I attended a recent lecture by Victoria J. Haneman, Verner F. Chaffin Chair in Fiduciary Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, presented at the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council on September 18, 2025: “The Law of Digital Resurrection.” Professor Haneman’s research provides a critical framework for understanding how digital assets and “digital immortality” reshape estate planning.

The Digital Afterlife

Clients today generate vast digital estates: thousands of stored photos, hundreds of online accounts, and continuous streams of emails and texts. Increasingly, those assets are not just dormant files — they carry economic, sentimental, and even existential value.

Digital immortality — the persistence or AI-driven recreation of one’s identity online — is becoming a tangible possibility, supported by an AI marketplace projected to grow to nearly $50 billion by 2030. Estate attorneys must prepare for the legal and policy challenges this raises.

The Legal Framework: RUFADAA

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) is the primary statutory tool guiding fiduciary access. It establishes a three-tier priority system:

  1. Custodian Tools – If the service provider (custodian) offers an online mechanism (e.g., Facebook’s Legacy Contact or Google’s Inactive Account Manager), the client’s selection controls.
  2. Estate Planning Documents – If no online tool exists, the decedent’s will, trust, or power of attorney must explicitly authorize fiduciary access.
  3. Terms of Service (TOS/T&C) – In the absence of both, the custodian’s contract governs, subject to RUFADAA’s limited default rules.

The challenge: most clients neither engage with online tools nor read TOS agreements (which could take 200+ hours annually to review). That leaves estate attorneys with a critical advisory role.

Policy Questions Raised

Professor Haneman highlights the need to balance the interests of the living with the wishes of the dead:

  1. Should fiduciaries be bound by instructions that impose significant burdens or social costs?
  2. How much control should decedents retain over their data after death?
  3. Should default rules emphasize preservation, access, or deletion?

One promising approach is a “right to deletion,” which would shift responsibility away from ambiguous estate planning provisions toward clear, tech-based defaults that provide fiduciaries access before erasure.

Practical Checklist for Estate Attorneys Under RUFADAA

To translate these principles into practice, estate attorneys can:
  1. Audit Digital Assets
    • Encourage clients to list key accounts, domains, crypto wallets, and digital subscriptions.
    • Include both financial and sentimental assets (photos, social accounts, blogs, etc.).
  2. Leverage Custodian Tools
    • Ask clients to designate legacy contacts or inactive account managers where available (e.g., Google, Facebook legacy contacts).
    • Document these selections to keep them consistent with other estate planning instruments (wills, powers of attorney).
  3. Update Estate Planning Documents
    • Insert explicit provisions granting fiduciary access to digital assets consistent with RUFADAA (or local statute).
    • Clarify the intended scope — for example, whether fiduciaries may access content of communications versus only a catalog of accounts.
  4. Review Fiduciary Appointments
    • Ensure fiduciaries understand their authority and obligations regarding digital property and privacy considerations.
    • Consider appointing a specialized “digital executor” or agent when digital complexity warrants it.
  5. Counsel on Terms of Service Limitations
    • Explain how platform Terms of Service may override or restrict access even when an estate instrument grants access.
    • Prepare clients for variability across platforms and document vendor-specific guidance in the file.
  6. Discuss Legacy Preferences
    • Decide on memorialization vs. deletion: should accounts be preserved, deleted, transferred, or managed in a particular way?
    • Clarify client comfort with potential future “resurrection” technologies (AI re-creations) and how that affects preferences.
  7. Plan for Emerging Technologies
    • Advise clients that AI-driven re-creation services or data aggregation may use digital remains commercially — document wishes.
    • Recommend periodic review of documents and provisions as legislation and platform policies evolve.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this content is provided for informational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal advice. Readers should consult qualified counsel before making decisions related to estate planning or digital assets.