Florida probate for digital and financial accounts is the court-supervised process by which a personal representative gains legal authority to locate, access, value, and distribute a decedent’s bank accounts, brokerage holdings, cryptocurrency, email, and other online assets. That authority flows from two sources: the powers granted to personal representatives under Florida’s Probate Code (Chapter 733) and the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740), which since July 1, 2016 has governed how fiduciaries obtain access to electronically stored property. In practice, recovering these assets requires letters of administration from the probate court plus, for digital accounts, careful compliance with custodian disclosure rules and federal privacy law.
I have handled enough South Florida estates to know that the hardest assets to run down are rarely the house or the brokerage statement that arrives in the mail. They are the things that live behind a password. A Schwab account nobody knew existed. A Coinbase wallet. Years of a small business run entirely through PayPal and Gmail. When those accounts surface after a contested guardianship has already drained the family’s patience, the probate phase becomes a forensic exercise as much as a legal one.
Why digital and financial accounts complicate Florida probate
A traditional probate asset announces itself. A car has a title. Real property has a recorded deed. A financial account, by contrast, may leave almost no paper trail if the decedent went paperless years ago. Digital assets are worse, because access is governed not only by Florida law but by the terms-of-service agreement the decedent clicked through and by federal statutes like the Stored Communications Act, which bars custodians from handing over the content of electronic communications without proper authorization.
The result is a recurring tension. The personal representative has a clear fiduciary duty to marshal estate assets. The bank or tech company has a legal obligation not to release anything to the wrong person. Florida’s solution is to require fiduciaries to prove their authority, and to require custodians to honor that proof. Getting from one side of that bridge to the other is where most of the work happens.
The guardianship-to-probate transition makes it harder
When someone dies after a period of incapacity, the digital and financial picture is often already a mess. A guardian of the property under Chapter 744 may have consolidated some accounts but missed others. Passwords may have been reset by a caregiver. In contested guardianships, two factions may each hold pieces of the puzzle and trust neither the other nor the new personal representative. The probate court inherits all of that friction. If you are stepping into administration after a disputed guardianship, expect to spend real time reconstructing what the guardian could and could not reach, because Chapter 740 treated that guardian as a fiduciary too, and their access history is part of the record.
The legal foundation: Chapters 733 and 740
Two parts of the Florida Statutes do most of the heavy lifting.
Chapter 733 — powers of the personal representative. Under section 733.602, a personal representative is a fiduciary held to the standards of care that apply to trustees, and must administer the estate as expeditiously and efficiently as the estate’s best interests allow. Section 733.612 grants broad transactional powers — to retain, collect, and dispose of assets — and section 733.608 makes the decedent’s property assets in the personal representative’s hands. Crucially, much of this can be done without a prior court order under section 733.603, which lets the personal representative proceed and act. What unlocks the bank’s cooperation in the real world is the certified letters of administration issued by the clerk after appointment.
Chapter 740 — the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. This act, Florida’s version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, gives four kinds of fiduciaries a defined path to digital property: personal representatives of estates, guardians of the property, agents under a power of attorney, and trustees. It also establishes a priority system for figuring out who controls disclosure.
The three-tier priority system under Chapter 740
Chapter 740 resolves the question of “who decides” through a hierarchy. Understanding it prevents wasted motions and rejected requests:
- An online tool, if the custodian offers one. If the decedent used a platform’s own setting — Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Facebook’s Legacy Contact, for example — to name who gets access, that designation generally controls, so long as it can be modified at any time.
- The decedent’s estate planning documents. If there is no online tool, a direction in the will, trust, or power of attorney governs. This is why a well-drafted Florida will should now include explicit language authorizing the personal representative to access digital assets and electronic communications.
- The terms-of-service agreement. Absent both of the above, the custodian’s own contract controls — and many default to denying access. Relying on this tier is the worst position to be in.
One nuance trips people up constantly: the law draws a line between the content of communications (the body of emails, private messages) and the catalogue of communications (the metadata — who, when, subject lines) plus other non-communication digital assets. Custodians may disclose the catalogue and other assets more readily, but they will not release content unless the user consented, whether through an online tool, the will, or another record. If your goal is simply to find a hidden brokerage account, the catalogue is often enough.
A practical workflow for recovering accounts in probate
Here is the sequence I follow when an estate is heavy on digital and financial holdings.
- Secure access immediately. Before letters issue, take inventory of what the family already has — phones, password managers, recovery emails — and freeze nothing you don’t have to. Do not lock yourself out by triggering security resets.
- Open the estate and obtain certified letters of administration. Nothing moves at a bank or a major custodian without them. Order several certified copies; you will burn through them.
- Send written requests to each custodian. Under Chapter 740, the personal representative must give the custodian proof of authority — typically a certified copy of the letters, a death certificate, and a written request. Many large companies have dedicated fiduciary or legal-process intake channels; use those, not customer support.
- Distinguish content from catalogue. Ask for what you actually need. If you only need to identify and value accounts, request the catalogue and non-communication assets, which face fewer disclosure hurdles.
- Handle cryptocurrency as a self-custody problem. If coins sit on an exchange like Coinbase, the exchange is the custodian and Chapter 740 applies. If the decedent held a private wallet with keys on a device or paper, no court order recovers them — only the seed phrase does. Document the search exhaustively.
