Your Miami estate is no longer just a condo, a car, and a bank account. It is also crypto wallets, cloud-stored photos, a small online business, frequent-flyer miles, and dozens of logins. When these digital assets are ignored, families lose access, money, and irreplaceable memories. Work through this checklist to bring them into your plan.
What Counts as a Digital Asset
- Cryptocurrency and NFTs held in exchanges or private wallets
- Online bank, brokerage, and payment accounts
- Email and cloud storage (photos, documents, backups)
- Social media and personal websites or blogs
- Loyalty and rewards programs
- Domain names, online stores, and revenue-generating accounts
- Subscriptions tied to auto-pay from your accounts
Florida Law Behind the Scenes
Florida has adopted the Fluciary Access to Digital Assets Act, codified in Chapter 740 of the Florida Statutes. It gives your personal representative, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney a legal pathway to access digital assets, but with an important order of priority. An online tool offered by the provider (such as a platform’s legacy contact or inactive account manager) controls first; your estate documents control next; and the provider’s terms of service control last. If you say nothing, the terms of service often win, and they frequently restrict access.
The Digital Asset Checklist
- Inventory everything. Build a running list of accounts, what they hold, and where keys or recovery codes live. Do not write passwords directly into your will, which becomes a public record in Florida probate.
- Use provider legacy tools. Set up the platform’s own beneficiary or legacy contact features where available. Under Chapter 740, these take precedence.
- Authorize access in your documents. Your durable power of attorney (Chapter 709), will, and revocable trust (Chapter 736) should each contain specific language granting access to electronic communications and digital assets. Generic documents often lack this.
- Plan for crypto custody. Private keys and seed phrases are not recoverable if lost. Store them securely (a safe deposit box or qualified custody solution) with clear, lawful instructions on retrieval, separate from the public estate record.
- Address the digital business. If you run an online shop or content channel from Miami, name who can operate or wind it down and how revenue flows during the transition.
Where People Go Wrong
The most common Miami mistake is treating digital assets as an afterthought, listing them informally on a sticky note that the family never finds. The second is assuming a spouse “can just log in.” Accessing someone else’s account without authority can violate provider terms and federal law, even with good intentions. The structure in Chapter 740 exists precisely so your fiduciary can act lawfully.
Keep It Current
Digital life changes fast. Review your inventory at least once a year, after opening any significant new account, and whenever you change a primary email, since that address is the master key to password resets across everything else.
Digital assets reward planning and punish neglect. A licensed Florida estate planning attorney can draft the access language Chapter 740 requires and coordinate it with your will, trust, and power of attorney so your Miami fiduciary can act without obstacles.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of estate planning in Palm Beach. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
