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Kansas Digital Assets After Death
Support GuideKansas30 min read

Kansas Digital Assets After Death

Kansas adopted the digital assets act at K.S.A. 58-4801. An online tool outranks a will, and a custodian answers in 60 days.

By Settled Editorial

Most Kansas estates now hold property that never existed on paper: an email account, a photo library in the cloud, a bank login, a farm management portal, sometimes a hardware wallet in a desk drawer. Kansas answered the question of who may reach those accounts on July 1, 2017, and two sections of that answer were rewritten this year.

The governing law is the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act (2015), K.S.A. 58-4801 through 58-4819, enacted by L. 2017, ch. 19. Two of its nineteen sections were rewritten by L. 2025, ch. 40 and took effect January 1, 2026, which almost nothing written about Kansas digital assets reflects.

Three rules carry most of the weight. A direction the account holder gave through the provider's own online tool beats a will. The content of messages is walled off from everything else and needs consent. And a custodian that receives a proper request has 60 days to answer.

The Act Has Been Live in Kansas Since July 1, 2017

K.S.A. 58-4801 gives the article its own name in one sentence: this act may be cited as the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act (2015).

K.S.A. 58-4803 sets the reach, and it looks backward as well as forward. The act applies to a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney executed before, on or after July 1, 2017, to a personal representative acting for a decedent who died before, on or after that date, to a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding commenced at any point, and to a trustee acting under a trust created at any point. An old document and an old death are both inside it.

Two limits sit in the same section. Subsection (b) reaches a custodian if the user resides in Kansas or resided here at the time of death. Subsection (c) carves out a digital asset of an employer used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business, so a work laptop and a work inbox belong to the employer rather than to the estate.

K.S.A. 58-4802(h) defines the court for this act in one line: court means the district court. Kansas has no separate probate court, so the forum question has the same answer it has for everything else in Chapter 59. Find yours in the Kansas district courts by county directory, and the Kansas probate guide covers how the appointment itself works.

Two Sections Changed on January 1, 2026

Here is the part no national explainer has caught up with. L. 2025, ch. 40 rewrote K.S.A. 58-4802 (section 147) and K.S.A. 58-4814 (section 148), both effective January 1, 2026. The rest of the act still carries its original 2017 history line.

The rewrite conformed the digital assets act to the Kansas uniform guardianship, conservatorship and other protective arrangements act, K.S.A. 59-30,101 through 59-30,212, which arrived in the same chapter 40 and took effect on the same day. The older Kansas guardianship sections beginning at K.S.A. 59-3050 now read Repealed. Two definitions in the digital assets act point at the new one by section range:

  • K.S.A. 58-4802(f) defines a conservator as a person appointed by a court under that act to manage the estate of a minor or adult individual, and it includes a temporary conservator.
  • K.S.A. 58-4802(p) defines a guardian as a person appointed under that act to make decisions regarding the support, care, education, health and welfare of a minor or adult individual. It includes a temporary guardian and excludes a guardian ad litem.

If you are working from a Kansas form book or a memo written before 2026, check the cross-references in it against the live sections. The Kansas guardianship planning guide covers the appointment side of the same act.

Kansas Uses Two Different Definitions of Personal Representative

This is the Kansas trap that costs people a round trip with a provider's legal department.

K.S.A. 59-102(2), the Kansas Probate Code definition, is broad. Personal representative there includes executors, administrators, administrators with the will annexed, administrators de bonis non, conservators and guardians. A Kansas conservator is a personal representative for most of Chapter 59.

K.S.A. 58-4802(t), the digital assets act definition, is narrow. Personal representative here means an executor, administrator, special administrator or person that performs substantially the same function under law of this state other than this act. Conservators and guardians are not on that list. They appear separately in K.S.A. 58-4802(f) and (p), and the act gives them their own section with narrower rights.

