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Washington Digital Assets After Death
Support GuideWashington25 min read

Washington Digital Assets After Death

Chapter 11.120 RCW is Washington's digital assets law, effective June 9, 2016. An online tool outranks a will, and a custodian answers within sixty days.

By Settled Editorial

Washington answers the online-accounts question in chapter 11.120 RCW, the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act, effective June 9, 2016. The chapter ranks a provider's online tool above a will, splits every account into content and catalogue, accepts a small estate affidavit in place of letters, and gives a custodian sixty days to answer a complete request.

This guide walks the Washington rules in the order a family meets them: where the sections sit, the ladder at RCW 11.120.040, the paperwork a personal representative mails a custodian, how the same authority runs through a Washington power of attorney, what a guardian can and cannot reach, and what a custodian may do once the request lands. Read it beside what a personal representative can request and the Washington probate guide. Check anything touching your own accounts with a licensed Washington attorney.

Where Chapter 11.120 RCW Sits, and How Far Back It Reaches

Chapter 11.120 RCW lives in Title 11, the probate and trust title, and runs from RCW 11.120.010 through RCW 11.120.160 plus two closing sections at RCW 11.120.900 and RCW 11.120.901. Eighteen sections, and every one of them carries 2016 c 140 in its history line. Exactly one has been amended since: RCW 11.120.140, the guardianship section, which picked up 2020 c 312 s 721 when Washington replaced its guardianship statute.

That chapter number is Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5029, passed by the House on March 3, 2016 and the Senate on March 7, approved by Governor Jay Inslee on March 31 and filed with the Secretary of State on April 1. The certification page of that session law prints its own effective date: 6/9/2016. One wrinkle in the naming. RCW 11.120.010 calls the act the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act, while the chapter heading in the code reads Uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act, without the word revised. The statute's own short title is the one to use.

RCW 11.120.030 sets the reach, and it looks backward as well as forward. The chapter applies to a fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney executed before, on, or after June 9, 2016, to a personal representative acting for a decedent who died before, on, or after that date, to a guardian acting for an incapacitated person appointed before, on, or after that date, and to a trustee acting under a trust created before, on, or after that date. A will signed in 2004 gets the benefit of the 2016 statute.

Subsection (1)(e) fixes who a custodian owes the duty to: the chapter binds a custodian if the user resides in Washington or resided here at the time of death. Subsection (2) carries the chapter's only carve-out, and it is narrow. A digital asset of an employer used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business falls outside chapter 11.120 RCW, so a work inbox is the employer's question rather than the estate's.

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The Priority Ladder in RCW 11.120.040

RCW 11.120.040 settles most disputes before they start. Read it as three rungs.

RungWhat controlsWashington text
1The custodian's online toolRCW 11.120.040(1). A direction given through an online tool overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record, so long as the tool lets the user modify or delete the direction at all times
2The will, trust, power of attorney or other recordRCW 11.120.040(2). Applies where the user gave no online-tool direction or the custodian offers no tool
3The terms-of-service agreementThe default where the user said nothing anywhere

Subsection (3) is the sentence that gives planning its weight. A user direction under (1) or (2) overrides a contrary provision in a terms-of-service agreement that does not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from assent to those terms. One click on an I agree button years ago does not outrank a direction given later.

RCW 11.120.020(17) defines the online tool as an electronic service the custodian provides, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement, that lets the user give directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person. The person chosen through that tool is a designated recipient under RCW 11.120.020(8). Ten minutes in those account settings outranks a paragraph a lawyer drafts, and that is the whole planning lesson of this chapter.

One trap follows from rung one. Because the tool wins, an old setting can quietly defeat a newer will. Review those settings whenever you update documents, and treat them as part of the estate plan rather than as account housekeeping. That is the reason this page belongs next to Washington estate planning rather than in a litigation folder.

What Washington Counts as a Digital Asset

RCW 11.120.020(9) defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest, then narrows it with a sentence worth reading twice: the term does not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.

