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Digital Assets and Estate Planning in Missouri
Support GuideMissouri14 min read

Digital Assets and Estate Planning in Missouri

How to reach a deceased person's digital accounts in Missouri under RUFADAA (RSMo 472.400 to 472.490): online tools, will and POA wording, and crypto.

By Settled Editorial

Most Missouri estates now hold property that has no paper form: email and cloud photos, social media logins, an online bank account, maybe a Coinbase balance or a hardware wallet in a drawer. These digital assets carry real financial and sentimental weight, yet a family often has no idea an account exists, let alone how to reach it. Missouri answers the access question with a codified law: the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, RSMo 472.400 to 472.490, part of Chapter 472 of the Probate Code and effective August 28, 2018.

This guide leads with what those sections actually say, then covers what you can do now so your own personal representative is not locked out, and where cryptocurrency needs extra care. It pairs with the Missouri estate planning basics guide. It is general information, not legal advice.

Missouri's Digital Assets Act, Sections 472.400 to 472.490

Missouri adopted the national uniform act on fiduciary access to digital assets and codified it as the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. The legislature passed it in 2018 (House Bill 1250), and RSMo 472.400 names the law and fixes its range at Sections 472.400 to 472.490. A few features of the Missouri act carry weight when you settle an estate here.

A codified order of priority (Section 472.415). Missouri writes the tiered priority into statute rather than leaving it to guesswork. Under Section 472.415, a provider's online tool controls if the user used one that can be changed at any time. A direction in a will, trust, or power of attorney comes next. The provider's terms of service apply only when neither of the first two does. The order further beats a contrary terms-of-service provision that the user never had to accept separately. The steps below follow this section.

The content-versus-catalogue split (Sections 472.430 and 472.435). The Missouri act separates the content of electronic communications from everything else. Section 472.435 lets a personal representative reach the non-content record, the catalogue, on a lighter showing, while Section 472.430 releases the actual text of emails and messages only when the deceased person consented, through an online tool or in a will, trust, or power of attorney. This is why a generic "handle my affairs" clause often falls short for email content in Missouri.

A defined disclosure procedure (Section 472.430). For the content of a deceased Missouri user's communications, Section 472.430 tells a custodian what it may require: a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, a certified copy of the letters testamentary or letters of administration (or the certificate of the clerk on a small estate affidavit, or a court order), and, unless an online tool was used, a copy of the will, trust, or power of attorney that shows the user's consent to disclosure. The custodian may also ask for account-identifying information or a court finding. Section 472.435 sets a similar but lighter showing for the catalogue and other non-content assets.

A 60-day compliance clock (Section 472.475). This is a concrete Missouri deadline. Under Section 472.475, a custodian must comply with a qualifying request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account no later than 60 days after it receives the required information. If it does not, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to court for an order directing compliance. The same section grants custodians good-faith immunity for acts done under the law. Under Section 472.425 a custodian may charge a reasonable administrative fee, may grant full or partial access or a copy, and may ask a court to resolve a request that would impose an undue burden.

It runs through the Probate Division of the Circuit Court. A Missouri personal representative is appointed and receives letters from the Probate Division of the Circuit Court in the county where the estate is administered. The "letters testamentary" or "letters of administration" a custodian asks for under Section 472.430 are those letters. The accounts you recover feed the same inventory and settlements you file with the Probate Division, so treat online balances and crypto as estate property to be reported.

The moving parts in the rest of this guide, naming a fiduciary, using provider tools, keeping an inventory, come from the uniform act that many states share and look similar from state to state. What is specific to Missouri is the codified act itself: Sections 472.400 to 472.490, the 60-day clock in Section 472.475, the content-versus-catalogue line in Sections 472.430 and 472.435, and the Probate Division letters that supply the paperwork. A Missouri estate planning attorney drafts to those sections.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

Section 472.405 defines a digital asset broadly as an electronic record in which a person has a right or interest. That 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 Photos, 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 estate work: the digital asset is the electronic record itself, not the money behind it. Section 472.405 says the term does not include an underlying asset or liability unless that asset is itself an electronic record. The dollars in an online bank account still pass through Missouri's ordinary financial and probate rules. The act governs the login and the records, not the underlying balance.

The Three-Tier Priority Order

Section 472.415 sets the order a Missouri fiduciary and family walk down.