So a Kansas conservator who writes to a provider citing K.S.A. 58-4808 as the personal representative of a living person is citing the wrong section, and a careful custodian will say so. The right section is K.S.A. 58-4814. The Kansas executor duties guide covers what the fiduciary making the request is actually appointed to do.

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What Counts as a Digital Asset in Kansas

K.S.A. 58-4802(k) defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest, then draws the line that matters for an inventory: the term does not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.

Read the two halves together and the working scope comes out like this:

  • Email accounts on Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and the rest
  • Cloud storage and photo libraries on iCloud, Google Photos or Dropbox
  • Social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and TikTok
  • Exchange accounts holding Bitcoin, Ethereum or other tokens
  • Domain names and websites the person registered or ran
  • Online banking, PayPal and payment app logins
  • Grain marketing, farm management and crop insurance portals, which many Kansas families reach only through a website login
  • Loyalty balances such as airline miles and card points
  • Subscriptions that keep billing the estate every month
  • Online storefronts, ad accounts and affiliate accounts

The login and the records behind it are the digital asset. The money behind a bank login is not, and neither is the grain in the bin behind a marketing portal, because neither one is itself an electronic record. Those pass under ordinary Kansas law.

The Order Kansas Reads Your Directions In

K.S.A. 58-4804 sets a three-step order, and a Kansas fiduciary works down it in this sequence.

Step one, the online tool. Subsection (a) lets a user direct a custodian, through an online tool, to disclose to a designated recipient or not to disclose some or all digital assets, including the content of electronic communications. Where the tool allows the user to modify or delete a direction at all times, that direction overrides a contrary direction by the user in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record. K.S.A. 58-4802(r) defines the online tool narrowly, as an electronic service the custodian provides in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement, so a checkbox buried inside the terms of service does not qualify.

The named examples are ones many Kansans already have. Google Inactive Account Manager releases chosen data to chosen people after a set period of inactivity. Facebook Legacy Contact names someone to manage a memorialized profile. Apple Legacy Contact names someone who can request Apple Account data after a death.

That first step also creates a person the rest of the act keeps referring to. K.S.A. 58-4802(j) defines a designated recipient as a person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer the user's digital assets, and K.S.A. 58-4816 lets a designated recipient make a request and go to court over it without any appointment from a judge.

Step two, your own documents. Subsection (b) applies where the user did not use an online tool or the custodian provided none. Then the user may allow or prohibit disclosure in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record. This is the tier a Kansas attorney drafts for, and planning for accounts in advance is one of the cheapest moves in the whole Kansas estate planning set.

Step three, the terms of service. With no online tool and no direction in a document, the agreement between user and provider decides. K.S.A. 58-4805(c) says a fiduciary's access may be modified or eliminated by the user, by federal law or by a terms-of-service agreement if the user has not provided direction under K.S.A. 58-4804.

One counterweight sits in K.S.A. 58-4804(c). A user's direction overrides a contrary terms-of-service provision that does not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from the user's assent to the terms of service. A buried clause loses to a real choice.

Content and Catalogue Are Two Different Requests

Kansas splits a deceased person's communications across two sections, and that split decides what a personal representative actually reads. Kansas spells the word catalogue, which is worth matching in a request letter.

  • The catalogue, defined at K.S.A. 58-4802(d), is information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication and the electronic address of the person. The definition stops there. It does not reach the subject line.
  • The content, defined at K.S.A. 58-4802(g), is information concerning the substance or meaning of a communication that the user sent or received, that a custodian holds in electronic storage or carries as a remote computing service, and that is not readily accessible to the public.

K.S.A. 58-4808 covers the catalogue and every other digital asset. A custodian shall disclose it to the personal representative unless the user prohibited disclosure of digital assets or the court directs otherwise.

K.S.A. 58-4807 covers content, and it opens only if a deceased user consented or a court directs disclosure.

So a Kansas personal representative can often learn that the decedent exchanged messages with a lender on a given date without being able to read what those messages said. Broad authority language in a will does not close that gap. Consent to disclosure of the content of electronic communications has to be written in.

