Louisiana Digital Assets Planning

Louisiana has not enacted a digital assets statute. Most states adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which sets a statutory order of priority and a compliance deadline on online companies, but Louisiana never did. So a Louisiana family reaches a deceased person's online accounts through three practical routes instead: the legacy tools a provider offers, that provider's terms of service, and the succession representative's general authority to take possession of estate property. This guide explains each route, then how to plan now so your family is not locked out. 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.

Louisiana Has No Digital Assets Act

It helps to be clear about the law, because online searches and older guides sometimes say otherwise. A bill to adopt the model act in Louisiana, House Bill 1118, moved through the 2016 Regular Session but was never enacted, and no version of it sits in the Louisiana Revised Statutes today. That leaves Louisiana without the statutory tools most other states now have: there is no codified priority order under which a testament automatically overrides terms of service, and no sixty-day clock a family can hold a company to.

What Louisiana does give a family is the general law of succession. When someone dies, you settle a succession, not common-law probate, in district court. The person the court appoints 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. A succession representative has a duty to take possession of all property of the succession and to preserve it (La. C.C.P. arts. 3211 and 3221). Digital property is still property, so that authority reaches online accounts in principle. The limit is practical: a company on the other side of the request answers to its own terms of service and to federal privacy law, not to a Louisiana statute that compels disclosure.

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The Three Routes to an Account

Because no statute ranks these for you, treat them as the order to try in real life.

The Legacy Tool the Provider Offers

Several large companies let a user name, in advance, who may handle an account after death. This is the most reliable route by far, because the user set it up directly with the company and the company built the process to honor it. Google, Apple, and Facebook each offer one, and a designation made this way generally controls what happens to that account.

The Provider's Terms of Service

If no legacy tool was set up, the company's terms of service govern. Some providers have a documented process for a deceased user's account and will accept a fiduciary's request with proof of death and appointment. Others restrict or close accounts and disclose little, and some forbid transfer of the login entirely. This route is real but uneven, and what a family receives varies from one company to the next.

The Succession Representative's Authority

A succession representative appointed by the district court holds letters (the letters of administration or testamentary the Clerk of Court issues to prove the appointment). Those letters, with a certified death certificate, are what a company asks for when it does have a process. They establish that you are entitled to administer the estate. They do not force a company to hand over the private content of someone's emails or messages, which federal law protects, so expect a request for the deceased's written consent or a court order before a provider releases message content.

What You Can Do Now

A few deliberate steps while you are healthy save your family months of difficulty later, and they matter more in Louisiana precisely because there is no statute to fall back on.

Set Up the Online Legacy Tools Today

These take minutes and are the single most effective thing you can do, because they work directly with the provider and do not depend on any Louisiana statute:

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

Grant Digital Authority in Your Testament and Mandate

Ask the attorney who prepares your testament, trust, or mandate to include a 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. Louisiana mandate law requires express authority for certain acts (La. Civ. Code arts. 2989, 2994, and 2997), so name digital assets by name rather than relying on a general grant. Your written consent is also what a provider looks for before releasing message content.

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 reach 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 Reaches Accounts After Death

When you are the succession representative of a Louisiana succession, there is no statutory checklist to follow, so work the three routes in order:

Check for a legacy tool first. Look at each company's legacy, memorialization, or inactive account pages before anything else. A designation the deceased set up directly with the provider is the strongest path and usually controls that account.
Read the succession documents. Review the testament and any trust or mandate for digital-asset authority and for consent to disclosure of the content of communications. That consent is what a provider looks for before releasing message content.
Gather your documentation. A company that has a process generally asks for a certified copy of your letters from the district court, 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 through official channels and keep records. Use each company's published estate or deceased-user process rather than a stored password. Companies vary widely, and some disclose little, so document every request and response. If a provider refuses a reasonable request or the estate needs message content, a Louisiana succession attorney can advise whether a court order is available.

Louisiana has no sixty-day compliance deadline a family can invoke, so patience and good records matter more here than in states that adopted the model act.

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 bank, 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. Those federal limits apply in Louisiana with or without a state statute. The safer path is to use each company's official channels and your authority as succession representative rather than self-help logins. When in doubt, a Louisiana succession attorney can tell you where the line sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Louisiana have a digital assets law like other states?

No. Most states adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, but Louisiana did not, and no digital assets act appears in the Louisiana Revised Statutes. A family reaches online accounts through the provider's legacy tools, the provider's terms of service, and the succession representative's general authority, not through a state statute.

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

No. Access depends mostly on what you set up in advance. If you named a legacy contact with the provider or gave your fiduciary digital-asset authority in your testament, trust, or mandate, your succession representative has a real 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?

Yes. Because Louisiana has no statute that compels disclosure, a company follows its own terms of service. It can require documentation such as your letters from the district court, a death certificate, and a written request, and it can insist on a court order for the content of communications. This is why a legacy-tool designation set up in advance is so much stronger than relying on a provider's general process.

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: HB1118 of the 2016 Regular Session (fiduciary access to digital assets; the bill's status record shows it was not enacted). Publisher: Louisiana State Legislature. Publication Date: 2016, accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=16RS&b=HB1118
Title: La. Code of Civil Procedure art. 3211 (Duty to take possession; enforcement of claims and obligations). Publisher: Louisiana State Legislature. Publication Date: Current official code, accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=111650
Title: La. Civil Code art. 2997 (Express authority required). Publisher: Louisiana State Legislature. Publication Date: Current official code, accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/LawSearch.aspx
Title: Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Revised: enactment status by state. Publisher: Uniform Law Commission. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home?CommunityKey=f7237fc4-74c2-4728-81c6-b39a91ecdf22
Title: Inactive Account Manager. Publisher: Google. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy
Title: Add a Legacy Contact for a memorialized account. Publisher: Meta (Facebook). Publication Date: Accessed 2026-07-24. URL: https://www.facebook.com/help/1568013990080948

This guide provides general information about reaching digital assets in a Louisiana succession, where no state digital assets statute applies. 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.