What Is The “Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act” and Why Is It Important In Today’s World?

In March of 2016, Florida adopted a new law, entitled the “Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act”. This law went into effect in July of 2016 and contains rules regarding the management and disbursement of digital assets by a fiduciary upon the death of an individual. This gives individuals the ability to specify what it is that they want to do with their digital assets, which simplifies the process of Estate Planning. The overarching goal of the “Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act” is to give people the power to plan for the management of their digital assets if they die or become incapacitated. It accomplishes this goal by authorizing fiduciaries to either access, control, copy or delete an individual’s digital assets after their passing, according to the wishes set forth by said individual. The “Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act” also gives the custodians of digital assets the authority to communicate and interact with the fiduciaries of their users without breaching any privacy expectations. Before this law was introduced, Florida did not have any legislation that specifically addressed the access of digital assets by a fiduciary upon an individual’s death or incapacity.