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Illinois Digital Assets Planning
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Illinois Digital Assets Planning

Illinois RUFADAA, 755 ILCS 70/, decides who reaches online accounts after death: the online tool rule, Letters of Office, a 60-day clock, and crypto.

By Settled Editorial

Almost every Illinois estate now holds property that never existed on paper. Email, cloud photo libraries, a bank login, a Coinbase balance, a hardware wallet in a desk drawer. Illinois answers the access question with one statute: the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (2015), 755 ILCS 70/, enacted by Public Act 99-775 and effective August 12, 2016. That act tells an executor, an agent, a trustee, or a guardian what a company such as Google or Meta must hand over, what paperwork unlocks it, and how long the company has to answer.

This guide walks through what the Illinois sections actually say, what you can set up today so your own executor is not locked out, and where cryptocurrency needs different handling. It pairs with the Illinois probate guide. It is general information, not legal advice.

What 755 ILCS 70/ Covers in Illinois

Section 2(10) defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. The act then draws a line that matters: the digital asset is the electronic record itself, not the money or property behind it. An online bank balance still passes under ordinary Illinois probate rules. The act governs the login, the account, and the records.

Section 3 sets the reach of the statute. It applies to a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney signed before or after 2016, to a personal representative for anyone who died before or after 2016, to a guardianship case, and to a trustee. Section 3(b) applies the act to a custodian whenever the account holder lives in Illinois or lived here at death. Section 3(c) carves out work accounts: an employer's digital asset used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business sits outside the act.

The word "custodian" in the statute means the company holding the account. "User" means the account holder. "Fiduciary" means an executor or administrator, a guardian, an agent under a power of attorney, or a trustee.

The Order Illinois Follows: Sections 4 and 5

Section 4 ranks the sources of authority, Section 5 supplies the fallback, and that ranking decides most real cases.

  1. An online tool set by the account holder. If the company offers a built-in way to say who receives an account and the person used it, that choice wins. Section 4(a) says a direction given through an online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, or power of attorney, so long as the tool lets the user change or delete the direction at any time. Google Inactive Account Manager, Facebook Legacy Contact, and Apple Legacy Contact are the common ones. Set these up and you have done more than any clause a lawyer can draft for you.
  2. A will, trust, or power of attorney. Section 4(b) applies when the person never used an online tool or the company never offered one. The account holder may then allow or prohibit disclosure of some or all digital assets, including the content of electronic communications, in a signed document.
  3. The terms-of-service agreement. With no online tool and no direction in a document, the company's terms decide. That default sits in Section 5(c), which says a fiduciary's access may be modified or eliminated by the user, by federal law, or by a terms-of-service agreement where the user gave no direction under Section 4. Section 4(c) cuts the other way once a direction exists, giving the account holder's direction priority over a terms-of-service clause that the user never had to accept separately from the ordinary click-through.

Content Versus Catalogue: Sections 7 and 8

Illinois splits a deceased person's accounts in two, and executors trip on this line constantly.

Content of electronic communications, Section 7. This is the substance of an email or message: the words inside. A custodian discloses content to the personal representative only if the deceased person consented or a court directs it. To get content, the representative gives the custodian a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, a certified copy of the letter of appointment or a court order, and, unless an online tool was used, a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney, or other record showing consent. The custodian may also ask for an account identifier, evidence linking the account to the person, or a court finding.

Everything else, Section 8. The catalogue of electronic communications (who the person corresponded with, when, and at what address) plus digital assets other than message content come more easily. Unless the account holder prohibited disclosure or a court says otherwise, the custodian shall disclose on a written request, a certified death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment or court order. The custodian may ask for an account identifier, evidence linking the account, or an affidavit that disclosure is reasonably necessary to administer the estate.

Two Illinois specifics sit inside those lists. The "letter of appointment" is your Letters of Office, issued by the circuit court under the Probate Act of 1975, 755 ILCS 5/. Section 7 and Section 8 do not accept a small estate affidavit in place of Letters of Office. The Illinois small estate affidavit under 755 ILCS 5/25-1 shows up only in Section 15(g), which lets a fiduciary ask a company to terminate an account. So a family settling a small estate without a court file can often close accounts, yet may still need Letters of Office to have records released. Read the Illinois executor duties guide for how Letters of Office are issued.

