After her mother died in Williamsburg, Elena found the practical part of probate harder than the legal part. The bank account was straightforward, but her mother’s life lived online: a cloud account with twenty years of family photos, an email inbox tied to every bill, a small cryptocurrency wallet, and a monetized social media page. None of it came with a key. Elena’s experience is now the norm for Brooklyn families, and New York has a law that governs exactly this situation.
What Counts as a Digital Asset
Digital assets include email and social media accounts, cloud-stored photos and documents, online banking and brokerage logins, domain names, loyalty points, and cryptocurrency. Some have financial value; some are priceless only to the family. In probate, an executor must identify, secure, and ultimately distribute or close these assets just like physical property.
New York’s Fiduciary Access Law
New York adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, found in Article 13-A of the EPTL. It sets a clear order of authority. First, an “online tool” provided by the platform controls (for example, a service that lets a user name a legacy contact). If there is no online tool, the person’s will, trust, or power of attorney governs. Only if neither exists do the provider’s terms of service apply. This means a Brooklyn resident can direct, in their will or POA, who may access their accounts after death.
Why the Executor Cannot Just Log In
Elena’s instinct was to log into her mother’s email using a saved password. That can violate the provider’s terms and even federal computer-fraud rules. The safer path is to use the authority granted by EPTL Article 13-A: the executor presents letters testamentary from the Kings County Surrogate’s Court and a request to the provider, which then releases the content (or at least a catalogue of communications) according to the law and the decedent’s expressed wishes.
Cryptocurrency Is Different
Crypto poses a unique probate problem. If Elena’s mother’s wallet was self-custodied and the private key or seed phrase is lost, the asset may be permanently unrecoverable, no court order can restore it. This is why a New York estate plan should record (securely and separately from the will, which becomes public) how to locate keys. Crypto held on an exchange, by contrast, can be claimed through the platform with proper estate documentation.
Planning Ahead in Your Estate Documents
The cleanest fix is to address digital assets before death. A well-drafted New York will or a power of attorney under GOL §5-1513 can grant a fiduciary explicit authority over digital assets, and a revocable trust under EPTL Article 7 can hold and pass them outside probate. For Brooklyn families with crypto, online businesses, or irreplaceable digital memories, this is no longer an afterthought.
Consult a New York Attorney
Digital assets sit at the intersection of estate law, contract terms, and technology, and the rules differ by platform. If you are settling a Brooklyn estate with significant online holdings, or want your own accounts handled the way you intend, consult a New York estate attorney to align your documents with EPTL Article 13-A.
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