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Connecticut Digital Assets After Death
Support GuideConnecticut18 min read

Connecticut Digital Assets After Death

Connecticut adopted RUFADAA in 2016. Sections 45a-334b to 45a-334s give a fiduciary a route to online accounts, and a custodian has sixty days to answer.

By Settled Editorial

Connecticut adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. The Connecticut version runs from Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-334b through § 45a-334s, it took effect October 1, 2016, and it gives four fiduciaries a written route to a person's online accounts: an executor or administrator, an agent under a power of attorney, a trustee, and a conservator. A custodian that receives a complete request has sixty days to act on it.

Use this page as general information about Connecticut law and as a way to prepare your questions. Then take those questions to a Connecticut attorney before you sign a document or send a demand letter.

The Act, And The Section You Must Never Cite

Public Act 16-145 created the Connecticut Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, and the Governor approved it on June 9, 2016. Section 19 of that same act repealed § 45a-334a, the 2005 statute on access to a decedent's electronic mail account.

The repeal matters more than it sounds. The General Assembly website still prints a live-looking heading for § 45a-334a at its anchor, and the text under that heading reads "Section 45a-334a is repealed, effective October 1, 2016." Any article that cites § 45a-334a for a Connecticut email rule is quoting a statute that no longer exists. Check the section text, not the heading.

§ 45a-334d sets the reach of the act, and it reaches backward. It applies to a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney executed before, on or after October 1, 2016, to an executor acting for a decedent who died before, on or after that date, to a conservatorship commenced at any point, and to a trustee under a trust created at any point. It binds a custodian if the user lives in Connecticut or lived here at death. It does not touch an employer's digital asset that an employee used in the ordinary course of the employer's business.

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The Online Tool Outranks Your Will

Here is the rule most Connecticut families get backward.

§ 45a-334e(a) says a direction the account holder gives through the custodian's own online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, a trust, a power of attorney or any other record. One condition attaches. The tool has to let the user change or delete that direction at all times, so a setting the provider locks after the first save does not carry the override.

If the account holder never used an online tool, or the provider never offered one, subsection (b) puts the decision back into the documents. The user may allow or prohibit disclosure to a fiduciary in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record. Subsection (c) then lets either direction beat a contrary term in the terms-of-service agreement, as long as that term did not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from clicking accept.

Platform settings win, and each takes a few minutes. Start with these.

ProviderToolWhat the named person receives
AppleLegacy ContactAn access code plus a death certificate opens the data stored in the Apple Account
GoogleInactive Account ManagerUp to ten people receive chosen data after a period of inactivity you set
MetaLegacy contactOne person may memorialize a Facebook profile, pin a post and request removal, without reading messages

Set the tool, then keep your will and your power of attorney saying the same thing. A tool that names one person and a will that names another produces the exact fight the statute exists to settle.

What Connecticut Counts As A Digital Asset

§ 45a-334c(10) defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest, and excludes an underlying asset or liability unless that asset or liability is itself an electronic record.

That carve-out decides more disputes than it looks like it should. The login to a Connecticut bank account is a digital asset. The dollars behind it are ordinary estate property, released against a certificate of appointment the way any other account is. A photo library, a domain name, an email archive, a loyalty balance, a monetized channel and a self-custodied crypto wallet all sit inside the definition.

Message Content Sits Behind A Higher Bar

The act splits every request in two. The content of an electronic communication, meaning the substance of what was written, gets the strict treatment. A catalogue of communications, meaning who the user corresponded with and when, travels with other digital assets under a lighter test.

FiduciaryContent of communicationsCatalogue and other digital assets
Executor or administrator§ 45a-334h: the user must have consented, or a court must direct disclosure§ 45a-334i: disclosed unless the user prohibited it or the court directs otherwise
Agent under a power of attorney§ 45a-334j: the document must expressly grant authority over content§ 45a-334k: specific authority over digital assets, or general authority to act
Trustee who is the original user§ 45a-334l: the custodian discloses what the trust's account holdsSame section
Trustee who is not the original user§ 45a-334m: the trust instrument must include consent to disclosure of content§ 45a-334n: a certified copy of the trust instrument
Conservator of the estateNot among the disclosure sections§ 45a-334o: after a hearing the court may grant access, and the custodian discloses on a certified copy of that order

Each request carries its own paperwork list. An executor asking a custodian about a deceased user gives a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, a certified copy of the certificate of appointment and, unless an online tool already gave the direction, a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record showing consent. The custodian may then ask for the account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, or a court order containing specific findings.