  1. An online tool the provider offers. If the provider gives users a built-in way to say what happens to an account, and the person used a tool they could change at any time, that choice controls above everything else. Common tools are Google Inactive Account Manager, Facebook Legacy Contact, and Apple Digital Legacy. A valid online tool designation beats your will: if you used Google to send your Gmail data to your daughter, your personal representative cannot reroute it to your son. Setting these tools now is the single most reliable step you can take.
  2. Your will, trust, or power of attorney. With no online tool, the act looks to your own documents. A clause granting your personal representative authority over digital accounts, or a trust naming your digital property, gives your fiduciary a solid basis to ask providers for access.
  3. The provider's terms of service. With no online tool and no direction in your documents, the terms of service decide. This is the weakest position, and many platforms give a personal representative little beyond memorialization or deletion.

Remember the content-versus-catalogue line above. Even at the second tier, reaching the actual text of emails and messages under Section 472.430 needs the user's consent to content disclosure, while the non-content catalogue (who, when, subject lines) comes more easily under Section 472.435. A generic "handle my affairs" grant often is not enough for email content, which is why specific wording 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 provider tools on the accounts that matter. They take minutes and sit at the top of the 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 will, trust, or power of attorney to include a digital assets clause that lets your fiduciary access, manage, and close your digital accounts, and that consents to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. That consent is what unlocks the second tier for email and messages. Watch the Missouri power-of-attorney rule below: under Section 472.440, authority over the content of a principal's communications must be granted expressly in a power of attorney, so a broad grant is not enough on its own.

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 will, because a will filed with the Probate Division can become public record. 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 will rather than pasting the details into the will 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 Missouri Personal Representative Requests Access After Death

When you are the personal representative of a Missouri estate, the act gives you a workable path built on the Probate Division paperwork you already hold:

  1. Check for an online tool designation first. Look at each provider's legacy, memorialization, or inactive account pages before anything else. An online tool controls over your other steps under Section 472.415.
  2. Review the will and any trust for digital asset authority and, above all, for consent to disclose the content of communications.
  3. Gather your Missouri documentation. For content under Section 472.430 a custodian may require a written request, a certified death certificate, a certified copy of your letters testamentary or letters of administration from the Probate Division, and, unless an online tool was used, the will, trust, or power of attorney that shows consent. Catalogue requests under Section 472.435 take a lighter showing.
  4. Submit through the provider's official channel and track the 60-day clock. Under Section 472.475 the custodian has 60 days from receiving your information to comply. Providers differ widely, so keep a record of every request and response.

If a provider misses the 60-day deadline or refuses a request that complies with the act, you may apply to the circuit court for an order directing compliance under Section 472.475, and for the content of communications you may need a court order. Report the accounts and balances you recover on the inventory and settlements you file with the Probate Division.

Cryptocurrency: Special Care

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

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 keys means no access. There is no customer service line and no court order that can recover it. The crypto is simply gone.

When settling an estate 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 history. Once you secure access, document the holdings promptly for the inventory, 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 providers' terms forbid password sharing. Missouri answers part of this in Section 472.470, which treats a fiduciary acting within their duties as an authorized user of the decedent's property for computer-access purposes. The safer path is still to use the statutory process and the provider's official channels rather than self-help logins. When in doubt, a Missouri estate attorney can tell you where the line sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Missouri personal representative automatically get into my online accounts?

No. Access depends on the directions you left. If you used an online tool or added digital asset authority to your will, trust, or power of attorney, your personal representative has a legal basis to request access under RSMo 472.415. Without either, the provider's terms of service control, and many restrict what a fiduciary may see.

Can a provider refuse my fiduciary's request?

A provider can require proper documentation, such as your letters testamentary or letters of administration, a death certificate, and a written request, and can insist on evidence of consent or a court order for the content of communications. It cannot lawfully refuse a valid request that complies with the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, and under Section 472.475 it must respond within 60 days or you can ask the circuit court to order compliance.

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 keys or seed phrase, which is why securing and documenting them matters so much.

Should I put my passwords in my will?

No. A will filed with the Probate Division of the Circuit Court can become public record. Keep passwords in a password manager or a sealed letter of instruction and reference that separate document in your will.

Related Missouri Guides

This guide is general information about digital assets and the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, not advice for your situation. Digital asset planning turns on legal and technical choices that fit your accounts, so confirm the current wording of the statute and your own documents with a licensed Missouri estate planning attorney before you rely on them.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of July 17, 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 Missouri can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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