Generic language in a will such as "handle my affairs" does not satisfy Section 7. Consent to disclosure of content has to be written down.

An Agent Under a Power of Attorney: Sections 9 and 10

Illinois treats a living principal the same way, with one trap worth flagging.

Section 9 says a custodian discloses the content of a principal's electronic communications to an agent only to the extent a power of attorney expressly grants the agent authority over the content of electronic communications. The agent supplies a written request, a copy of that document containing the express grant, and a certification under penalty of perjury that the document remains in force.

Section 10 covers the catalogue and other digital assets. An agent with specific authority over digital assets, or general authority to act for the principal, gets those on a written request, a copy of the signed document, and the same sworn certification.

Here is the Illinois gap. The statutory short form for property at 755 ILCS 45/3-3 lists fifteen categories of powers, from real estate transactions through to all other property transactions, and none of them is digital assets or electronic communications. The explanation of those categories at 755 ILCS 45/3-4 does not mention them either. The short form does invite additions: paragraph 2 holds limitations on the powers granted, and paragraph 3 is where the principal adds powers the categories do not reach. Ask the lawyer preparing your Illinois power of attorney to write the digital asset grant and the express consent to content disclosure into that space. Checking the boxes on the printed form alone will not reach your email.

Trustees and Guardians: Sections 11 Through 14

A trustee who opened the account personally gets everything, content included, under Section 11. A successor trustee who was not the original user needs a certified copy of the trust instrument that includes consent to content disclosure under Section 12, and a certified copy of the trust plus a certification for the catalogue under Section 13.

Section 14 handles a guardian for an adult with a disability. After an opportunity for a hearing under Article XIa of the Probate Act of 1975, the court may direct disclosure of the person's digital assets to the guardian. For the catalogue and non-content assets, Section 14(b) asks the guardian to give the custodian a written request plus a certified copy of the order that grants authority over the digital assets. A guardian with general authority over the person's property may also ask a company to suspend or terminate an account for good cause. The Illinois guardianship planning guide covers how those appointments work.

The 60-Day Clock and What Companies Owe You

Section 16(a) sets a deadline you can hold a company to. Once a custodian receives the information required under Sections 7 through 15, it has 60 days to comply with the request to disclose digital assets or terminate the account. Miss that, and the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the circuit court for an order directing compliance. Section 16(b) requires that order to find that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. Section 2702, the federal Stored Communications Act.

Track every request in writing so the clock is provable. Save the date you submitted, the exact documents you attached, and each response.

Section 6 explains what the company may hand over. A custodian chooses, at its own discretion, to grant full account access, partial access sufficient for the fiduciary's task, or a copy of the digital assets the person could have reached while alive. It may charge a reasonable administrative fee. It need not produce anything the account holder deleted. If pulling out only part of an account would be an undue burden, either side may ask the court to order a date-limited subset, everything, nothing, or production to the judge for review in camera. Section 16(f) gives companies good-faith immunity for acts and omissions in compliance with the act, except for willful and wanton misconduct, which is one reason they insist on the paperwork.

Limits on a Fiduciary's Authority: Section 15

Section 15(b) caps what any Illinois fiduciary may do. The authority stays subject to the terms of service except where Section 4 overrides them, stays subject to other law including copyright, is limited by the scope of the fiduciary's duties under Illinois law, and may never be used to impersonate the account holder.

Two subsections cut in your favor. Section 15(c) gives a fiduciary the right to reach any digital asset the decedent, person with a disability, principal, or settlor had a right or interest in that is not held by a company and not subject to terms of service, such as files on a laptop. Section 15(e) extends that to tangible property and anything stored inside it, and Section 15(d) treats a fiduciary acting within the scope of the role as an authorized user for computer-fraud and unauthorized-computer-access law, including Subdivision 30 of Article 17 of the Criminal Code of 2012.

