Lamm is a national expert on digital property issues and has done seminars from coast to coast to educate lawyers on the subject. He also helped write the law covering management and disposition of digital assets that’s now on the books in Minnesota and 47 other states.
Minnesota’s Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act became law in August 2016. Under it, you can use online tools to designate a fiduciary or representative who can access your digital data after your death.
“It allows us to, at least with the right kinds of authorizations, ask Google, ask Yahoo, ask Apple, ask Facebook for a copy of the account contents,” Lamm said. “That way, we don’t have to deal with the passwords, the encryption, the data privacy laws or the criminal laws.”
These online tools include:
In addition to using online tools, Suzanne Walsh, an estate-planning attorney in Hartford, Conn., recommended signing a consent form to allow online platforms to disclose digital assets otherwise protected under the Stored Communications Act. That federal data privacy law prohibits disclosure of a person’s communications without their lawful consent. She likens the digital disclosure form to the consent forms patients sign to allow disclosure of health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
“Most companies have not created online tools, so then we have to do that consent form as a backup,” Walsh said. “I refer to it as a HIPAA form for digital assets, which is nonsensical but explains that what we’re doing is giving consent under federal privacy law.”