That line draws the boundary an estate cares about. Online access to a checking account is a digital asset. The money in the account is not, and it moves through the estate or by beneficiary designation the ordinary way. The same split applies to a brokerage login and the securities behind it. Chapter 11.120 RCW opens doors, and it does not retitle property. RCW 11.120.050(2) says the same thing from the other side: the chapter gives a fiduciary or designated recipient no new or expanded rights beyond those the user held. Subsection (3) adds that access can still be cut back by the user, by federal law, or by the terms of service where the user gave no direction under RCW 11.120.040.

Inside the boundary, the definition is wide:

  • Email, message history and cloud storage
  • Social accounts, photo libraries and video channels
  • Online banking, bill pay and payment apps
  • Exchange accounts, hosted wallets and tokens
  • Domain names, seller accounts and advertising accounts
  • Loyalty balances, gaming accounts and password vaults

Content and Catalogue Are Two Different Requests

Every request under this chapter is one of two things, and the two carry different burdens.

RCW 11.120.020(4) defines the catalogue of electronic communications as information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication, and the electronic address of that person. Who, when, and at what address. No words.

RCW 11.120.020(5) defines the content of an electronic communication as information concerning the substance or meaning of the communication which has been sent or received by a user, is in electronic storage by a custodian providing an electronic communication service to the public or is carried or maintained by a custodian providing a remote computing service to the public, and is not readily accessible to the public. All three parts have to be true, which is why a public post generally falls outside content while a private message falls inside it.

Two definitions in this chapter are frozen to a date. RCW 11.120.020(11) borrows electronic communication from 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2510(12) as it existed on June 9, 2016, and RCW 11.120.020(23) borrows the electronic communications system reference in the remote computing service definition from 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2510(14) on the same date. A later change to the federal definition does not move the Washington one.

Email is where the split hurts. The inbox holds the password-reset links for everything else, and the reset link lives in the message body. A catalogue tells a personal representative that the bank wrote on March 3. Only content shows what the bank said.

What a Washington Personal Representative Sends a Custodian

The two deceased-user sections take the same shape and ask for different proof.

RequestSectionWhat the custodian gets
Catalogue and other digital assetsRCW 11.120.080Written request in physical or electronic form, certified copy of the death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment, a small estate affidavit or a court order
Content of electronic communicationsRCW 11.120.070Everything above, plus a copy of the will, trust, power of attorney or other record evidencing consent, unless the user gave direction through an online tool

Both sections then let the custodian ask for more if it wants: an account identifier, evidence linking the account to the user, or a finding by the court. RCW 11.120.080(4)(c) adds a cheaper option on the catalogue side, an affidavit stating that disclosure is reasonably necessary for administration of the estate. RCW 11.120.070(5)(c) keeps that item inside a court finding instead, alongside a finding that disclosure would not violate 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2701 et seq. and 47 U.S.C. Sec. 222 as they existed on June 9, 2016.

RCW 11.120.080 also carries a default that favors the estate. Unless the user prohibited disclosure of digital assets or the court directs otherwise, the custodian shall disclose the catalogue and the non-content assets. Silence does not block that request. Silence blocks the content request.

Price the certified paperwork before you start. The Washington State Department of Health sets nonrefundable fees that start at $25 per certified death certificate or noncertified informational copy, and other fees may apply depending on the ordering or shipping method. Each custodian keeps its own set, so count the accounts and order what you need in one trip rather than going back for a third round. The Washington superior courts page lists the court for each county.

A Small Estate Affidavit Opens the Same Door

Washington's request lists carry an option a lot of families never notice. RCW 11.120.070(3) and RCW 11.120.080(3) accept a small estate affidavit or a court order in place of a certified copy of the letter of appointment, and RCW 11.120.150(7) accepts the same on a request to terminate an account. A successor who never opens a probate can still make the request.

The affidavit itself lives at RCW 11.62.010 and carries its own conditions. Forty days have to pass from the date of death. The decedent has to have been a Washington resident. No application or petition for appointment of a personal representative may be pending or granted anywhere. The value of the estate subject to probate, less liens and encumbrances, must not exceed one hundred thousand dollars, measured without the surviving spouse's or surviving domestic partner's community property interest in any asset subject to probate. And the claiming successor has to give written notice of the claim to all other successors and wait at least ten days.