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What a Kansas Personal Representative Sends a Custodian

Both routes run on a short document list.

For the catalogue and other digital assets under K.S.A. 58-4808, the representative gives the custodian a written request for disclosure in physical or electronic form, a certified copy of the death certificate of the user, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment of the representative or a small estate affidavit or court order. If the custodian asks, add the account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, an affidavit stating that disclosure is reasonably necessary for administration of the estate, or a court finding to the same effect.

For content under K.S.A. 58-4807, add one item: unless the user provided direction using an online tool, a copy of the user's will, trust, power of attorney or other record evidencing the user's consent to disclosure of the content of electronic communications. A custodian may also ask the district court to find that the user had a specific identifiable account, that disclosure would not violate 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq. or 47 U.S.C. § 222 or other applicable law, that the user consented, or that disclosure is reasonably necessary for administration of the estate.

Date the request and keep proof of delivery, because the 60-day clock in K.S.A. 58-4816 runs from receipt of the required information rather than from the day you first wrote.

A $75,000 Small Estates Affidavit Works in Place of Letters

This is the Kansas wrinkle worth carrying into a request letter. K.S.A. 58-4807(c), K.S.A. 58-4808(c) and the account-termination list at K.S.A. 58-4815(g)(2) all accept a small estate affidavit as an alternative to a certified letter of appointment. Some states leave the affidavit off the termination list and accept it only for disclosure. Kansas names it on all three, so a successor who never opened a case can ask for the records and ask for the account to be closed.

Kansas puts that affidavit at K.S.A. 59-1507b. When a resident dies, whether testate or intestate, and the total assets of the estate subject to probate do not exceed $75,000 in value, any personal property transferable to the estate goes to a person claiming to be a successor without letters of administration or letters testamentary, on the successor furnishing the holder with an affidavit showing entitlement. A successor is a person entitled to the property by will or by intestate succession, or a person nominated as personal representative under the will.

Three features of that route matter to a digital request. There is no waiting period in the section at all. The affidavit is furnished to the entity holding the property rather than filed with a court, so nothing is docketed. And K.S.A. 59-1507b(b) treats the transfer as a transfer to the personal representative and gives the holder a full discharge and release, which is the reassurance a cautious provider is often waiting for. The Kansas small estates affidavit guide covers the form and what the $75,000 test counts.

Custodians Get 60 Days

K.S.A. 58-4816(a) is the deadline that gives a Kansas family real footing. Not later than 60 days after receipt of the information required under K.S.A. 58-4807 through 58-4815, a custodian shall comply with a request from a fiduciary or designated recipient to disclose digital assets or terminate an account. Where it fails to comply, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the court for an order directing compliance, and subsection (b) says that order must contain a finding that compliance is not in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2702.

Four more subsections shape how that plays out.

  • Subsection (c) lets the custodian notify the user that a request was made.
  • Subsection (d) lets the custodian deny a request where it is aware of any lawful access to the account following the receipt of the fiduciary's request, which is a reason to stop logging in on the decedent's behalf once you have asked.
  • Subsection (e) preserves the custodian's ability to require a court order about a ward, conservatee or principal, covering account ownership, sufficient consent, and any finding required by law other than this act.
  • Subsection (f) grants the custodian and its officers, employees and agents immunity from liability for an act or omission done in good faith in compliance with the act.

What a Kansas Custodian May Do With Your Request

K.S.A. 58-4806 gives the provider room, and knowing the room saves an argument.

At its sole discretion, the custodian may grant full account access, grant partial access sufficient to perform the tasks the fiduciary is charged with, or provide a copy in a record of any digital asset that the user could have accessed on the date the custodian received the request. It may assess a reasonable administrative charge for the cost of disclosing. It need not disclose a digital asset deleted by a user. And where segregating a partial request would impose an undue burden, either side may seek a court order for a subset limited by date, for everything, for nothing, or for everything to the court for review in camera.

