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North Dakota Digital Assets After Death
Support GuideNorth Dakota21 min read

North Dakota Digital Assets After Death

North Dakota's digital assets law puts a provider's online tool above your will. Email content needs consent or a court order.

By Settled Editorial

North Dakota does not give a personal representative automatic access to the deceased person's online life. Its digital assets law, the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act at NDCC chapter 47-36, sets a ranked order: what the account holder chose in the provider's own online tool comes first, a direction in a will or other record comes second, and the provider's terms of service fill any gap. The content of emails and messages opens only with the person's consent or a court order. Everything else, including the list of who the person wrote to, opens on a written request backed by letters, a small estate affidavit, or a court order, and the provider has 60 days to answer.

The Legislative Assembly created all 17 sections of chapter 47-36 in 2017 through House Bill 1214 (Session Laws chapter 318), and the Legislative Council's sections-affected tables for every session from 2005 through 2025 show no later bill amending any of them. This guide walks through who ranks first, what a personal representative can and cannot get, the paperwork a provider can demand, the 60-day clock, and what to set up now so your family never has to fight for access. For the rest of the job after a death, see the personal representative's authority.

Who the Chapter Covers

NDCC 47-36-02 reaches a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney signed before or after the chapter took effect, a personal representative for a decedent who died before or after it, conservatorships and guardianships, and trustees of older and newer trusts. It binds a custodian when the user lives in North Dakota or lived here at death. It does not reach an employer's digital assets that an employee used in the ordinary course of the employer's business, so a work email account stays with the employer.

What the Chapter Calls a Digital Asset

Start with the definitions in NDCC 47-36-01, because the rules turn on a few defined words.

  • Digital asset means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. It does not include an underlying asset or liability unless that asset is itself an electronic record. So the money in a checking account is not a digital asset; the online banking record of it is.
  • Custodian means a person that carries, maintains, processes, receives or stores a user's digital asset. Email providers, social networks, cloud storage services, photo sites and crypto exchanges all fit.
  • User means a person with an account at a custodian.
  • Fiduciary means a personal representative, conservator or guardian, agent, or trustee, including an additional or successor one.
  • Content of an electronic communication means the substance of a message the user sent or received, stored by a provider serving the public, and not readily accessible to the public.
  • Catalog of electronic communications means the list of each person the user communicated with, the time and date, and that person's electronic address. It is the envelope, not the letter.
  • Online tool means a service the custodian runs, under an agreement separate from the terms of service, where the user can direct disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person.
  • Court means a district court with jurisdiction over the matter, the same court that hears North Dakota probate.

The split between content and catalog does most of the work in this chapter. Here is why: federal privacy law, the Stored Communications Act at 18 U.S.C. 2702, bars a provider from voluntarily handing over the contents of a customer's messages except in listed situations, one of which is lawful consent. North Dakota's request procedure is built around that federal line.

Who Decides: Online Tool, Then Will, Then Terms of Service

NDCC 47-36-03 ranks three sources of instruction.

  1. The online tool. A user may use the custodian's online tool to direct it to disclose some or all digital assets, including message content, to a designated recipient, or to disclose nothing. If the tool lets the user modify or delete that direction at all times, the direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record.
  2. A will, trust, power of attorney or other record. If the user never used an online tool, or the custodian does not provide one, the user may allow or prohibit disclosure to a fiduciary in one of those documents.
  3. The terms-of-service agreement. Where the user gave no direction under 47-36-03, NDCC 47-36-04(3) lets the terms of service modify or eliminate a fiduciary's access. Federal law and the user can do the same.

NDCC 47-36-03(3) adds a tiebreaker in the user's favor. A direction given through the tool or in a will overrides a terms-of-service clause unless that clause required the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from clicking to accept the terms. A privacy clause the user agreed to by signing up does not beat a later written instruction.

The order decides real cases. Say a user switched on a provider's inactive-account feature years ago and named a sister as the contact, then wrote a will leaving everything to a son. For that account, the sister named in the tool controls, not the will.

NDCC 47-36-04 also sets the ceiling. The chapter does not change a custodian's or user's rights under the terms of service, and it gives a fiduciary or designated recipient no new or expanded rights beyond those the user held.

What a Personal Representative Can Get After a Death

North Dakota treats two kinds of request differently.

Message content: consent or a court order

NDCC 47-36-06 opens the content of emails, texts and direct messages only if the deceased user consented or a court directs disclosure. When one of those conditions is met, the custodian has to disclose content to the personal representative who gives it:

  1. a written request, on paper or electronically;
  2. a certified copy of the death certificate;
  3. a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, or a court order;
  4. unless the user gave the direction through an online tool, a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record showing the user consented to disclosure of message content; and
  5. if the custodian asks, an account identifier such as a user name or address, evidence linking the account to the user, or a court finding. The findings the custodian may ask for are that the user had that account, that disclosure would not violate applicable state or federal law, that the user consented (unless an online tool was used), or that disclosure is reasonably necessary to administer the estate.

The takeaway: a will that says nothing about digital assets gives a personal representative no path to message content except a court order.