The Custodian Chooses The Form Of Access

You do not pick. § 45a-334g(a) leaves it to the custodian's sole discretion to grant full access to the account, grant partial access sufficient for the task the fiduciary is charged with, or hand over a copy in a record of what the user could have reached while alive.

Three more rules in that section shape what arrives:

  • The custodian may charge a reasonable administrative amount for the cost of disclosing.
  • The custodian never has to produce an asset the user deleted.
  • If splitting a partial request would impose an undue burden, either side may ask a court for an order. The court may order a date-limited subset, everything, nothing, or production to the court for in camera review.

§ 45a-334f draws the outer line. The act hands a fiduciary no rights the user did not hold, and it leaves the custodian's and the user's own terms-of-service rights alone.

Sixty Days, Then You Ask A Court

§ 45a-334q(a) gives the custodian sixty days from receipt of the required information to disclose the digital assets or terminate the account. Miss it, and the fiduciary applies to the court for an order directing compliance. That order has to contain a finding that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. § 2702, the federal Stored Communications Act rule that keeps a provider from releasing message content without lawful consent.

Two more subsections change how you write the request. The custodian may tell the user a request came in, and it may refuse the request outright if it learns of any lawful access to the account after the fiduciary's request arrived. A custodian acting in good faith under the act is immune from liability, which is why a written request that tracks the statute moves faster than a phone call.

"Court" is generous here. § 45a-334c(7) defines it as any court of competent jurisdiction, including the Probate Court and the Superior Court, and deems a judge of either one a judge of competent jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 2510(9). Your own Connecticut probate district can issue the order.

A Connecticut Power Of Attorney Needs The Express Grant

Connecticut carries something the 2006 uniform power of attorney act does not. § 1-351(a) lists nine authorities an agent may exercise only if the document expressly grants them, and subdivision (8) is digital devices, digital assets, user accounts and electronically stored information, including changing or circumventing a username and password, moving funds among those accounts and opening new accounts in the principal's name. Subdivision (9) covers intellectual property. Public Act 17-91 added both.

A general grant of every act the principal could perform does not reach either one. If you want an agent handling accounts while you are alive, grant digital-asset authority expressly in the document. The long-form statutory power of attorney handles this with an optional estate-planning block the principal initials item by item.

Do Not Just Log In With The Password

Families do this constantly. Someone finds the sticky note, keeps the account open and pays bills from it for months.

§ 53a-251(b) makes it a computer crime to access a computer system knowing you are not authorized to do so. Connecticut grades the offense by the damage or the value involved, from a class B misdemeanor under § 53a-256 up to a class B felony under § 53a-252. Provider terms usually prohibit the login as well, and a closed account can take the photos and the balance with it.

The act hands you the clean route. § 45a-334p(d) says a fiduciary acting within the scope of the fiduciary's duties is an authorized user of the property for computer-fraud and unauthorized-access law, including § 53a-251. That protection follows the appointment and the duty. It does not follow a password found in a drawer.

The same section carries the duties. Care, loyalty and confidentiality apply to digital assets the way they apply to a house, the authority stays inside the scope of the fiduciary's job, and one act is barred outright: a fiduciary may not use the access to impersonate the user.

What A Connecticut Fiduciary Does First

  1. Get appointed. Nothing moves without letters. Start with the Connecticut probate guide and the rest of the fiduciary who makes the request.
  2. Order certified copies. Each custodian wants its own certified death certificate and its own certified certificate of appointment.
  3. Check the online tools before you write anything. A Google Inactive Account Manager plan or an Apple legacy designation can settle in days what a letter will not settle in months.
  4. Read the will and trust for consent language. If the document consents to disclosure of the content of electronic communications, quote that clause in the request.
  5. Send a written request that tracks the statute. Name the section, list the documents you enclose, and give the account identifier. Ask for the catalogue under § 45a-334i where you do not need message content.
  6. Diary the sixty days. Calendar the date the custodian received your package, and treat § 45a-334q as your follow-up schedule.
  7. Inventory what you find. § 45a-341 has the fiduciary file an inventory at fair market value within two months after acceptance of the bond or other qualification, and the court may extend that to four months for cause. Digital holdings belong on it with everything else.
  8. Ask counsel about a court order where a custodian refuses and the account holds real money.