So a request for one folder of email can lawfully come back as a full export, a refusal, or a court hearing. Ask for the narrowest set that answers your question and say in the letter why it is narrow.

K.S.A. 58-4817 tells a Kansas court applying the act to give consideration to the need for uniformity of the law among the states that enact it. That is worth a sentence in a letter to an out-of-state provider that is used to another state's version.

An Agent Under a Power of Attorney Needs Line 13

Kansas handles the living principal in two sections that set different bars, and then repeats the harder one inside its own power of attorney act.

Under K.S.A. 58-4809, a custodian discloses content to an agent only to the extent the power of attorney expressly grants the agent authority over the content of electronic communications sent or received by the principal. The agent supplies a written request, an original or copy of that power of attorney, and a certification under penalty of perjury that the power of attorney is in effect.

Under K.S.A. 58-4810, a custodian discloses the catalogue and other digital assets to an agent with specific authority over digital assets or general authority to act on behalf of the principal, on the same three items.

The matching Kansas rule sits in K.S.A. 58-654(f)(13), added by the same 2017 act. Subsection (f) is a rule of construction: any Kansas power of attorney is read to grant the fourteen listed actions only if they are expressly enumerated and authorized in the power of attorney, no matter how broad the general grant is. Item (13) is exercising authority over the content of an electronic communication of the principal pursuant to K.S.A. 58-4809. A Kansas form that grants sweeping financial authority and never prints that line leaves the agent outside K.S.A. 58-4809. Ask for it while you still can: digital access while you are alive runs on the same document the Kansas power of attorney guide covers, alongside the other thirteen express-grant powers.

Kansas Lets a Trustee Use a Certification of Trust

A trustee who is the original account holder gets everything. K.S.A. 58-4811 requires a custodian to disclose to a trustee that is an original user any digital asset of the account held in trust, including the catalogue and the content, unless a court orders otherwise or the trust provides otherwise.

A trustee who is not the original user works through K.S.A. 58-4812 for content and K.S.A. 58-4813 for everything else. Both ask for a written request, a certification by the trustee under penalty of perjury that the trust exists and the trustee is currently acting, and one document: a certified copy of the trust instrument or a certification of the trust under K.S.A. 58a-1013.

That second option is a real Kansas advantage and it is easy to miss. K.S.A. 58a-1013(a) lets a trustee furnish an acknowledged certification carrying seven items instead of the trust instrument: that the trust exists and when it was executed, who the settlor is, who the currently acting trustee is and where, the powers of the trustee, whether the trust is revocable and who may revoke it, how cotrustees sign, and how title to trust property is taken. Subsection (d) says the certification need not contain the dispositive terms of a trust, so a successor trustee who expected to hand a provider the whole instrument usually does not have to. Subsection (e) leaves the recipient one ask: excerpts from the instrument that designate the trustee and confer the power to act. One condition attaches on the content side: K.S.A. 58-4812(b) requires the trust instrument or the certification to include consent to disclosure of the content of electronic communications to the trustee. A bare certification with no consent line opens K.S.A. 58-4813 and leaves K.S.A. 58-4812 closed. The Kansas trust administration guide covers what the certification carries, and the Kansas revocable living trust guide covers writing the consent line before it is needed.

Guardians and Conservators Get the Catalogue, Not the Content

K.S.A. 58-4814 handles a living ward or conservatee, and it ties access to the case rather than to a letter.

Subsection (a) says that after an opportunity for a hearing under the Kansas uniform guardianship, conservatorship and other protective arrangements act, the court may grant a guardian or conservator access to the digital assets of a ward or conservatee. Nothing in the section makes a custodian hand over message content on documents alone, so content runs through that hearing.

Subsection (b) then requires a custodian to disclose the catalogue and any digital assets other than the content of electronic communications on a written request plus a certified copy of the court order that gives the guardian or conservator authority over the digital assets of the ward or conservatee. Subsection (c) separately lets a guardian or conservator with general authority to manage the assets ask a custodian to suspend or terminate an account for good cause, accompanied by a certified copy of the court order giving authority over the ward or conservatee's property.