Everything else: on request, unless the user said no

NDCC 47-36-07 covers the catalog of communications and every digital asset other than message content, such as stored photos and documents, account records and purchase history. Here the default flips. Unless the user prohibited disclosure or the court directs otherwise, the custodian has to disclose to the personal representative who gives it a written request, a certified death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, or a court order.

If the custodian asks, the personal representative also supplies an account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, an affidavit stating disclosure is reasonably necessary to administer the estate, or a court finding on the account or on that necessity.

How the provider hands it over

Under NDCC 47-36-05, the custodian picks the method at its sole discretion: full access to the account, partial access sufficient for the fiduciary's tasks, or a copy of any digital asset the user could have reached on the date the custodian received the request. The same section lets it charge a reasonable administrative fee, excuses it from producing anything the user deleted, and lets it refuse a partial request when separating the assets would be an undue burden. Either side may then ask the court for an order limiting disclosure by date, disclosing everything, disclosing nothing, or sending everything to the judge for review in camera.

The Small Estate Affidavit Works Here

Every North Dakota request rule in this chapter accepts a small estate affidavit in place of letters of appointment. You will find that wording in 47-36-06(3), 47-36-07(3), and the account-closing rule at 47-36-14(7)(b).

That affidavit is the one in NDCC 30.1-23-01. It is available 30 days after the death when the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, is worth $100,000 or less and no application or petition to appoint a personal representative is pending or granted in any jurisdiction. A family that settles a modest estate through the North Dakota small estate affidavit can use the same sworn document to ask a provider for photos, account records or the catalog, and to close accounts, without ever opening a probate. Message content still needs the user's consent or a court order under 47-36-06.

Devices, Crypto and Other Assets No Provider Holds

NDCC 47-36-14 sets the fiduciary's duties and the limits on its authority.

  • Same duties as for physical property. The duties of care, loyalty and confidentiality that govern a fiduciary's handling of tangible property apply to digital assets.
  • Limits. Authority is subject to the terms of service (except where subsection 4 says otherwise), to other law including copyright, and to the scope of the fiduciary's duties. It may not be used to impersonate the user. A personal representative can close an account or download photos; posting as the deceased person is off the table.
  • Assets no custodian holds. A fiduciary with authority over a decedent's property has the right to access any digital asset the decedent had a right or interest in that is not held by a custodian or subject to a terms-of-service agreement. Files on a home computer and a self-custody crypto wallet fall here.
  • The devices themselves. A fiduciary with authority over the decedent's tangible personal property has the right to access that property and any digital asset stored in it.
  • Criminal law. A fiduciary acting within its duties is an authorized user for computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws. The chapter does not name a section, but North Dakota's computer fraud and computer crime offenses sit in NDCC 12.1-06.1-08, and both turn on access without authorization or in excess of it.

The right of access does not come with the password. If the deceased person kept coins in a wallet only they could open and never recorded the seed phrase, the statute gives the estate a right it has no way to use. Coins held on an exchange are different, because the exchange is a custodian and the ordinary 47-36-07 request applies.

Closing an account

NDCC 47-36-14(7) lets a fiduciary ask a custodian to terminate the user's account. The request has to be in writing and come with a certified death certificate if the user is deceased, a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, a court order, a power of attorney or a trust giving the fiduciary authority over the account, and, if the custodian asks, an account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, or a court finding that the user had the account. Subsection 6 lets the custodian share information needed to close an account used for licensed digital assets such as purchased music or e-books.

The 60-Day Clock and What a Provider Can Still Do

NDCC 47-36-15 puts a deadline on the custodian. No later than 60 days after it receives the information required under 47-36-06 through 47-36-14, it has to comply with a request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account. If it does not, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the court for an order directing compliance, and that order must contain a finding that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. 2702.

The same section keeps some options with the provider.

  • It may notify the user that a request was made.
  • It may deny the request if it is aware of any lawful access to the account after receiving the fiduciary's request.
  • It may require a court order that specifies the account belongs to the protected person or principal, specifies there is sufficient consent, and contains any finding other law requires.
  • It and its officers, employees and agents are immune from liability for acts or omissions done in good faith in compliance with the chapter.

Next steps if you are the personal representative: gather certified death certificates from North Dakota death certificates, get certified letters from the clerk of district court through the North Dakota courts directory or sign the small estate affidavit, list every account you can find from the mail, the phone and the email inbox, and send each provider a dated written request. Count 60 days from the date the provider received a complete package, not the date you first called.

While You Are Alive: Agents, Trustees, Conservators and Guardians

The same chapter governs an agent's access during life.

