The Executor’s Guide to Digital Assets, Passwords, and Online Accounts

There was a time when settling a loved one’s affairs meant sorting through a desk drawer, a shoebox of receipts, and perhaps a safe deposit box at the local bank. Those days have slipped away. Today, a person’s life is scattered across screens, stored in clouds, and locked behind passwords that no one else may know.

Your Estate Is Already Digital

Whether we have given it much thought or not, most of us already hold a digital estate. Our email, our photographs, our money, our cloud storage, and our online accounts all form an inheritance of their own. These digital assets often carry three kinds of value. Some are financial, such as cryptocurrency, online financial accounts, rewards and credits, and revenue-producing websites. Some are practical, such as email, cloud documents, tax and financial records, and online business accounts. And some are deeply personal, like digital photographs and videos, social media, messages, and creative works.

What the Law Allows

In Illinois, the handling of digital assets is guided by the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, known by the shorthand RUFADAA. The law applies to personal representatives, agents, guardians, and trustees. It creates rules for disclosure by the online companies that hold these accounts, and it recognizes directions a person may have made through certain online tools. It is important to understand what the law does not do. It does not erase privacy law, copyright law, or the terms of service a person agreed to when they first signed up.

Illinois follows a priority system that determines whose instructions carry the day. First comes the online tool, meaning a provider’s legacy or account-direction feature, which can take priority when it meets the requirements of the statute. Second comes the estate planning document, so that if no controlling online tool was used, a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record can address disclosure. Third come the provider’s own terms of service, which still matter, particularly when the user has given no direction at all. A forgotten setting can conflict with a carefully drafted estate plan.

Email deserves a closer look. An executor may need the content of messages, not just a list of who wrote to whom. Illinois law generally requires the user’s consent or a court direction before that content is disclosed, and the provider may require specific estate documents and account information before it will act.

A Word of Caution

In the early days of grief, there is a natural impulse to tidy up and to put things away. When it comes to digital property, that impulse should be resisted.

Secure phones, tablets, computers, and external drives, and keep those devices charged and connected when it is appropriate to do so. Do not reset, wipe, trade in, or discard any device. Preserve the mail, the bills, and the paperwork that may reveal which accounts existed in the first place. And before accessing anything sensitive, speak with the estate attorney.

The smartphone in particular may be the master key to everything else. A phone number may receive security codes. Authenticator apps may live only on that single device. Email apps could reveal account names. Password managers may require the device itself to unlock. A single factory reset can erase all of it in an instant.

Finding the Keys

Where, then, should an executor look for passwords? There are four natural starting places. The first is a password manager or secure digital vault. The second is the estate planning documents. The third is a safe. The fourth is trusted family members.

Password managers, when used well, can be a great help. They store unique passwords rather than a single reused one, and they keep the vault itself protected with strong security. Many offer emergency or recovery features that can be used when the time comes. The essential thing is that the right person knows the vault exists at all, and that recovery instructions are kept separate and secure.

Some providers offer their own arrangements. Apple invites users to name a Legacy Contact, and the first task is to learn whether one was designated. A Legacy Contact may need the access key, the deceased person’s death certificate, and Apple’s approval of the request. It is worth remembering that this access does not open everything.

Google offers its Inactive Account Manager. If the deceased used it, a designated contact may receive selected data. If they did not, Google still maintains a process for requests involving a deceased user’s account. Before requesting deletion of anything, pause to determine whether the account holds information the estate needs, such as email, photographs, documents, financial clues, or account records.

Social media is something else to consider. Should an account be preserved, memorialized, or deleted? Preserving means saving the photographs, posts, or messages that matter. Memorializing is offered by some platforms as a settled state or through legacy controls. Deletion may bring a measure of closure, though only after what is needed has been preserved.

Money, Subscriptions, and Cryptocurrency

Online banking and payment apps call for particular care. Look for statements, emails, and tax records that identify accounts. Do not assume that logging into an app changes who owns the money beneath it. Contact the financial institution through its estate or deceased customer process, document balances, transfers, and closure steps for the estate accounting, and watch for automatic payments tied to the account. Digital access is not the same as the authority to move money.

Subscriptions are something to pay attention to. Streaming services, cloud storage, software, news and apps, memberships, and home security may all keep drawing funds. Review several months of bank and credit card activity before closing the payment sources that feed them.

Cryptocurrency should be handled with caution. Control often depends on private keys, seed phrases, or custody arrangements. Identify whether the assets are held by an exchange or in a private wallet. Locate the wallet, hardware device, or account information. Never publish or casually copy a seed phrase or private key. Get professional help before moving any unfamiliar digital currency, and document value and transactions for estate administration and tax reporting.

There are also business digital assets to consider, such as:

• business email and cloud files,
• domain names and websites,
• online storefronts and payment processors,
• social media pages and advertising accounts,
• software subscriptions and licenses, and customer, vendor, and accounting records.

A personal executor may not automatically control an employer’s or a company’s digital property.

Building an Inventory and Knowing When to Ask for Help

Order brings peace to a difficult task. Before closing anything, build a simple inventory that records each account or asset, how it was found, what access is available, and what action is planned. One account might be preserved, another downloaded, another cancelled, and another handled only after contacting the institution directly.

There are moments when the wise course is to set the work down and call the attorney. Get guidance when:

• a provider refuses access,
• when you are asked to obtain a court order,
• when private email or message content is involved,
• when ownership of a digital asset is unclear,
• when cryptocurrency is discovered,
• when business or confidential information appears,
• when family members disagree,
• whenever you are simply unsure whether logging in is even permitted.

Protecting What Matters

Handling a digital estate is ultimately about protecting what mattered to the person who has passed away, and what now matters to the people they left behind. The executor’s task is to handle that digital footprint lawfully and responsibly, with the same care one would bring to a shoebox of old letters or a photograph left on the mantel. The tools have changed, but the duty has not.

Contact a certified elder law attorney(*), such as Linda Strohschein and her team at Strohschein Law Group for assistance. To set up an appointment, contact Strohschein Law Group at 630-300-0627.