A widow with the death certificate, the letters of administration, and the will still got told by Apple she needed a court order to access her late husband’s photos. Thirty years of family pictures behind a login. That is where most families are right now, and almost nobody sees it coming.
In this video, Jill Ginsberg and I walk through Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740) and why the order of operations matters. The online tools the platforms give you beat your will. If you skip them and rely on your documents alone, your family may end up with a catalog of who your spouse emailed, not the content of what was said. And the email account is the master key, because every password reset link goes there.
- Why Apple, Google, and Facebook legacy tools override your will under Chapter 740
- The higher protection Florida gives to email content, and the consent language that unlocks it
- Why older powers of attorney don’t reach digital assets at all
- The incapacity problem nobody plans for, with paperless bills behind a password
- Why the list of accounts matters as much as the legal authority
If your estate plan is more than a few years old, the digital asset language almost certainly isn’t in there. It’s a quick fix.