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Digital Assets and Estate Planning in Louisiana
Support GuideLouisiana11 min read

Digital Assets and Estate Planning in Louisiana

How to plan for and access a deceased person's digital assets in Louisiana under RUFADAA: online legacy tools, testament and mandate language, crypto, and succession.

By Settled Editorial

Most Louisiana estates now include property that has no paper form: email and cloud photos, social media accounts, an online bank login, maybe a Coinbase balance or a hardware wallet in a drawer. These digital assets carry real financial and sentimental value, yet a family often has no idea an account exists, let alone how to reach it. This guide explains how Louisiana law lets a fiduciary access a deceased person's digital assets, what you can do now so your own succession representative is not locked out, and where cryptocurrency needs special handling. It pairs with the Louisiana estate planning basics guide, which covers the core documents every adult needs.

Louisiana adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), the model law that nearly every state now uses to sort out who may reach a person's online accounts after death or incapacity. In Louisiana it lives in the Revised Statutes as Louisiana's RUFADAA (La. R.S. 9:1571 et seq.). The law does two jobs at once: it gives your fiduciary a legal path to the accounts they need to settle the succession, and it protects the privacy you reasonably expected while you were alive. Louisiana is the only civil-law state, so the surrounding vocabulary reads differently. You settle a succession, not common-law probate, and the person the court appoints is a succession representative, not a personal representative.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

RUFADAA defines a digital asset broadly as an electronic record in which a person has a right or interest. In practical terms, that sweeps in nearly everything you own or manage online:

  • Email accounts such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail
  • Cloud storage and photo libraries on iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox
  • Social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok
  • Cryptocurrency and exchange accounts including Bitcoin, Ethereum, tokens, and balances on Coinbase or Kraken
  • Domain names and websites the person registered or ran
  • Online financial accounts like online banking, PayPal, and Venmo
  • Loyalty and rewards balances such as airline miles and credit card points
  • Subscriptions for streaming, software, and storage that keep charging the estate
  • Digital business assets like an Etsy or Shopify store, an ad account, or an affiliate account

One line matters for succession work: the digital asset is the electronic record itself, not the money behind it. The dollars in an online bank account still pass through Louisiana's ordinary financial and succession rules. RUFADAA governs the login and the records, not the underlying account balance.

The Three-Tier Priority System

RUFADAA answers the access question with a clear order of priority. A fiduciary and a family should walk down it in order.

Tier 1: An Online Tool the Provider Offers

If the provider gives users a built-in way to say what happens to an account, and the person used it, that choice controls above everything else. These online tools include:

  • Google Inactive Account Manager, which lets you name people to receive specific data (or delete the account) after a set period of inactivity
  • Facebook Legacy Contact, which names someone to manage a memorialized profile
  • Apple Digital Legacy, which names a legacy contact who can request access to iCloud content after death

A valid online tool designation beats your testament. If you used Google Inactive Account Manager to send your Gmail data to your daughter, your succession representative cannot override that and route it to your son. That is why setting these tools now is the single most reliable step you can take.

Tier 2: Your Testament, Trust, or Mandate

If no online tool applies, RUFADAA looks to your own legal documents. Directions in a testament, a trust, or a mandate (Louisiana's power of attorney) that address digital assets control at this tier. A testament clause granting your succession representative authority over your digital accounts, or a trust that names your digital property, gives your fiduciary a solid legal basis to ask providers for access. Because Louisiana calls the agent under a power of attorney a mandatary, a mandate that expressly grants digital-asset authority lets your mandatary act on your online accounts while you are alive but incapacitated.

Tier 3: The Provider's Terms of Service

If there is no online tool and no direction in your documents, the provider's terms of service decide. This is the weakest position. Many platforms restrict account sharing and give a fiduciary little or nothing beyond memorialization or deletion. Relying on the terms of service means accepting whatever each company chooses to allow.

Catalogue Versus Content of Communications

RUFADAA draws one distinction that surprises many families. It splits electronic communications, such as email and private messages, into two layers:

  • The catalogue is the metadata: who a message was to or from, the date and time, and often the subject line.
  • The content is the actual text of the message.

By default a fiduciary can obtain the catalogue of electronic communications, but reaching the content requires the deceased person's explicit consent, given through an online tool or written into the testament, trust, or mandate. Without that consent, a succession representative may learn that emails were exchanged with a bank but not read what they said. This is exactly why generic "my representative may handle my affairs" language often is not enough for email content, and why specific authorization matters.

Steps to Take Now

A few deliberate steps while you are healthy save your family months of frustration later.

