Is my digital asset inventory a public record after probate?
FULLY SOURCED (Florida) / general rule not independently confirmed state-by-state
This is general information, not legal advice. This is a different, more specific question than Q25 ("does listing passwords in my will make them public") — a will is one document; a personal representative's inventory of estate assets (the itemized list of what the estate owns, filed separately during administration) is a different one, and the two are treated very differently under at least one state's law.
The general default in most U.S. probate systems is that documents filed with the court become part of that court's public case file — the same default that makes a filed will public once it's probated. Applied literally to an inventory, that would mean a list of "digital assets" filed as part of settling an estate (which could, depending on how carefully it was drafted, include account names or even references to where credentials are stored) becomes just as publicly inspectable as the will itself.
Florida is a documented, concrete exception to that default, which is exactly why it's useful to know the default isn't universal. Florida Statute §733.604 states plainly: "Any inventory of an estate, whether initial, amended, or supplementary, filed with the clerk of the court in conjunction with the administration of an estate is confidential and exempt from" the state's general public-records law and its constitutional open-records provision. Source That confidentiality isn't absolute even in Florida — the statute lists exactly who can still see it: the personal representative, their attorney, an "interested person" as defined elsewhere in Florida's probate code, or anyone the court specifically orders disclosure to for good cause — but it is walled off from the general public by default, unlike the will itself.
The practical takeaway mirrors Q25's: assume any document filed with a probate court is public unless you've specifically confirmed your state exempts it (as Florida does for the inventory, but not the will). If you're maintaining a list of "which digital accounts exist" as Q11 recommends, the safest assumption is to keep that list as a private, non-probate reference (a letter of instruction kept with an attorney, not filed with the court) rather than assuming any specific court filing will stay confidential by default.
What we could not verify: whether other RUFADAA-enacting or non-RUFADAA states treat the estate inventory as confidential the way Florida's §733.604 does, or whether most states instead follow the general "everything filed with probate is public" default with no inventory-specific exception at all. We confirmed one state's specific statute; we did not survey all fifty.
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