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1927

Oregon First to Pass RUFADAA – Allowing Legal Access to Your Digital Assets

Oregon becomes the first state to pass RUFADAA: The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Accounts Act.

SYK has been advising our clients, friends and colleagues about managing Digital Assets (your online accounts) for many years, lamenting the fact that the Internet was outrunning the law. We’ve been writing about it, testifying before legislators, speaking at seminars and encouraging everyone to prepare a VAIL – or Virtual Asset Instruction Letter. 

We are happy to report that there is new light on the issue. Oregon has just become the first state in the nation to pass RUFADAA: The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Accounts Act. Oregon Senate Bill 1554 was signed by the Governor yesterday and will become effective January 1, 2017.

This law is important in that while it allows for personal representatives, powers of attorney and trustees to have access to online accounts to perform their fiduciary duties, it also requires everyone to be proactive in affirmatively stating in your trust or estate plan that you grant such authority; otherwise, the online providers’ terms of service agreements will control. And those agreements often give the online provider all of the power, including the power to hit “delete” when they know someone has passed, which could destroy vital financial information or precious memories you had intended to share with those you leave behind.

So dust off that will or trust you prepared so long ago and call your estate planner; it’s time that your estate plan caught up with the Internet.

Attorney Victoria Blachly is a fiduciary litigator who has been working on digital asset legislation for six years, testifying before legislators and presenting at seminars throughout the U.S. The issue became very personal to her when she lost a young niece and saw how invaluable her social media was to the grieving family and friends she left behind. Victoria worked closely with one of SYK’s estate planners, Jeff Cheyne, and one of SYK’s business attorneys, Michael Walker, to pursue legislation that was initially hard fought by very large and well-funded online providers.

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