In the fall of 2017, Gov. Christie signed the Uniform Digital Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. With this law, a fiduciary can manage not only the tangible property of a decedent or individual who has become disabled, but also avoid challenges in managing their digital assets. These digital assets include financial accounts and social media accounts, as well as computer files, web domains and virtual currency.

The new law applies to fiduciaries, executors and administrators of decedents' estates, trustees, court-appointed guardians, and holders of powers of attorney. They are now authorized under the act to manage the digital assets of their decedents or wards, if authorized to do so by the user through the language of a  will, trust, power of attorney or other record. A user, however, may restrict such access through the online tool with the custodian of the digital assets, as long as it is not a default provision.

Fiduciaries of digital assets bear the same fiduciary duties as they do with respect to tangible assets. To gain access to the digital assets, the fiduciary would notify the custodian of his or her authority by providing a copy of the empowering document. The law does apply to the digital assets of an employer used in the ordinary course of an employer's business.

Prior to enactment of this legislation, the right of entry for fiduciaries to access the digital assets of their decedents or wards often involved bureaucratic hurdles with custodians. Now, access for fiduciaries should be part of all estate planning discussions and documents. We support this legislation and its goal to allow access to all the personal property of an individual, hard assets and digital assets.