Bill
S 1110
Allows fiduciaries to access a user’s digital assets with clear rules, prioritizing user directions while balancing privacy and custodian policies.
Status: Filed (Senate Docket No. 2263), introduced 01/17/2025 by Senator Barry R. Finegold; referred to the Judiciary Committee. (Document filed as Senate Bill No. 1110, 194th General Court, 2025–2026.)
Note on metadata: the materials provided include unrelated appropriation language and records from other jurisdictions (Idaho and federal sponsors). This summary focuses on the bill text titled “An Act clarifying the rights of fiduciaries to access digital assets” (Massachusetts S.1110).
Purpose
- Establish a clear, statutory framework that defines when and how fiduciaries (personal representatives, agents under powers of attorney, conservators, and trustees) may access a user’s digital assets and electronic communications after incapacity or death.
- Provide predictable rules for custodians (service providers) and fiduciaries while preserving user-directed choices and certain privacy protections.
Key provisions
- Definitions: The bill defines core terms (account; custodian; digital asset; electronic communication; fiduciary; personal representative; agent; conservator; trustee; online tool; user; etc.), making distinctions for items such as higher-education accounts and employer accounts.
- Scope/Applicability: Applies to fiduciaries acting under wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and conservatorships whether those instruments were executed before, on, or after the act’s effective date. Applies to custodians when the user resides (or resided at death) in the Commonwealth.
- User directions / Online tool (Section 3): A user may use a custodian’s online tool (distinct from terms-of-service) to direct the custodian to allow or deny disclosure of some or all digital assets, including content of electronic communications. If the tool permits modification/deletion at any time, those directions control.
- Priority of instructions: User-provided directions (via online tool, will, power of attorney, trust, or another record) generally govern disclosure. The bill establishes rules resolving conflicts among user directions, fiduciary authority, and custodial policies.
- Fiduciary authority: Specifies what a fiduciary may access absent contrary user directions or custodian restrictions (typically includes account information, metadata, and, in many cases, content unless the user has directed otherwise).
- Exceptions and exclusions:
- Employer-owned digital assets used in ordinary course of business are excluded.
- Higher-education institutional accounts have special treatment (students are not treated as employees for this purpose).
- Likely includes protections for certain highly sensitive electronic communications (consistent with federal privacy statutes), though implementation details are in the body of the bill.
- Court orders and conservatorships: Provides probate court authority to grant or limit access where disputes arise or where the fiduciary’s authority is unclear.
- Interaction with other laws and terms-of-service: Establishes how the act interacts with custodians’ terms-of-service and applicable federal/state privacy laws (the bill prioritizes user directions but addresses conflicts).
Who is affected
- Users of digital services domiciled in Massachusetts, and their families/estates.
- Fiduciaries who may need to manage digital assets (executors, trustees, agents, conservators).
- Custodians/service providers (email, social media, cloud storage, online financial institutions), who may need to implement online tools and comply with disclosure rules.
- Higher-education institutions and employers (limited carve-outs).
Potential impacts
- Benefits: Provides clarity and predictability for estate administration and fiduciary management of digital assets; reduces litigation; allows users to make explicit post-mortem/incapacity choices about access to their online accounts.
- Costs/concerns: Custodians may face compliance costs to provide online tools, respond to fiduciary requests, and adapt privacy practices. Privacy advocates may raise concerns about access to communications; the bill attempts to balance user intent, fiduciary authority, and privacy protections.
- Court role preserved for resolving disputes and protecting vulnerable users.
Procedural / timeline notes
- Introduced 01/17/2025; referred to Judiciary Committee. (Further committee hearings/actions to be scheduled.)
- The bill states it applies retroactively and prospectively to instruments and deaths before, on, or after its effective date (see Section 2(a,b)), so fiduciaries may rely on it for both existing and future cases.
For readers wanting the full legal text: the bill is titled “Massachusetts Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act” and follows the structure of modern fiduciary-access laws (modelled on uniform acts addressing access to digital assets).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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