When we picture an estate plan, we tend to picture the house, the bank accounts, maybe a boat docked along the Intracoastal. But so much of life now lives online, the family photos in the cloud, the email that ties everything together, the loyalty points, the cryptocurrency, the small business run through a website. For Palm Beach families, leaving these digital pieces out of an estate plan can mean lost memories and locked-out loved ones at the hardest possible time.
What Counts as a Digital Asset
Digital assets are broader than people expect. They include email and social media accounts, photo and video libraries, online banking and investment logins, cryptocurrency and digital wallets, domain names, subscription services, frequent flyer and rewards programs, and any business presence you maintain online. Some have real monetary value. Others are priceless in a different way, like the years of family photos no one else can reach.
How Florida Law Approaches Digital Assets
Florida has adopted the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, found in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes. This law gives your personal representative, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney a legal pathway to manage your digital assets after death or incapacity, but only if your planning documents are written to authorize it.
This is the part many people miss. A federal privacy law and a service provider’s terms of service can block access even for a grieving spouse. Florida law lets you grant authority in your will, your revocable trust under Chapter 736, and especially your durable power of attorney under Chapter 709, so your chosen person is not left arguing with a customer service line in Boca or Atlanta.
Steps for Palm Beach Families
Make an inventory. List your accounts and where they live. You do not need to write passwords into your will, that document can become public in probate. Instead, keep a secure, separate, regularly updated list.
Authorize access in your documents. Ask your attorney to include specific digital asset language in your will, trust, and durable power of attorney so your fiduciary has clear authority under Chapter 740.
Use platform tools. Many services offer legacy contact or inactive account features. These work alongside, not instead of, your legal documents.
Plan for cryptocurrency carefully. Without the private keys or seed phrase, crypto can be permanently lost. Store recovery information securely and tell your fiduciary how to find it, never publicly.
Decide what should be deleted. Some clients want certain accounts closed quietly. Spell out those wishes so your family is not left guessing.
Why This Matters Here
Palm Beach is home to many residents running businesses, managing investments, and keeping decades of family life on devices and in the cloud. A reassuring truth: Florida has no state estate or inheritance tax, so your digital planning is about access, memory, and protecting loved ones, not tax maneuvering. The goal is simply that the people you trust can step in smoothly, without a locked door between them and your life’s work.
Talk With a Florida Attorney
Digital assets evolve quickly, and so should your plan. A Florida-licensed estate planning attorney can update your documents to include proper Chapter 740 authority and help your Palm Beach family avoid the frustration of being locked out of what matters most.
Have a question about your estate?
Talk it through with Russel Morgan — free 30-minute consult.
For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of powers of attorney in Florida. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