  • Agents under a power of attorney. NDCC 47-36-08 opens message content only to the extent the document expressly grants authority over it. NDCC 47-36-09 opens the catalog and other digital assets to an agent with specific authority over digital assets or general authority to act for the principal. Either request comes with an original or copy of the document and the agent's certification, under penalty of perjury, that it is still in force.
  • Trustees. NDCC 47-36-10 requires a custodian to disclose everything in an account held in trust to a trustee who is the original user, content included, unless the court or the trust says otherwise. A trustee who is not the original user needs trust language consenting to disclosure of content under NDCC 47-36-11, shown through a certified copy of the trust instrument or a certification of trust under NDCC 59-18-13. NDCC 47-36-12 opens the catalog and non-content assets to that trustee without the consent language.
  • Conservators and guardians. North Dakota's chapter names both. Under NDCC 47-36-13, the court may grant a conservator or guardian access to a protected person's digital assets after an opportunity for a hearing under NDCC 30.1-29-07. Even then, the custodian discloses the catalog and non-content assets, not message content, on a written request with a certified copy of the court order. A conservator or guardian with general authority to manage the protected person's assets may ask a custodian to suspend or terminate an account for good cause. If you would rather an agent handle this than a court appointee, see North Dakota guardianship planning.

Numbering Notes for North Dakota Readers

National articles cite the uniform act by its own section numbers, and North Dakota's numbering differs. The chapter runs from 47-36-01 through 47-36-17. Definitions are 47-36-01, the fiduciary-duty and account-closing rules sit together at 47-36-14, the 60-day compliance rule is 47-36-15, the uniformity rule is 47-36-16, and the relationship to the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act is 47-36-17. The chapter lives in Title 47 (Property), not in the probate code at Title 30.1. When a form letter cites a section number, check it against the North Dakota Century Code before you send it.

What To Set Up Now

Planning takes an afternoon and removes the two most common reasons a North Dakota family hears no.

  • Use each provider's online tool. Many large email, cloud and social media providers offer a legacy contact or inactive-account setting. Under 47-36-03(1), a choice made there outranks your will, so make the two match.
  • Add a content-consent clause. If you want your personal representative to read your email, say so in the will, trust or power of attorney. Without it, 47-36-06 leaves a court order as the only route for accounts where you never used an online tool.
  • Give your agent express authority. A power of attorney that never mentions electronic communications does not open message content under 47-36-08.
  • Write down what no provider holds. List devices, the password manager, and where any seed phrase is stored, and keep the list with your estate papers.

These steps sit alongside other planning tools, and the North Dakota probate guide covers the court side when a probate does open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a North Dakota personal representative automatically get into the deceased person's online accounts?

No. NDCC 47-36-04(2) says the chapter gives a fiduciary no new or expanded rights beyond those the user held, and 47-36-03 makes access turn on what the account holder left behind. A direction through the provider's online tool comes first, a direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record comes second, and the terms-of-service agreement decides when the user gave neither. Letters prove who you are. They do not prove the deceased person agreed to let anyone read their messages.

What outranks a North Dakota will under the digital assets law?

An online tool the account holder actually used. NDCC 47-36-03(1) says a direction given through an online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record, as long as the tool lets the user modify or delete the direction at all times. NDCC 47-36-01(16) defines an online tool as a service the custodian offers under an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement, so a clause inside the terms of service does not count.

Can a North Dakota executor read the deceased person's emails?

Only if the person consented or a court directs it. NDCC 47-36-06 opens the content of electronic communications to the personal representative on one of those two grounds, and unless the user gave the direction through an online tool, the request has to include a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record that shows the consent. The list of who wrote to whom and when, which the chapter calls the catalog, comes under 47-36-07 on a lower showing.

Can a North Dakota small estate affidavit get a provider to release account records?

Yes. NDCC 47-36-06(3) and 47-36-07(3) accept a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, or a court order. The affidavit is the one in NDCC 30.1-23-01, available 30 days after the death when the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, is worth $100,000 or less and no application to appoint a personal representative is pending or granted. So a successor who never opens a probate can still ask for the catalog and other digital assets, and can ask to close an account under 47-36-14(7).

How long does a provider have to answer a North Dakota fiduciary?

Sixty days. NDCC 47-36-15(1) requires a custodian to comply with a request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account no later than 60 days after it receives the information required under 47-36-06 through 47-36-14. If it does not, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the district court for an order directing compliance, and 47-36-15(2) says that order must contain a finding that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. 2702.

Is it a crime for a North Dakota executor to log into the deceased person's laptop?

Not when the personal representative acts within the scope of that role. NDCC 47-36-14(4) makes a fiduciary acting within its duties an authorized user for computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws, and 47-36-14(5) gives a fiduciary with authority over the decedent's tangible personal property the right to access that property and any digital asset stored in it. North Dakota's own computer fraud and computer crime offenses in NDCC 12.1-06.1-08 turn on access without authorization or in excess of it. The fiduciary still may not impersonate the user.

Does North Dakota's digital assets law cover cryptocurrency?

It covers the right of access, and it cannot recover a lost password. NDCC 47-36-14(3) gives a fiduciary the right to access a digital asset that is not held by a custodian and not subject to a terms-of-service agreement, which describes a self-custody wallet. Coins held on an exchange are different, because the exchange is a custodian and the ordinary request procedure in 47-36-07 applies to it. Nothing in the statute can rebuild a seed phrase nobody wrote down.

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Information current as of September 28, 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 North Dakota can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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