Louisiana Digital Assets Planning

Louisiana settles digital property through one specific statute: the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, adopted by Act of the 2016 Regular Session (House Bill 1118) and placed in the Louisiana Revised Statutes at Title 51. This guide leads with what that act actually says, in Louisiana's own civil-law terms, then covers how to plan now and how a succession representative requests access after death. It pairs with the Louisiana estate planning basics guide. It is general information, not legal advice.

Most estates now hold property with no paper form: email and cloud photos, social media, an online bank login, maybe a Coinbase balance or a hardware wallet in a drawer. These digital assets carry real financial and sentimental value, yet a family often has no idea an account exists, let alone how to reach it.

What Louisiana's Digital Assets Act Says

Louisiana enacted the model act, but Louisiana is the only civil-law state, so read it in Louisiana vocabulary. You settle a succession, not common-law probate, in district court; the person appointed to administer it is a succession representative (an executor or administrator), not a common-law personal representative; and the agent under a power of attorney is a mandatary acting under a mandate. The statute does two jobs at once. It gives that fiduciary a legal path to the accounts needed to settle the succession, and it protects the privacy the deceased reasonably expected while alive.

Three provisions of the act do most of the work, and they are the Louisiana-specific substance below: a codified order of priority for who controls each account (Section 2704), a split between the catalogue of communications and their content (Sections 2707 and 2708), and a sixty-day compliance clock on the online company (Sections 2716 and 2717). The act reaches a broad list of property. It defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which a person has a right or interest, which sweeps in nearly everything you own or manage online:

Email accounts such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail
Cloud storage and photo libraries on iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox
Social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok
Cryptocurrency and exchange accounts including Bitcoin, Ethereum, tokens, and balances on Coinbase or Kraken
Domain names and websites the person registered or ran
Online financial accounts like online banking, PayPal, and Venmo
Loyalty and rewards balances such as airline miles and credit card points
Subscriptions for streaming, software, and storage that keep charging the estate
Digital business assets like an Etsy or Shopify store, an ad account, or an affiliate account

One line matters for succession work: the digital asset is the electronic record itself, not the money behind it. The dollars in an online bank account still pass through Louisiana's ordinary financial and succession rules. The act governs the login and the records, not the underlying account balance.

Louisiana's Codified Order of Priority

Section 2704 of the act is Louisiana's own rule for who controls each account, and a family should walk down it in order. What makes it Louisiana law, not just a generic tip, is that the statute expressly ranks the sources of authority and says which one wins.

Tier 1: An Online Tool the Company Offers

Section 2704(A) puts the company's built-in tool first. If a company gives users a way to direct what happens to an account and the person used it, that direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, or power of attorney. That override is the whole point of the tier, and it is stated in the statute. These online tools include:

Google Inactive Account Manager, which lets you name people to receive specific data (or delete the account) after a set period of inactivity
Facebook Legacy Contact, which names someone to manage a memorialized profile
Apple Digital Legacy, which names a legacy contact who can request access to iCloud content after death

Because Section 2704(A) says the online-tool direction overrides your testament, a valid designation beats your other documents. If you used Google Inactive Account Manager to send your Gmail data to your daughter, your succession representative cannot override that and route it to your son. That is why setting these tools now is the single most reliable step you can take.

Tier 2: Your Testament, Trust, or Mandate

Section 2704(B) reaches your own legal documents when no online tool applies. Directions in a testament, a trust, or a mandate (Louisiana's power of attorney) that address digital assets control here. A testament clause granting your succession representative authority over your digital accounts, or a trust that names your digital property, gives your fiduciary a legal basis to ask a company for access. Because Louisiana calls the agent under a power of attorney a mandatary, a mandate that expressly grants digital-asset authority lets your mandatary act on your online accounts while you are alive but incapacitated.

Tier 3: The Company's Terms of Service

Section 2704(C) leaves the company's terms of service to decide when there is no online tool and no direction in your documents. This is the weakest position. Many platforms restrict account sharing and give a fiduciary little beyond memorialization or deletion, so relying on the terms means accepting whatever each company chooses to allow.

Catalogue Versus Content: Louisiana's Two-Layer Rule

Sections 2707 and 2708 of the act split electronic communications, such as email and private messages, into two layers, and treat them very differently:

The catalogue (Section 2708) is the metadata: who a message was to or from, the date and time, and the electronic address of each person.
The content (Section 2707) is the substance of the message itself.

By default a succession representative can obtain the catalogue of a deceased user's communications, but the content is disclosed only if the deceased consented, through an online tool or in the testament, trust, or mandate, or a court orders it. Without that consent, your representative may learn that emails were exchanged with a bank but not read what they said. This is exactly why generic "my representative may handle my affairs" language is often not enough for email content, and why the specific consent in Section 2707 matters.

Steps to Take Now

A few deliberate steps while you are healthy save your family months of frustration later.

Use the Online Legacy Tools Today

Set up the company tools on the accounts that matter. They take minutes and sit at the top of Section 2704's priority order:

Google: Data and privacy settings, then "Make a plan for your account"
Facebook: Settings, then Memorialization Settings, to name a Legacy Contact
Apple: Your name, then Password and Security, then Legacy Contact

Add Explicit Authorization to Your Documents

Ask the attorney who prepares your testament, trust, or mandate to include a digital assets clause that authorizes your fiduciary to access, manage, and close your digital accounts, and that expressly consents to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. That consent is what unlocks Tier 2 for email and messages.