Crypto And Anything No Custodian Holds

§ 45a-334p(c) gives a fiduciary the right to reach any digital asset in which the decedent, conserved person, principal or settlor had a right or interest that no custodian holds and no terms-of-service agreement governs. Subsection (e) adds the right to access tangible personal property and any digital asset stored in it, which covers the laptop, the phone and the hardware wallet in the desk drawer.

Statutory authority does not reproduce a lost seed phrase. Handle that while the owner is alive.

  • Write down every wallet address, exchange account and storage type, with a rough value.
  • Keep seed phrases and private keys offline in a fireproof safe or a bank box, never in a phone note.
  • Say in the will or trust that the fiduciary may hold, transfer and sell cryptocurrency.
  • Expect an exchange to run a deceased-account process asking for a death certificate, the certificate of appointment and identification. Plan on weeks.

Build A List Your Fiduciary Can Actually Use

Written authority without an account list leaves your fiduciary guessing.

  • Walk your phone, your inbox, your bank statements and your password manager, and record the platform, the login email, what the account holds and a rough value.
  • Note where the credentials live, the two-factor method, the recovery email and the recovery phone. Keep the credentials themselves out of the list.
  • Store the list where it survives you, in a password manager your fiduciary can reach or a sealed envelope in a home safe, and point to the location from the will or trust rather than copying the contents into it.
  • Review it once a year, and tell the person who will need it that it exists.

Write The Authority Into The Documents

Four things have to agree, and one of them lives at the provider.

  • The online tool. It beats the documents under § 45a-334e(a), so set it and record who you named.
  • The will. Say the executor may access, manage, transfer and close online accounts, and add a sentence consenting to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. Never write passwords into a Connecticut will, because the court file is public.
  • Your power of attorney. Add the § 1-351(a)(8) grant. A general grant does not reach it.
  • The trust. § 45a-334m wants consent to disclosure of content inside the trust instrument itself before a successor trustee sees a message, so put it in the document rather than a side letter. That language belongs in ordinary Connecticut trust administration planning.

Draft them together as part of Connecticut estate planning basics rather than one at a time. Digital authority in the will and silence in your power of attorney leaves a hole for exactly the stretch when someone is incapacitated rather than dead. A funded trust is also one of the routes people use to keep property out of Probate Court in Connecticut.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Connecticut have a digital assets law?

Yes. Public Act 16-145 created the Connecticut Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, codified at Conn. Gen. Stat. sections 45a-334b to 45a-334s and effective October 1, 2016. The same act repealed the older section 45a-334a on access to a decedent's electronic mail account, so that section is dead law even though the state website still prints a heading for it.

Does an online tool really override my Connecticut will?

Yes, when the tool lets you change or delete your direction at any time. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 45a-334e, subsection (a), says a direction given through the custodian's online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record. If you never used a tool, or the provider offers none, subsection (b) puts the decision back in your documents.

How long does a custodian have to respond in Connecticut?

Sixty days. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 45a-334q, subsection (a), requires a custodian to comply with a request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account within sixty days after it receives the required information. If the custodian does not, the fiduciary may apply to the court for an order directing compliance, and that order must find that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. section 2702.

Can my executor read my email in Connecticut?

Only if you consented or a court directs it. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 45a-334h releases the content of electronic communications to an executor who gives the custodian a written request, a certified death certificate, a certified certificate of appointment, and, absent an online-tool direction, a record showing consent. Section 45a-334i releases the catalogue and other digital assets on an easier test.

Is it illegal to log into my late spouse's account in Connecticut?

It can be. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 53a-251, subsection (b), makes it a computer crime to access a computer system knowing you are not authorized, and Connecticut grades the offense by the damage or value involved. Section 45a-334p, subsection (d), protects a fiduciary acting within the scope of the fiduciary's duties, which is why appointment first and password later is the safe order.

Does a Connecticut power of attorney cover digital assets automatically?

No. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 1-351, subsection (a), subdivision (8), makes authority over digital devices, digital assets, user accounts and electronically stored information one of nine powers an agent holds only if the document expressly grants it. A general grant of all acts the principal could perform does not reach it.

This guide describes Connecticut law on fiduciary access to digital assets as published by the General Assembly. Whether a clause satisfies a particular custodian, and whether a Probate Court order is worth asking for, turns on facts specific to your situation. Confirm anything that affects you with a licensed Connecticut attorney, and read the section text at cga.ct.gov before you rely on a heading.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 1, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Connecticut can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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