Use the Online Legacy Tools Today

Set up the provider tools on the accounts that matter. They take minutes and sit at the top of the priority order:

  • Google: Data and privacy settings, then "Make a plan for your account"
  • Facebook: Settings, then Memorialization Settings, to name a Legacy Contact
  • Apple: Your name, then Password and Security, then Legacy Contact

Add Explicit Authorization to Your Documents

Ask the attorney who prepares your testament, trust, or mandate to include a digital assets clause that authorizes your fiduciary to access, manage, and close your digital accounts, and that expressly consents to disclosure of the content of your electronic communications. That consent is what unlocks Tier 2 for email and messages.

Keep an Inventory, Not a List of Passwords

Build a running inventory of your accounts and where the credentials live, then keep it current. Do not put passwords in your testament, because a testament becomes public record when it is filed with the court. Instead:

  • Store credentials in a password manager and arrange for your fiduciary to reach the master password
  • Keep a sealed letter of instruction with your estate documents that lists accounts and how to access them
  • Reference that separate document in your testament rather than pasting the details into the testament itself

Secure Cryptocurrency Separately

Crypto is the one asset class that can vanish permanently. Store seed phrases and private keys in a safe or safe deposit box, keep them out of any unsecured digital file, and tell your fiduciary where they are without exposing them to everyday risk. More on crypto below.

How a Succession Representative Requests Access After Death

When you are the succession representative of a Louisiana succession, RUFADAA gives you a workable path:

  1. Check for an online tool designation first. Look at each provider's legacy, memorialization, or inactive account pages before anything else.
  2. Review the testament and any trust. Confirm what digital asset authority the documents grant, and whether they consent to content of communications.
  3. Gather your documentation. Providers generally require a certified copy of your letters (the letters testamentary or letters of administration the Clerk of Court issues to prove your appointment), a certified death certificate, and a written request. Some ask for an affidavit or, for content, a court order.
  4. Submit the request through the provider's official channel and keep records. Providers differ widely: Google's process is functional, Meta is slower, and some small platforms have no process at all. Document every request and response.

If a provider refuses a request that complies with RUFADAA, a Louisiana succession attorney can help you enforce your rights, and for the content of communications you may need a court order.

Cryptocurrency: Special Care

Cryptocurrency behaves unlike any other digital asset because no company holds it for you. Access depends entirely on the private key, or the seed phrase (a series of words that regenerates the key).

If the person held crypto on an exchange such as Coinbase or Kraken, the exchange controls the keys, and you can work through its estate process much like a financial institution, providing your letters and the death certificate. If the person used a self-custody wallet, a hardware device or a software wallet, then no key means no access. There is no customer service line and no court order that can recover it. The crypto is simply gone.

When settling a succession that may hold crypto, search for a small hardware wallet device, printed or written seed phrases (often 12 or 24 words), files named "wallet," "seed," or "recovery," and any exchange login records. Once you secure access, document the holdings promptly for the sworn descriptive list, since crypto values swing sharply and the date-of-death value sets both the estate figure and the beneficiary's basis.

Stay Within Authorized Access

One caution runs through all of this. Using a deceased person's stored password to log in, even with good intentions, sits in a legal gray area. Federal law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act, restricts unauthorized computer and account access, and most providers' terms forbid password sharing. The safer path is to use the RUFADAA process and the provider's official channels rather than self-help logins. When in doubt, a Louisiana succession attorney can tell you where the line sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Louisiana succession representative automatically get into my online accounts?

No. Access depends on the directions you left. If you used an online tool or added digital asset authority to your testament, trust, or mandate, your succession representative has a legal basis to request access. Without either, the provider's terms of service control, and many restrict what a fiduciary may see.

Can a provider refuse my fiduciary's request?

A provider can require proper documentation, such as your letters, a death certificate, and a written request, and can insist on a court order for the content of communications. It cannot lawfully refuse a valid request that complies with Louisiana's RUFADAA.

What happens to cryptocurrency if no one has the private keys?

For a self-custody wallet, it is effectively lost forever. No central authority can recover crypto without the private key or seed phrase, which is why securing and documenting them matters so much.

Should I put my passwords in my testament?

No. A testament becomes public record when it is filed with the court. Keep passwords in a password manager or a sealed letter of instruction and reference that separate document in your testament.

Related Louisiana Guides

Sources:

This guide provides general information about digital assets and RUFADAA in Louisiana. Digital asset planning involves legal and technical choices specific to your situation, so consult a Louisiana estate planning attorney for advice on your accounts. It is not legal advice.