What Can the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act Do for You?

What happens to your social media or email accounts if you lose capacity or pass away? Will your fiduciaries (i.e., your Attorney-in-Fact under a General Durable Power of Attorney, your Personal Representative under your Will or your Trustee) have access to your digital accounts or online communications? Do you want your fiduciaries to have access?

Last year, Washington’s lawmakers enacted the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, providing a straightforward manner in which to designate whether or not your fiduciaries are permitted to access your digital assets. The Act, codified at RCW 11.120, essentially provides for three ways in which your fiduciaries could gain access to your digital assets.

First, any direction you provide in an online tool or service will control the access your fiduciaries will have to your account. RCW 11.120.040(a). An example of this type of direction is Facebook’s setting that allows you to designate a legacy contact.

Second, if you do not provide direction in an online tool’s settings, you can designate in your Will, General Durable Power of Attorney or Revocable Living Trust that you either allow or prohibit your fiduciary to have access to your digital assets. RCW 11.120.040(b).

Third, if your Will, General Durable Power of Attorney or Revocable Living Trust do not indicate whether or not you authorize your fiduciary to access your digital assets, your Personal Representative could still gain access to those accounts under this law so long as access is deemed “reasonably necessary for administration of the estate.” RCW 11.120.080(4)(d)(ii). Likewise, an Attorney-in-Fact acting under authority of a General Durable Power of Attorney will be granted access to the Principal’s digital assets so long as the Power of Attorney document does not prohibit such access and grants the Attorney in Fact “general authority to act on behalf of the principal.” RCW 11.120.100.

Providing your fiduciaries with access to your digital accounts is an important first step toward facilitating the management of your affairs. Do you have questions about fiduciary access to your digital assets? We’re here to help!

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