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Utah Digital Assets After Death
Support GuideUtah24 min read

Utah Digital Assets After Death

Utah's digital assets act moved to Title 75A, Chapter 6 in 2024. An online tool outranks your will, and a custodian answers a fiduciary within 60 days.

By Settled Editorial

Most Utah estates now hold property that never existed on paper: an email account, a photo library in the cloud, a bank login, a side business on an online marketplace, sometimes a hardware wallet in a desk drawer. Utah answers the question of who may reach those accounts in one chapter, and that chapter moved in 2024.

The live law is the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Utah Code Title 75A, Chapter 6, sections 75A-6-101 through 75A-6-118, effective 1 September 2024. It replaced Title 75, Chapter 11, which had been in force since 9 May 2017. Anything that still cites a 75-11 section is pointing at a chapter Utah renumbered, and the Legislature's own page for the old short-title section now prints a Repealed 9/1/2024 banner.

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 provider that receives a proper request has 60 days to answer.

Utah's Act Moved To Title 75A, And The Old Citation Is Dead

Utah keeps its probate law in Title 75. In 2024 the Legislature carved the fiduciary chapters into a new Title 75A, Fiduciaries, and the digital assets act went with them. Every section in the current chapter carries the same history line: Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 364, 2024 General Session.

Three sections have moved on since then. 75A-6-102 (the definitions) and 75A-6-112 and 75A-6-113 (the two sections that reach a trustee who did not open the account) were amended by Chapter 310 of the 2025 General Session and took effect 7 May 2025. The rest of the chapter still reads as it did on 1 September 2024.

That renumbering is worth checking before you send anything to a provider. A demand letter citing 75-11-107 asks a legal department to look up a section that is no longer published, and the reply you get back will be slower for it.

Utah hears probate in the district court in all 29 counties, with no separate probate court anywhere in the state. Utah Code 75A-6-102(6) defines the court for this chapter as one with jurisdiction under Title 78A. For how the appointment itself works, start with the Utah probate guide.

What Counts As A Digital Asset In Utah

Utah Code 75A-6-102(9)(a) defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. Subsection (9)(b) then draws the line that matters for an inventory: the definition does not include an underlying asset or liability unless that asset or liability is itself an electronic record.

Read that pair together and the practical scope comes out like this:

  • Email accounts on Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and the rest
  • Cloud storage and photo libraries on iCloud or Dropbox
  • Social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and TikTok
  • Exchange accounts holding Bitcoin, Ethereum or tokens
  • Domain names and websites the person registered or ran
  • Online banking, PayPal and payment app logins
  • 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 are the digital asset. The dollars sitting behind a bank login are not, and they pass through the ordinary Utah rules covered in the Utah executor duties guide.

Two limits sit next door in Utah Code 75A-6-103. The chapter reaches a custodian if the user resides in Utah or resided here at death (subsection (2)), and it does not reach an employer's digital asset used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business (subsection (3)). A work laptop and a work inbox are the employer's problem, not the estate's.

The Order Utah Reads Your Directions In

Utah Code 75A-6-104 sets a three-step order, and a Utah fiduciary works down it in this sequence.

Step one, the online tool. Subsection (1) lets a user direct a custodian, through an online tool, to disclose or withhold some or all digital assets, including the content of electronic communications. That direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record, on one condition written into the statute: the tool has to allow the user to modify or delete the direction at all times. Utah Code 75A-6-102(14) defines the online tool narrowly, as an electronic service offered under an agreement distinct from the terms of service, so a checkbox inside the terms of service does not qualify.

The named examples are the ones people 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 death.

If you used one of these, your fiduciary cannot route the data somewhere else. That is the point of the ranking, and it is why setting these up is the single cheapest planning step available to a Utah adult.

Step two, your own documents. Subsection (2) applies where the user has not used an online tool, or where the custodian offers none. Then the user may allow or prohibit disclosure in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record. This is the tier your attorney drafts for, and it is covered further in Utah estate planning basics.