That community property carve-out is why a married Washington couple clears the cap at roughly twice the raw asset value. Work the numbers on the Washington small estate affidavit page and read them beside Washington community property before you decide whether a probate is needed at all.

The Agent's Route, and the Hot Power Washington Never Wrote

An agent under a power of attorney has a parallel pair of sections, and both turn on the wording of the document.

RCW 11.120.090 releases the content of the principal's electronic communications only to the extent the power of attorney expressly grants the agent authority over that content. RCW 11.120.100 releases the catalogue and the other digital assets where the power of attorney gives the agent specific authority over digital assets or general authority to act. Both want a written request, an original or copy of the power of attorney, and a certification by the agent under penalty of perjury that the power of attorney is in effect.

Now the Washington-specific part. RCW 11.125.240(1) lists twelve acts an agent may take only if the power of attorney expressly grants them, running from creating a trust through making health care decisions. Authority over the content of electronic communications is not on that list. Washington adopted its uniform power of attorney act in 2016 c 209 without the digital-assets item some other states added, so the express-grant requirement for content comes from RCW 11.120.090 alone. Chapter 11.125 RCW also prints no statutory form power of attorney, which means there is no printed initial line to check the way a form state offers. The wording is the drafter's job on every Washington document.

One form the act does print is worth using. RCW 11.125.430 supplies an optional agent's certification as to the validity of the power of attorney and the agent's authority, signed under penalty of perjury and acknowledged before a notary. It states that the principal is alive, that the document has not been revoked or limited, that any triggering event has occurred, and that a marriage or domestic partnership between agent and principal has not dissolved. That form answers the certification both RCW 11.120.090(3) and RCW 11.120.100(3) ask for, so hand it to the custodian with the request.

Trustees Get Three Sections of Their Own

RCW 11.120.110 handles the simple case. A trustee that is an original user of the account gets every digital asset of that account held in trust, including the catalogue and the content, unless the court orders otherwise or the trust provides otherwise.

RCW 11.120.120 covers a successor trustee asking for content. That trustee sends a written request, a certified copy of the trust instrument or a certification of the trust under RCW 11.98.075 that includes consent to disclosure of the content of electronic communications to the trustee, and a certification under penalty of perjury that the trust exists and the trustee is currently acting. RCW 11.120.130 asks for the same package without the consent language for the catalogue and the non-content assets.

That phrase, includes consent to disclosure, is the one to carry into drafting. A certification of trust prepared for a bank closing rarely contains it, and a successor trustee who hands that document to a custodian has proved the trust and not the consent.

Guardians, Conservators, and the Letters That Expire

RCW 11.120.140 is the incapacity path where no usable power of attorney exists, and the 2020 guardianship overhaul rewrote it. Subsection (1) now says a guardian or conservator appointed under chapter 11.130 RCW has the right to access an incapacitated person's digital assets other than the content of electronic communications, unless the court orders otherwise. Subsection (2) then requires the custodian to disclose the catalogue and those non-content assets to a guardian on a written request plus certified copies of the letters of guardianship and the court order appointing the guardian. Subsection (3) lets a guardian ask a custodian to suspend or terminate an account for good cause, on the same certified copies.

Read those subsections closely, because they do not line up. The access right in (1) names a guardian or a conservator. The custodian's disclosure duty in (2) names only a guardian, and RCW 11.120.020(13) defines fiduciary as a personal representative, guardian, agent or trustee, with no conservator in the list. The 2016 definitions were written before chapter 11.130 RCW split the role, and nothing has updated them. A conservator asking a custodian for records should expect to point at the court order rather than at a plain statutory duty.

Content is absent from all three subsections, and that absence is the argument for planning ahead. There is a timing trap too. RCW 11.130.040(5) says a guardian or conservator may not act without valid letters of office, and RCW 11.130.310(7)(f) has the original letters expire 180 days after the anniversary date of appointment. Certified copies of stale letters prove nothing to a custodian, so pull fresh ones before mailing a batch of requests. The Washington guardianship page covers the reporting cycle those dates come from.