- Value as of the date of death and re-value if needed. Crypto and securities move fast. Capture date-of-death values for tax purposes and track movement through administration.
- Account to the court and beneficiaries. Every recovered account flows into the inventory and the final accounting. In a post-guardianship estate, expect heightened scrutiny.
When custodians push back
Even with clean paperwork, custodians sometimes stall, demand a court order they are not entitled to demand, or apply out-of-state policies. Chapter 740 lets a fiduciary or custodian seek a court order resolving access, and the statute expressly allows a court to require disclosure when the legal predicate is met. A short petition to the probate court, framed around the act, usually breaks the logjam. These are exactly the kinds of friction points that make probate slower than families expect — a theme Morgan Legal’s team explores in its overview of the .
Financial accounts: titling determines whether probate is even required
Not every financial account passes through probate, and a good personal representative sorts this out early. How an account is titled usually decides the outcome:
- Pay-on-death (POD) and transfer-on-death (TOD) accounts pass directly to the named beneficiary and skip probate entirely — assuming the designation is valid and the beneficiary survives.
- Jointly held accounts with rights of survivorship pass to the surviving owner outside probate, though contested estates often fight over whether the joint titling was genuine or a convenience arrangement.
- Accounts titled solely in the decedent’s name with no beneficiary are probate assets and require letters of administration to access.
- Trust-titled accounts are administered by the trustee under Chapter 736, not the probate court.
In contested estates, beneficiary designations are a frequent battleground — a relative added as a joint owner during a period of declining capacity, a TOD form changed weeks before death. These disputes blur the line between guardianship litigation and probate, and they often determine whether a six-figure account is divided among the family or claimed by one person. If you are reviewing how your own accounts are titled, our pages on Florida wills and the broader Florida probate process walk through how to align titling with your estate plan.
What this looks like across state lines
Because RUFADAA was adopted in most states, the framework you see in Florida rhymes with what fiduciaries face elsewhere — but the procedural details, deadlines, and court practices differ meaningfully. Estates with property or accounts in more than one state often need counsel licensed in each. For New York-side administration, Morgan Legal handles , and for matters anchored in Florida their covers the same digital-asset issues under Chapter 740. Coordinating ancillary administration is its own skill, especially when a single custodian holds accounts that touch multiple estates.
Drafting today to avoid the fight tomorrow
The cleanest probate of digital and financial accounts is the one set up in advance. A modern Florida estate plan should do three things: use each platform’s online tool to designate access where one exists; include explicit Chapter 740 authorization in the will, trust, and durable power of attorney; and maintain a secure, updated inventory of accounts and credentials stored where the fiduciary can find it — never inside the will itself, which becomes a public record. Done right, the personal representative spends weeks on this work instead of months, and the family avoids litigating access on top of everything else.
If you are administering a South Florida estate with tangled digital or financial holdings — or you want to make sure your own accounts will pass cleanly — speak with our probate team before sending a single custodian request. The order in which you do things matters more than most people realize.
Frequently asked questions
Does the personal representative automatically get access to the decedent’s email and online accounts?
No. Appointment grants broad power over estate assets, but digital access is governed by Chapter 740 and federal privacy law. The personal representative must provide the custodian with proof of authority, and access to the content of communications depends on whether the decedent consented through an online tool, will, or other record.
What document do banks require to release a Florida decedent’s accounts?
Banks generally require certified letters of administration issued by the probate court, along with a death certificate. Without letters, a sole-name account titled only to the decedent cannot be accessed. Pay-on-death and survivorship accounts are exceptions and pass outside probate.
How is cryptocurrency handled in Florida probate?
Crypto held on an exchange is treated like any other digital asset under Chapter 740, and the exchange is the custodian the personal representative petitions. Crypto held in a private wallet cannot be recovered through any court order — only the private keys or seed phrase grant access, so locating that information is essential.
Can a Florida probate court force a tech company to disclose digital assets?
Yes. Chapter 740 allows a fiduciary or custodian to seek a court order, and the probate court can require disclosure when the statutory requirements are satisfied. A targeted petition usually resolves a custodian’s refusal faster than continued back-and-forth with its support staff.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the personal representative automatically get access to the decedent's email and online accounts?
No. Appointment grants broad power over estate assets, but digital access is governed by Florida’s Chapter 740 and federal privacy law. The personal representative must provide the custodian with proof of authority, and access to the content of communications depends on whether the decedent consented through an online tool, will, or other record.
What document do banks require to release a Florida decedent's accounts?
Banks generally require certified letters of administration issued by the probate court, along with a death certificate. Without letters, an account titled solely in the decedent’s name cannot be accessed. Pay-on-death and joint survivorship accounts are exceptions and pass outside probate.
How is cryptocurrency handled in Florida probate?
Cryptocurrency held on an exchange is treated as a digital asset under Chapter 740, and the exchange is the custodian the personal representative petitions for access. Crypto held in a private wallet cannot be recovered by any court order; only the private keys or seed phrase grant access, so locating that information is critical.
Can a Florida probate court force a tech company to disclose digital assets?
Yes. Chapter 740 allows a fiduciary or custodian to seek a court order, and the probate court can require disclosure when the statutory requirements are met. A targeted petition framed under the act usually resolves a custodian’s refusal faster than continued correspondence with its support team.
Have a question about your estate?
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of probate in Palm Beach. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
