Many assume, reasonably so, that the administrator of an estate would have access to the digital material of a person that recently died. However, that is unlikely to be true in many situations since it is the agreement that the user signs when registering for the digital account that controls rather than state law. Since most user agreements explicitly deny access to 3rd parties, even if they are the legal representative of the account holder, then administrators are left out in the cold. However, more states are adopting the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act which supersedes any user agreements and specifically authorizes a fiduciary to be able to access online data and accounts. Hopefully, it is only a matter of time before more states adopt this Act or similar legislation as the problem of digital account access will only grow in the future.
See Liza Horvath, Liza Horvath, Senior Advocate: On my death, please say goodbye to my Facebook friends, Monterey Herald, November 6, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
