For many people, access to their financial and business assets is primarily online—including bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, retirement plans, life insurance policies, cryptocurrencies, domain name registrations, blogs, and websites. If you do not make passwords, keys, and the identity of these assets known to your beneficiaries or heirs it may be difficult or impossible for them to gain access to these assets at your death.

In addition to these financial and business assets, access to email accounts, phone passwords, computer passwords, home security accounts and passwords, cloud storage accounts, digital photo albums, videos, and social media accounts are often valuable personal assets and methods for accessing other assets. You may want to allow certain members of your family, friends, or other heirs to receive access to these assets and to have authority to bypass, reset, or recover passwords.

You may want to consult with your estate planning lawyer or financial advisor about options for distributing these assets (and providing access to them) by will, trust, or other means.

Many states have laws that govern access to digital assets and the obligations of a custodian of digital assets (including a website or online service provider) to disclose digital assets to a fiduciary such as the executor or administrator of a deceased person’s will or estate. These laws are usually located in a state’s statutes; are a version of the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act; and are similarly titled (named) in the state’s statutes.

In Delaware, the management and inheritance of digital assets are governed by the Delaware Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act, which is based on the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA). This law allows individuals to plan for the management and disposition of their digital assets in a similar manner to physical assets. It provides fiduciaries such as executors, trustees, or agents under a power of attorney, the legal authority to manage digital assets and electronic communications in the event of incapacity or death of the account holder. The Act requires individuals to provide explicit consent for disclosure, either through an online tool provided by the custodian or through estate planning documents like wills, trusts, or powers of attorney. It is important for Delaware residents to consider their digital assets during estate planning and to consult with an attorney to ensure that their digital legacy is managed according to their wishes and that their fiduciaries have the necessary access to these assets upon their death or incapacitation.