Step three, the terms of service. With no online tool and no direction in a document, the agreement between the user and the provider decides. Utah Code 75A-6-105(3) says so in plain terms: access may be modified or eliminated by the user, by federal law, or by the terms of service agreement where the user gave no direction under 75A-6-104.

One counterweight sits in 75A-6-104(3). A user's direction overrides a contrary terms of service provision that did not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from assenting to the terms. A buried clause loses to a real choice.

Content Versus Catalogue

Utah splits a deceased person's communications across two sections, and that split decides what a personal representative actually reads.

  • The catalogue, defined at 75A-6-102(4), is the information identifying each person the user communicated with, the time and date, and that person's electronic address. Utah's definition stops there. It does not reach the subject line.
  • The content, defined at 75A-6-102(5), is the information about the substance or meaning of a communication that the user sent or received, that a provider holds in electronic storage or carries as a remote computing service, and that is not readily accessible to the public.

Utah Code 75A-6-108 covers the catalogue and every other digital asset. A custodian discloses it to the personal representative unless the user prohibited disclosure or the court directs otherwise.

Utah Code 75A-6-107 covers content, and it opens only where the deceased user consented or a court directs disclosure.

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

What A Personal Representative Sends A Utah Provider

Both routes run on a documents list, and the lists are short.

For other digital assets and the catalogue under 75A-6-108, the representative gives the custodian a written request in physical or electronic form, a certified copy of the death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, or a court order. On request, the custodian may also ask for the account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, an affidavit that disclosure is reasonably necessary to administer the estate, or a court finding to the same effect.

For content under 75A-6-107, add one item: unless the user gave direction through an online tool, a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record evidencing consent to disclosure of content. A custodian may also ask the court to find that the account belongs to the user, that disclosure would not violate 18 U.S.C. Section 2701 and following or 47 U.S.C. Section 222, that the user consented, or that disclosure is reasonably necessary for administration.

The Utah letters testamentary guide covers how the appointment document itself is issued.

A Small Estate Affidavit Works In Place Of Letters

This is the Utah wrinkle worth carrying into a request letter. Sections 75A-6-107(3), 75A-6-108(3) and 75A-6-115(7)(b) each accept a small estate affidavit as an alternative to a certified letter of appointment.

Utah's affidavit route sits at Utah Code 75-3-1201. It needs 30 days since the death, a net estate of $100,000 or less after liens and encumbrances, and no application or petition for appointment pending or granted in any jurisdiction. A successor who qualifies never opens a probate case at all, and under the digital assets act that successor can still ask a provider for the catalogue, for other digital assets, and for the account to be closed. The Utah small estate affidavit guide walks through the qualifying test.

Read the statute rather than a provider's web form here. Where an intake form asks only for "letters of appointment", the Utah answer is that 75A-6-108(3) names three documents and any one of them will do.

Custodians Get 60 Days

Utah Code 75A-6-116(1) is the deadline that gives a Utah family real footing. A custodian shall comply with a request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account no later than 60 days after receipt of the information required under sections 75A-6-107 through 75A-6-115. Where the custodian does not comply, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the court for an order directing compliance, and subsection (2) says that order has to contain a finding that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. Section 2702.

Date your request and keep the proof of delivery. The clock runs from receipt of the required information, so a partial package restarts the argument about when it started.

Two subsections cut the other way and are worth knowing before you write. Subsection (4) lets a custodian deny a request where it is aware of any lawful access to the account after receiving the request, which is a reason to stop logging in on the decedent's behalf once you have asked. Subsection (6) grants the custodian and its people immunity for anything done in good faith in compliance with the chapter, which is often exactly the reassurance a hesitant legal department is waiting for.

What A Utah Custodian May Do With Your Request

Utah Code 75A-6-106 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 for the fiduciary's tasks, or hand over a copy in a record of any digital asset the user could have reached on the date the request arrived. It may assess a reasonable administrative charge for the cost of disclosing. It need not produce anything the user deleted. And where segregating a partial request would be an undue burden, either side may ask the court to order disclosure of a date-limited subset, of everything, of nothing, or of 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 why it is narrow.

An Agent Under A Power Of Attorney

Utah handles the living principal in two sections, and they set different bars.

