Estate Planning Attorney
If your estate plan was drafted before paperless statements, smartphones, and crypto became normal, it almost certainly doesn’t address your digital life. Our attorneys can update your will, trust, and power of attorney to include enforceable digital-asset provisions under EPTL Article 13-A and coordinate the plan with your real estate and incapacity goals. Contact our office to review where your accounts — and your authority — stand today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What law governs digital assets in a New York estate plan?
New York’s Administration of Digital Assets Act, codified at EPTL Article 13-A (the state’s version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, or RUFADAA). It creates a tiered priority: a provider’s online tool controls first, then your estate planning documents, and the terms-of-service agreement last.
Can my executor automatically access my email after I die?
Not automatically. Under EPTL Article 13-A, the content of electronic communications such as emails receives heightened protection. A fiduciary generally needs your express consent — through a provider tool or specific language in your will, trust, or power of attorney — to access the content, not just general fiduciary powers.
Should I put my passwords in my will?
No. A will that goes through probate becomes a public record, so listing passwords there exposes them. Instead, keep a secure, separate inventory of accounts and credentials that your documents reference but do not contain, and use providers’ built-in legacy tools where available.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I don't plan for it?
Cryptocurrency in a self-custodied wallet can be permanently lost without the private key or seed phrase. Your plan should include a secure, lawful method for your fiduciary to obtain access so the asset isn’t stranded forever after your death or incapacity.
Do I need digital-asset language in my power of attorney too, or just my will?
Both. A will only takes effect at death, but incapacity often comes first. A New York statutory power of attorney with EPTL 13-A digital-asset authority lets your agent manage online bills, insurance portals, and accounts while you are alive but unable to act.
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