Does my will cover my digital assets?
This is general information, not legal advice.
Under RUFADAA (see Q7), a will can direct what happens to your digital assets — but it is explicitly subordinate to any "online tool" you've configured with the company itself. Florida's enactment of the law states the hierarchy in one sentence: "If the online tool allows the user to modify or delete a direction at all times, a direction regarding disclosure using an online tool overrides a contrary direction by the user in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record." Source, §740.003(1)
Practically, that means: if you set Google's Inactive Account Manager to notify a specific person, that setting controls — even if your will says something different — because Google's tool lets you change your mind at any time and the law treats that as the more current expression of your wishes. Your will only becomes the controlling instrument for a given service if you never used that service's own online tool.
There's a second limitation worth naming plainly: even when your will is the controlling document, it does not hand your executor your password. It authorizes them to make a formal request to the company, per §740.005–740.008 of the same statute, which the company can fulfill with full account access, partial access, or merely a copy of specific data — the company's discretion, not automatic. A will that says "give my executor my Instagram" is a valid instruction under the law, but the mechanism by which it's honored is still a request the platform processes, with its own documentation requirements (death certificate, letters of administration, sometimes a specific court finding) — not a login.
The takeaway: a will is a real, legally meaningful piece of the puzzle, but by itself it is necessary but not sufficient. It does nothing for any account where you've already set up (or could set up) that service's own legacy tool, and even where it does apply, it starts a formal request process rather than handing over credentials.
What we could not verify: state-by-state variation in exactly which documents a custodian can demand — this research pass only confirmed Florida's specific list; other RUFADAA-enacting states may require different combinations.
← Is it legal for my family to log into my accounts after I die?
→ What happens to my crypto if I die?
All fifteen questions