Under 75A-6-109, 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. The agent supplies a written request, the original or a copy of that power of attorney, and a certification under penalty of perjury that it is in effect.

Under 75A-6-110, 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, on the same three items.

A Utah power of attorney is durable by default and has to be signed before a notary. Both points, and the eight powers Utah walls behind an express grant, are covered in the Utah power of attorney guide. When you have that document drafted, ask for the express content grant. Without it, your agent gets the envelope and not the letter.

Trustees, Guardians And Conservators

A trustee who is the original account holder gets everything. Utah Code 75A-6-111 requires disclosure of any digital asset held in trust, including the catalogue and the content, unless a court or the trust says otherwise.

A trustee who is not the original user works through 75A-6-112 for content and 75A-6-113 for everything else. Both ask for a certified copy of the trust instrument or a certification of trust under Utah Code 75B-2-1013, plus a certification under penalty of perjury that the trust exists and the trustee is currently acting. The content section adds one requirement: that trust document has to include consent to disclosure of content to the trustee.

A guardian or conservator runs through 75A-6-114. The court may grant access after an opportunity for a hearing, and the section points at Chapter 5, Protection of Persons Under Disability and Their Property, which is a chapter of Title 75 rather than Title 75A. On a certified copy of that order, a custodian discloses the catalogue and other digital assets, though not the content. Subsection (3) separately lets a guardian or conservator with general authority over the protected person's assets ask a custodian to suspend or terminate an account for good cause. The Utah guardianship planning guide covers how the appointment itself happens.

Closing Accounts And The Computer Fraud Line

Utah Code 75A-6-115(7) gives a fiduciary a standalone right to ask a custodian to terminate the user's account. The request goes in writing and carries the death certificate where the user has died, plus a certified letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, a court order, a power of attorney or a trust giving the fiduciary authority over the account.

The same section sets the duties. Subsection (1) 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 (2)(d) bars a fiduciary from using that authority to impersonate the user.

Subsections (3) through (5) matter for anything sitting on a device. A fiduciary has the right to access a digital asset that is not held by a custodian and not subject to a terms of service agreement, has the right to access the decedent's tangible personal property and any digital asset stored in it, and is an authorized user for the purposes of computer fraud and unauthorized computer access law while acting within the scope of the fiduciary's duties.

That last point is narrower than it sounds. It covers a fiduciary acting in role. It does not cover a family member who has the password and decides to log in before anyone is appointed. Federal law, including the Stored Communications Act, still governs a provider's disclosure, and most terms of service still forbid password sharing. Use the statutory route and the provider's own channel.

Cryptocurrency Needs Its Own Plan

Crypto splits into two cases in Utah, and the act reaches only one of them 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 75A-6-108 documents package and the 60-day clock apply.

In a self-custody wallet, there is no custodian at all. Utah Code 75A-6-115(3) 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 court order changes that.

When you are settling a Utah 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 digital files and out of your will. A will becomes a public court record once it is filed, which is covered in the Utah will requirements guide.

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 75A-6-104 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 a clause 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 75A-6-107. The generic phrase about handling your affairs does not.

Keep An Inventory, Not A Password List

Write down what 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 reference that separate letter in your will instead of pasting logins into it.

Utah's Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act

One newer chapter sits next door and is easy to miss. Title 75, Chapter 13, the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act, took effect 6 May 2026.

It recognizes an electronic non-testamentary estate planning document and an electronic signature on one. Utah Code 75-13-101(5) defines that document as a record relating to estate planning that is readable as text when signed and is not a will or contained in a will, then lists trust instruments, trust certifications, durable powers of attorney, agent certifications, powers of appointment, advance directives, guardian nominations, disclaimers, and a catch-all for any other record intended to carry out a person's intent regarding property or health care while incapacitated or on death. It excludes a real property deed and a certificate of title for a vehicle, watercraft or aircraft.

Line that up with 75A-6-104(2), which lets a user allow or prohibit disclosure "in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record," and the connection shows. Chapter 13 supplies the rules that let one of those records be electronic, and Utah Code 75-13-303 applies the chapter to documents created or signed before, on or after 6 May 2026.

