The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) determines whether your client's fiduciary can actually reach their digital assets. Enacted in nearly every U.S. jurisdiction, it governs when a custodian—any provider that carries, maintains, processes, or stores a digital asset—must disclose that asset to a personal representative, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, or conservator.
The hierarchy that controls your drafting
RUFADAA resolves competing directions in a fixed order:
- An online tool provided by the custodian. If the client used it, it controls—and it overrides a contrary provision in the will or trust, provided the tool allows the direction to be modified or deleted at any time.
- The estate planning documents. The will, trust, or power of attorney governs where no online tool direction exists.
- The terms-of-service agreement. The default where the client left no direction at all. A terms-of-service provision restricting fiduciary access is void against a direction the client gave under tier one or two.
The practice risk sits at the top of that list: a client can supersede clauses you drafted years earlier by changing a setting, and you will not be notified. Online tool designations belong in your intake record and in your periodic review.
Content requires express consent
RUFADAA separates the catalogue of electronic communications (who the client corresponded with and when) from the content of those communications. The catalogue is generally disclosable to a personal representative on proper request. Content is not, unless the client affirmatively consented, because the federal Stored Communications Act otherwise prohibits the custodian from releasing it. Silence defaults against the client. Instruments should carry express RUFADAA authority and explicit consent to content disclosure, and a power of attorney should grant digital asset authority specifically rather than relying on a general grant.
Authority is not the same as access
A custodian can be compelled. Multi-factor authentication, device passcodes, seed phrases, and self-custodied wallets cannot: there is often no custodian to serve at all. Firms routinely deliver airtight authority to a fiduciary who still cannot open the account. Closing that gap requires capturing credentials and per-asset access instructions during planning, not during administration.
How Eternal Pro operates within RUFADAA
Eternal Pro is the custodian of the record your client builds about their digital assets: the inventory itself, along with the access instructions and any (optional) credentials stored alongside it, and provides its own RUFADAA online tool. The client documents their wishes in Eternal Pro and uses the tool to direct disclosure of their Eternal Pro account to the fiduciary they name. Paired with a properly drafted estate plan, the fiduciary arrives with a tier-one direction over the one record that makes the underlying accounts reachable, rather than authority they cannot exercise.
General information for legal professionals; not legal advice. RUFADAA has been enacted with state-level variations—confirm the governing statute in your jurisdiction.
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