What the Custodian Chooses, and the Sixty-Day Clock

RCW 11.120.060 leaves the method to the company. At its sole discretion the custodian may grant full access to the account, grant partial access sufficient to perform the tasks the fiduciary or designated recipient is charged with, or provide a copy in a record of any digital asset the user could have accessed on the date the custodian received the request. It may assess a reasonable administrative charge, it need not disclose an asset the user deleted, and it need not hand-sort a partial request where segregating the assets would impose an undue burden. Where the burden is real, either side may ask the court to order a subset limited by date, everything, nothing, or an in camera review.

RCW 11.120.160 sets the deadline. A custodian shall comply not later than sixty days after receipt of the information required under RCW 11.120.070 through RCW 11.120.150, and a fiduciary or designated recipient who gets no answer may apply to the court for an order directing compliance. RCW 11.120.020(6) defines that court as the superior court of each county, so the motion goes to the same court that appointed you. The order has to contain a finding that compliance is not in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2702 as it existed on June 9, 2016. The custodian may tell the user that a request was made, may still insist on a court order confirming account ownership and consent, and gets immunity under subsection (6) for anything done in good faith under the chapter.

Subsection (4) is the trap almost nobody reads. A custodian may deny the request where it is aware of any lawful access to the account following receipt of the fiduciary's request. A relative who keeps logging in with the old password after the paperwork went out hands the company a reason to say no. Send the request, then leave the account alone.

One structural note on the designated recipient. RCW 11.120.060 and RCW 11.120.160 both name the designated recipient alongside the fiduciary, so the disclosure methods and the sixty-day clock cover that person. The deceased-user request lists at RCW 11.120.070 and RCW 11.120.080 are written for the personal representative. A designated recipient named through an online tool works through the custodian's own process, which is another reason to set the tool while the account holder is alive.

Duties Travel With the Assets

RCW 11.120.150 settles what a Washington fiduciary owes and what a fiduciary may do.

Subsection (1) carries the duties of care, loyalty and confidentiality across from tangible property to digital property in the same words. Subsection (2) keeps that authority subject to the applicable terms-of-service agreement except as RCW 11.120.040 provides, subject to other law including copyright law, limited by the scope of the fiduciary's duties, and closes with a flat prohibition: the authority may not be used to impersonate the user. Knowing the password is a different thing from holding the right to disclosure.

Three subsections open doors nothing else opens. Subsection (3) gives a fiduciary with authority over the property of a decedent, incapacitated person, principal or settlor the right to access any digital asset in which that person had a right or interest and that is not held by a custodian or subject to a terms-of-service agreement. Subsection (5) gives a fiduciary with authority over tangible personal property the right to access that property and any digital asset stored in it. Subsections (4) and (5)(b) make the fiduciary an authorized user for the purpose of computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws, which is what keeps a lawful search of the decedent's laptop from looking like an offense.

Closing an account has its own paragraph. Subsection (7) wants the termination request in writing, in physical or electronic form, with a certified copy of the death certificate where the user has died, plus the letter of appointment, small estate affidavit, court order, power of attorney or trust giving the fiduciary authority over the account. Subsection (6) lets the custodian release account information the fiduciary needs to shut down an account holding licensed digital assets.

Cryptocurrency and Anything No Custodian Holds

The RCW 11.120.150(3) right to reach assets no custodian holds is the reason self-custody crypto belongs in its own plan. No help desk sits behind a hardware wallet and no company can be served with a certified copy. Chapter 11.120 RCW hands a fiduciary the legal right of access and cannot hand over the seed phrase.

  • Write down what you hold: each exchange account, each wallet, the wallet type, and roughly what it is worth.
  • Keep seed phrases and private keys offline, in a fireproof safe or a safe deposit box, never in an email draft or a photo roll.
  • Say in your will or trust that the fiduciary may manage and sell digital currency, and leave a separate letter of instruction pointing at the storage location.
  • Expect a slow answer from hosted exchanges, which run their own deceased-account procedures on top of the certified paperwork chapter 11.120 RCW already asks for.