Chapter 13 is not an electronic wills act, and it should never be described as one. Utah handles electronic wills separately, under Title 75, Chapter 2, Part 14, the Uniform Electronic Wills Act, and 75-13-201(3)(b) says the new chapter leaves that law alone.

What Utah's Act Does Not Do

Utah Code 75A-6-105 draws three boundaries in a single section, and each one answers a question families ask.

It does not change a custodian's or a user's rights under the terms of service to access and use the assets (subsection (1)). It gives a fiduciary or designated recipient no new or expanded rights beyond what the user held (subsection (2)). And access may be modified or eliminated by the user, by federal law, or by the terms of service where no direction was given under 75A-6-104 (subsection (3)).

Utah Code 75A-6-117 asks courts to read the chapter consistently with other states that enacted the same uniform act, and 75A-6-118 sets its relationship to the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.

When To Talk With A Utah Attorney

Bring a Utah estate attorney in when a provider refuses a request that meets the statute, when you need a court order for content under 75A-6-107, when a custodian claims an undue burden under 75A-6-106(4), 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 75A-6-116 turns into a filing rather than a follow-up email.

Planning ahead is cheaper 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 Utah family gets told no. The avoiding probate in Utah guide covers the rest of the transfers that never reach a courtroom.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. Utah Code 75A-6-104 makes access turn on what the account holder left behind. A direction given through the provider's own 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 only when neither exists. Letters of appointment prove who you are. They do not by themselves prove the deceased person consented to disclosure.

What outranks a Utah will under the digital assets act?

An online tool the account holder actually used. Utah Code 75A-6-104(1) says a direction given through an online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record, on one condition: the tool has to let the user modify or delete that direction at all times. Utah Code 75A-6-102(14) defines the online tool as an electronic service the provider offers under an agreement distinct from the terms of service, so a buried clause in the terms of service is not an online tool.

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

Yes, and this is the Utah detail most national articles skip. Utah Code 75A-6-108(3) accepts a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit, or a court order. Utah Code 75A-6-107(3) accepts the same three, and 75A-6-115(7)(b) accepts them for an account termination request. Utah's affidavit route under 75-3-1201 needs 30 days since the death and a net estate of $100,000 or less, so a successor who never opened a probate can still ask for the catalogue and other digital assets.

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

Sixty days. Utah Code 75A-6-116(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 sections 75A-6-107 through 75A-6-115. If the custodian does not comply, the fiduciary or designated recipient may apply to the court for an order directing compliance, and 75A-6-116(2) says that order has to contain a finding that compliance does not violate 18 U.S.C. Section 2702.

Does Utah's act let an executor read the deceased person's emails?

Only with consent or a court order. Utah Code 75A-6-107 opens the content of electronic communications only where the deceased user consented or a court directs disclosure, and it asks for the will, trust, power of attorney or other record that evidences that consent unless the user used an online tool. Utah Code 75A-6-108 handles everything else, including the catalogue of communications, on a lower showing.

Which Utah chapter holds the digital assets act now?

Title 75A, Chapter 6, sections 75A-6-101 through 75A-6-118, effective 1 September 2024. The act used to sit at Title 75, Chapter 11, effective 9 May 2017. Chapter 364 of the 2024 General Session renumbered the chapter, and the old short-title section 75-11-101 now carries a Repealed 9/1/2024 banner on the Legislature's own page. A form or letter that still cites 75-11-104 is citing a section that no longer exists.

Does Utah's act cover cryptocurrency held in a private wallet?

The act reaches the right of access and cannot reach a lost key. Utah Code 75A-6-115(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 is what a self-custody wallet is. That right cannot recreate a lost seed phrase. Coins on an exchange are different, because the exchange is a custodian and the ordinary request procedure applies to it.

Related Utah Guides

This guide is general information about Utah digital assets and the fiduciary access rules in Title 75A, Chapter 6. Account access mixes state law, federal law and a provider's own terms, so confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed Utah attorney before you act.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Information current as of August 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 Utah can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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