The Alberta Law Reform Institute is recommending legislation that would make it easier for fiduciaries to access a deceased person’s digital assets after their death.
- Digital assets are digital records of information stored with service providers like Google and Facebook.
- Challenges arise post-death due to restrictive service agreements creating difficulties accessing digital assets even with legal authority.
- ALRI suggests adopting legislation to affirm fiduciaries’ authority over digital assets and compel online service providers to provide access.
Get ALRI’s full report, Access to Digital Assets, Final Report 121
What are Digital Assets?
People are living much of their lives online and are storing their important personal information, documents and other digital records of information within the servers of large online service providers such as Google, Facebook, and Apple. These “digital assets” can be anything from email, social media and gaming accounts to precious family photos, loyalty programs and records to sensitive financial and legal information. Some of these digital assets have monetary value, such as cryptocurrency, income generating websites or original artworks or media. Others may not have monetary value, such as family photos and personal documents.
What is the Problem with Digital Assets
After a person dies, the fiduciary authorized to administer the estate of the deceased person may need to contend with severely restrictive service agreements that the deceased agreed to while alive. Making matters worse, recent history has shown that even after a fiduciary fulfills provides legal instruments such as court orders establishing their authority to access said digital assets, there is still no guarantee that access will be provided by international service providers.
What We’re Recommending
Alberta should enact a law based on the Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act. This law affirms and codifies a fiduciary’s authority to deal with all of the assets of a deceased or incapacitated person. Similar laws have been adopted by several other Canadian and US jurisdictions. Uniform legislation across Canada would produce more certainty when compelling international online service providers to grant access to fiduciaries.
Get ALRI’s full report, Access to Digital Assets, Final Report 121