Property that never reaches a fiduciary is property the estate cannot distribute, which is the same reasoning behind the nonprobate transfers in how to avoid probate in Washington.

Set the Online Tool Before Anyone Needs It

  1. Open the online tool settings on the accounts that matter, starting with the email address that receives password resets. A direction there sits on rung one of RCW 11.120.040.
  2. Write digital authority into your Washington will, and name the content of electronic communications on purpose so RCW 11.120.070 is satisfied. Keep passwords out of the will itself, since a filed will becomes a court record.
  3. Put an express grant of authority over the content of electronic communications into the power of attorney, because Washington prints no statutory form and RCW 11.125.240 does not carry the item for you.
  4. If you use a trust, give the trustee the same two grants and put consent to content disclosure into any certification of trust under RCW 11.98.075 that a successor will hand a custodian.
  5. Build an inventory: platform, username, account type, rough value, and where the credentials live. Store the credentials somewhere secure and point at the location rather than copying the contents.
  6. Tell your fiduciary the inventory exists and how to open it, then review the whole set once a year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Washington have a digital assets law?

Yes. Chapter 11.120 RCW carries all 18 sections of it, and RCW 11.120.010 says the act may be known and cited as the revised uniform fiduciary access to digital assets act. Every section closes with the enactment line 2016 c 140, which is Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5029. The signed session law prints its own effective date of June 9, 2016.

Can a Washington personal representative read the decedent's email?

Only where the user consented or a court directs it. RCW 11.120.070 releases the content of electronic communications to the personal representative when the deceased user consented through an online tool or in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record, or when the court orders disclosure. Without one of those, RCW 11.120.080 still opens the catalogue of who wrote to whom and when, and it leaves the messages closed.

What does a Washington personal representative send a custodian?

RCW 11.120.080 asks for 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. RCW 11.120.070 asks for that same package plus proof of consent. The word certified governs the first two items, so order spare death certificates while the estate is opening.

Can a small estate affidavit reach digital accounts in Washington?

Yes. RCW 11.120.070(3) and RCW 11.120.080(3) accept a small estate affidavit or a court order in place of a certified copy of the letter of appointment, so a successor who never opens a probate can still make the request. The affidavit itself runs under RCW 11.62.010, which waits forty days from the death and caps the probate estate at one hundred thousand dollars.

Does a Washington power of attorney cover digital assets?

Only where the document says so for content. RCW 11.120.090 releases the content of electronic communications to an agent to the extent the power of attorney expressly grants authority over that content. RCW 11.120.100 opens the catalogue and the other digital assets on specific authority over digital assets or general authority to act. Chapter 11.125 RCW prints no statutory form power of attorney, so the wording is the drafter's job.

How long does a custodian have to answer in Washington?

Sixty days. RCW 11.120.160(1) says a custodian shall comply not later than sixty days after receipt of the information required under RCW 11.120.070 through 11.120.150, and a fiduciary or designated recipient who gets no answer may apply to the court for an order directing compliance. RCW 11.120.020(6) defines that court as the superior court of each county.

Can a Washington guardian get into someone's online accounts?

Partly. RCW 11.120.140(1) gives a guardian or conservator appointed under chapter 11.130 RCW the right to access an incapacitated person's digital assets other than the content of electronic communications. Subsection (2) then requires the custodian to disclose the catalogue and those non-content assets on a written request plus certified copies of the letters of guardianship and the appointing order. Content sits outside both subsections.

What happens to cryptocurrency held in a private wallet?

RCW 11.120.150(3) gives a fiduciary with authority over the property of a decedent, incapacitated person, principal or settlor the right to access any digital asset in which that person had a right or interest and that is not held by a custodian or subject to a terms-of-service agreement. A self-custody wallet falls there. No company holds it, so nobody can be served, and without the seed phrase or the private keys the coins stay out of reach.

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Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 8, 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 Washington can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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