That status protects a fiduciary. It does not cover a family member with no appointment who logs in using a saved password. Use the statutory route and the company's own process instead of self-help.

Cryptocurrency Needs Its Own Plan

Crypto behaves unlike any other account because nobody else holds it for you. Access depends entirely on private keys, or on the seed phrase (the twelve or twenty-four words that regenerate them).

If the person held coins on an exchange such as Coinbase or Kraken, the exchange is a custodian under 755 ILCS 70/, and you work through its estate process with Letters of Office and a certified death certificate. If the person used a self-custody wallet, no company can help. Section 15(c) gives a fiduciary the right to reach a digital asset the decedent, person with a disability, principal, or settlor had a right or interest in that no custodian holds, and that right is worthless without the seed phrase. There is no support line and no court order that recovers those coins.

When you settle an Illinois estate that may hold crypto, search for a small hardware wallet device, printed or handwritten word lists, files named wallet, seed, or recovery, and exchange login records or tax forms. Once you secure access, value the holdings promptly. Crypto prices swing hard, and the date-of-death value fixes both the inventory figure and the beneficiary's cost basis.

Set This Up Before Anyone Needs It

Four steps do most of the work.

Use the online tools this week. They sit at the top of Section 4, they take minutes, and they beat every document you own. Start with Google (Data and privacy, then "Make a plan for your account"), Facebook (Settings, then Memorialization Settings), and Apple (your name, then Sign-In and Security, then Legacy Contact).

Ask for express digital language in your documents. Your Illinois will, trust, and power of attorney should each authorize your fiduciary to reach, manage, and close online accounts, and should consent in writing to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. That consent is what Sections 7 and 9 look for.

Keep an inventory rather than a password list in your will. A will has to be filed with the circuit court clerk immediately after death under 755 ILCS 5/6-1, and the court file is public. Store credentials in a password manager, arrange for your fiduciary to reach the master password, and keep a sealed letter of instruction with your estate papers that the will refers to without quoting.

Store crypto recovery words offline. A safe or a bank safe deposit box beats a note in cloud storage. Tell the person who will serve where to look.

Digital accounts also feed the rest of the estate. Subscriptions keep billing, an online brokerage still counts toward the estate total, and beneficiary-designated accounts pass outside probate. Compare that with the ways Illinois families avoid probate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an Illinois executor automatically get into the decedent's email?

No. Section 7 releases the content of messages only if the person consented through an online tool or in a will, trust, or power of attorney, or if a court directs it. Without that consent, the executor can still request the catalogue and non-content assets under Section 8 with Letters of Office and a certified death certificate.

Can a company refuse a request that follows the statute?

A custodian may demand proper documents and may insist on consent or a court order for message content. It cannot ignore a qualifying request. Under Section 16(a) it has 60 days to comply, after which you may ask the circuit court for an order directing compliance. Two carve-outs remain: Section 16(d) lets a custodian deny a request when it is aware of any lawful access to the account after the fiduciary's request arrived, and Section 16(e) preserves its ability to require a court order.

Is a small estate affidavit enough to reach a deceased person's accounts?

Not for disclosure. Sections 7 and 8 call for a certified copy of the letter of appointment or a court order. Section 15(g) does accept a small estate affidavit under 755 ILCS 5/25-1 when the request is to terminate an account rather than to obtain records.

Does the Illinois statutory short form power of attorney cover digital assets?

Not by itself. The categories at 755 ILCS 45/3-3 and 3-4 never mention digital assets or electronic communications, while Section 9 of 755 ILCS 70/ requires an express grant over content. Add the language in the additions paragraph of the form.

What happens to cryptocurrency when nobody has the seed phrase?

For a self-custody wallet, the coins are gone. No exchange, company, or judge can regenerate private keys, which is why writing the recovery words down and storing them safely matters more than any clause in a will.

Related Illinois Guides

Sources:

This guide explains Illinois law on fiduciary access to digital assets for general reference. Your accounts, documents, and family situation are your own, so talk with an Illinois estate attorney before you rely on any of it. It is not legal advice.

Information current as of July 19, 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 Illinois can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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