The Uniform Law Commission is a apppointing a new drafting committee to deal with the legal problems of fiduciary access to digital assets. The committee will address the authority of fiduciaries to manage and distribute digital assets, copy or delete them, and access them.
The Act will deal with the rights of personal representative (typically executors and admininstrators), trustees, guardians, and perhaps holders of powers of attorney, to control digital assets.
People often fail to think of the value of digital assets, but they can be substantial. In my practice, I have already come accross digital assets, typically web sites, worth millions of dollars. Terms of service agreement provided by digital platforms often deny any right of access to any fiduciary. If users are to build substantial assets on digital platforms — and they are — this issue needs legal structure.
Just today, an article in the Chicago Tribune addressed this issue. See “Online accounts after death: Remember digital property when listing assets.”
It rests at the cutting edge of the law.
Rich
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