Keep an Inventory, Not a List of Passwords

Build a running inventory of your accounts and where the credentials live, then keep it current. Do not put passwords in your testament, because a testament becomes public record when it is filed with the court. Instead:

Store credentials in a password manager and arrange for your fiduciary to reach the master password
Keep a sealed letter of instruction with your estate documents that lists accounts and how to access them
Reference that separate document in your testament rather than pasting the details into the testament itself

Secure Cryptocurrency Separately

Crypto is the one asset class that can vanish permanently. Store seed phrases and private keys in a safe or safe deposit box, keep them out of any unsecured digital file, and tell your fiduciary where they are without exposing them to everyday risk. More on crypto below.

How a Succession Representative Requests Access After Death

When you are the succession representative of a Louisiana succession, the act gives you a workable path, and Sections 2706 and 2716 set both the procedure and a deadline on the company:

Check for an online tool designation first. Look at each company's legacy, memorialization, or inactive account pages before anything else, because a Section 2704(A) designation controls above the succession documents.
Confirm your authority in the succession documents. Review the testament and any trust for digital-asset authority, and specifically for the Section 2707 consent to disclosure of the content of communications.
Gather your documentation. A company generally requires a certified copy of your letters (the letters of administration or testamentary that the district court, through the Clerk of Court, issues to prove your appointment as succession representative), a certified death certificate, and a written request. For the content of communications, expect a demand for the deceased's written consent or a court order.
Submit the request and hold the company to the clock. Under Section 2716, once you provide a request that meets the act's requirements, the custodian must comply within sixty days; Section 2717 lets an intestate successor seek a court order if the company misses that window. Companies differ in practice, so document every request and response.

The company retains discretion under Section 2706 over how it discloses: full account access, partial access sufficient to do the job, or a copy of the records in a separate file. It may also charge a reasonable administrative fee and may decline to segregate a partial request that imposes an undue burden, in which case either side may ask the district court for a tailored order. If a company refuses a compliant request, a Louisiana succession attorney can help you enforce Section 2716, and for content you may need a court order.

Cryptocurrency: Special Care

Cryptocurrency behaves unlike any other digital asset because no company holds it for you. Access depends entirely on the private key, or the seed phrase (a series of words that regenerates the key).

If the person held crypto on an exchange such as Coinbase or Kraken, the exchange controls the keys, and you can work through its estate process much like a financial institution, providing your letters and the death certificate. If the person used a self-custody wallet, a hardware device or a software wallet, then no key means no access. There is no customer service line and no court order that can recover it. The crypto is simply gone.

When settling a succession that may hold crypto, search for a small hardware wallet device, printed or written seed phrases (often 12 or 24 words), files named "wallet," "seed," or "recovery," and any exchange login records. Once you secure access, document the holdings promptly for the sworn descriptive list, since crypto values swing sharply and the date-of-death value sets both the estate figure and the beneficiary's basis.

Stay Within Authorized Access

One caution runs through all of this. Using a deceased person's stored password to log in, even with good intentions, sits in a legal gray area. Federal law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act, restricts unauthorized computer and account access, and most companies' terms forbid password sharing. Louisiana's act works alongside those federal limits rather than around them. The safer path is to use the statutory process and the company's official channels rather than self-help logins. When in doubt, a Louisiana succession attorney can tell you where the line sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Louisiana succession representative automatically get into my online accounts?

No. Under Section 2704, access depends on the directions you left. If you used an online tool or added digital asset authority to your testament, trust, or mandate, your succession representative has a legal basis to request access. Without either, the company's terms of service control, and many restrict what a fiduciary may see.

Can a company refuse my fiduciary's request?

A company can require proper documentation, such as your letters from the district court, a death certificate, and a written request, and can insist on a court order for the content of communications. What it cannot do is stall a compliant request: under Section 2716 of Louisiana's act, the custodian must respond within sixty days, and Section 2717 lets an intestate successor seek a court order if it does not.

What happens to cryptocurrency if no one has the private keys?

For a self-custody wallet, it is effectively lost forever. No central authority can recover crypto without the private key or seed phrase, which is why securing and documenting them matters so much.

Should I put my passwords in my testament?

No. A testament becomes public record when it is filed with the court. Keep passwords in a password manager or a sealed letter of instruction and reference that separate document in your testament.

Sources:

Title: Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Chapter 44, R.S. 51:2701 through 2720 (enacted 2016 Regular Session, House Bill 1118). Publisher: Louisiana State Legislature. Publication Date: 2016, accessed 2026-07-02. URL: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=16RS&b=HB1118
Title: Louisiana Revised Statutes (View a Specific Law). Publisher: Louisiana State Legislature. Publication Date: Current official code, accessed 2026-07-02. URL: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/LawSearch.aspx
Title: Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (2015). Publisher: Uniform Law Commission. Publication Date: 2015, accessed 2026-07-02. URL: https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home?CommunityKey=f7237fc4-74c2-4728-81c6-b39a91ecdf22
Title: Inactive Account Manager. Publisher: Google. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-07-02. URL: https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy
Title: Add a Legacy Contact for a memorialized account. Publisher: Meta (Facebook). Publication Date: Accessed 2026-07-02. URL: https://www.facebook.com/help/1568013990080948

This guide provides general information about Louisiana's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. Digital asset planning involves legal and technical choices specific to your situation, so consult a Louisiana estate planning attorney for advice on your accounts. It is not legal advice.