An order that appoints a guardian of the person alone does not carry the property authority these subsections ask for. Read the order before you write the letter.

Fiduciary Duties and the Kansas Computer Crime Line

K.S.A. 58-4815 sets the duties that travel with the access.

Subsection (a) applies the duty of care, the duty of loyalty and the duty of confidentiality to digital assets exactly as they apply to tangible property. Subsection (b) subjects the fiduciary's authority to the applicable terms of service except as K.S.A. 58-4804 provides, to other applicable laws including copyright laws, and to the scope of the fiduciary's duties, then bars using the authority to impersonate the user.

Subsections (c) through (e) matter for anything sitting on a device. A fiduciary with authority over the property of a decedent, ward or conservatee, principal or settlor has the right to access any digital asset not held by a custodian or subject to a terms-of-service agreement, is an authorized user for the purpose of applicable computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws, including K.S.A. 21-5839, while acting within the scope of the fiduciary's duties, and has the right to access the tangible personal property and any digital asset stored in it.

That authorized-user line is narrower than it sounds. It covers a fiduciary acting in role. It does not cover a family member who knows the password and logs in before anyone is appointed, and K.S.A. 21-5839 is a Kansas criminal statute. Use the statutory route and the provider's own channel.

Two practical subsections close the section. K.S.A. 58-4815(f) lets a custodian disclose information in an account to a fiduciary when the information is required to terminate an account used to access digital assets licensed to the user. K.S.A. 58-4815(g) sets the termination package: a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate where the user is deceased, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment or a small estate affidavit or court order, or a power of attorney or trust giving the fiduciary authority over the account.

Cryptocurrency Splits Into Two Cases

Crypto divides in Kansas the way it divides everywhere, and the act reaches only one half cleanly.

On an exchange, the exchange is a custodian. Coinbase, Kraken and their peers hold the keys and run an estates process much like a bank, so the K.S.A. 58-4808 document package and the 60-day clock in K.S.A. 58-4816 apply.

In a self-custody wallet, there is no custodian at all. K.S.A. 58-4815(c) gives the fiduciary the right to access an asset held outside any custodian relationship, and that right is a legal permission rather than a technical one. No private key means no coins, and no district court order changes that.

When you are settling a Kansas estate that might hold crypto, look for a small hardware device, a written or stamped list of 12 or 24 words, files named wallet, seed or recovery, and exchange confirmation emails. Once you have access, record the holdings and the date-of-death value promptly, because those values swing hard and that figure drives both the inventory and the beneficiary's basis.

For your own planning, keep seed phrases out of unsecured files and out of your will. A Kansas will becomes a public court record once it is filed for probate.

Steps to Take Now

Three moves cover most of the risk, and none of them needs a lawyer to start.

Set the Online Tools This Week

They sit at the top of the K.S.A. 58-4804 order and they take minutes:

  • Google: Data and privacy, then Make a plan for your account
  • Facebook: Settings, then Memorialization Settings, to name a Legacy Contact
  • Apple: Your name, then Sign-In and Security, then Legacy Contact

Ask for Content Consent in Writing

Have the attorney who drafts your will, trust or power of attorney add language that authorizes your fiduciary to access, manage and close your digital accounts and consents to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. That consent is what opens K.S.A. 58-4807. A general phrase about handling your affairs does not. If you are naming an agent, ask for the K.S.A. 58-654(f)(13) express grant in the same sitting. If you have a trust, ask for the consent line inside the instrument so a K.S.A. 58a-1013 certification can carry it.

Keep an Inventory, Not a Password List

Write down which accounts exist and where the credentials live, then keep it current. Store the credentials themselves in a password manager, leave a sealed letter of instruction with your estate documents, and point to that separate letter in your will instead of pasting logins into it.

When to Talk With a Kansas Attorney

Bring a Kansas estate attorney in when a provider refuses a request that meets the statute, when you need a district court order for content under K.S.A. 58-4807, when a custodian claims an undue burden under K.S.A. 58-4806(d), or when the estate holds a digital business, a monetized channel, or crypto worth real money. Those are the situations where the 60-day clock in K.S.A. 58-4816 turns into a filing rather than a follow-up email.

Planning ahead costs less than any of that. Setting the online tools and asking for a content-consent clause takes an afternoon and removes the two most common reasons a Kansas family gets told no.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a Kansas executor get into the deceased person's online accounts?

Only on the terms the account holder set. K.S.A. 58-4804 puts a direction given through the provider's own online tool first, a direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record second, and lets the terms-of-service agreement decide only where neither exists. Letters of appointment prove who you are. They do not by themselves prove the deceased user consented to disclosure of message content, which K.S.A. 58-4807 requires before a custodian hands any of it over.

When did the Kansas digital assets law take effect?

July 1, 2017. L. 2017, ch. 19 enacted the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act at K.S.A. 58-4801 through 58-4819. K.S.A. 58-4803 reaches backward as well as forward: it covers a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney executed before, on or after that date, a personal representative acting for a decedent who died before, on or after it, a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding commenced at any point, and a trustee under a trust created at any point. A 2009 will and a 2014 death both sit inside the act.

How long does a provider have to answer a Kansas fiduciary?

Sixty days. K.S.A. 58-4816(a) requires a custodian to comply with a request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account not later than 60 days after receipt of the information required under K.S.A. 58-4807 through 58-4815. Where the custodian fails to comply, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the district court for an order directing compliance, and subsection (b) says that order must contain a finding that compliance is not in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2702.

Does a Kansas small estates affidavit work on a digital account?

Yes for disclosure and for termination. K.S.A. 58-4807(c) and 58-4808(c) both accept a certified copy of the letter of appointment or a small estate affidavit or court order, and the account-termination list at K.S.A. 58-4815(g)(2) names the affidavit too. Kansas puts that affidavit at K.S.A. 59-1507b: it runs when the total assets of the estate subject to probate do not exceed $75,000, it carries no waiting period at all, and the successor furnishes it to the entity holding the property rather than filing it with a judge.

Can a Kansas executor read the deceased person's emails?

Only with consent or a court order. K.S.A. 58-4807 opens the content of electronic communications where the deceased user consented or a court directs disclosure, and it asks for a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record evidencing that consent unless the user gave direction through an online tool. K.S.A. 58-4808 covers the catalogue of electronic communications and every other digital asset on a shorter list. That catalogue, defined at K.S.A. 58-4802(d), names who the user communicated with, the time and date, and that person's electronic address, and stops there.

What does a Kansas power of attorney need to say about digital accounts?

It needs the express line. K.S.A. 58-654(f)(13) makes exercising authority over the content of an electronic communication of the principal pursuant to K.S.A. 58-4809 one of the fourteen actions a Kansas power of attorney grants only if they are expressly enumerated and authorized in the document, no matter how broad the general grant is. K.S.A. 58-4810 is the easier half: a custodian discloses the catalogue and other digital assets to an agent with specific authority over digital assets or general authority to act for the principal.

Do Kansas guardians and conservators get the same access as an executor?

No, and the gap is deliberate. K.S.A. 58-4814(b) requires a custodian to disclose the catalogue and any digital assets other than the content of electronic communications, on a written request plus a certified copy of the court order giving authority over the digital assets. Content is not on that list. Subsection (a) instead lets the district court, after an opportunity for a hearing under the Kansas uniform guardianship, conservatorship and other protective arrangements act, grant a guardian or conservator access to the digital assets of a ward or conservatee. That subsection was rewritten by L. 2025, ch. 40, section 148, effective January 1, 2026.

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Information current as of September 8, 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 Kansas can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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