Illinois Digital Assets, RUFADAA, and Cryptocurrency Access

## Illinois and Digital Fiduciary Access

Illinois has enacted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. RUFADAA provides a framework for access by personal representatives, trustees, agents under powers of attorney, and guardians. It balances fiduciary authority with privacy, federal law, contract terms, and the user's expressed directions.

Digital assets include email, cloud storage, social-media accounts, online businesses, domain names, photographs, loyalty accounts, and cryptocurrency-related records. The law does not automatically give a fiduciary unrestricted access to every communication or account.

## The Priority of User Directions

An online tool supplied by a custodian may allow a user to designate who may receive assets or information after death or incapacity. A valid direction through that tool can override contrary language in a will, trust, or power of attorney. If no online-tool direction exists, estate-planning documents may control, subject to the statute and terms of service.

Disclosure of a catalogue of communications is different from disclosure of the contents. Explicit consent may be needed before a custodian releases message contents. Documents should directly authorize appropriate access, disclosure, management, deletion, and transfer rather than relying only on broad references to personal property.

## Cryptocurrency Requires More Than Legal Authority

RUFADAA can establish legal authority, but it cannot recover a lost private key or seed phrase. Cryptocurrency held through an exchange may be accessible through the exchange's fiduciary process. Self-custodied assets require secure technical instructions. Anyone possessing the credentials may be able to transfer the assets irreversibly.

A plan should identify the existence and type of holdings without placing usable secrets in a public will. Options include secure offline storage, encrypted instructions, multisignature arrangements, institutional custody, or a carefully designed succession procedure. The fiduciary needs enough guidance to locate assets, verify networks and wallets, address tax basis, and avoid scams.

## Creating a Digital Inventory

The inventory should list devices, accounts, domains, storage locations, subscription obligations, intellectual property, monetized content, exchanges, wallets, and advisers. It should explain how credentials can be retrieved securely and distinguish assets with financial value from accounts that should be memorialized or deleted.

Regular testing is essential. Devices change, exchanges close, authentication methods expire, and heirs may lack technical knowledge. The plan should coordinate the will, trust, power of attorney, account-specific tools, business agreements, and cybersecurity practices while minimizing unnecessary exposure of private information. ## Building a Defensible Process

Legal compliance is easier to demonstrate when decisions are supported by contemporaneous records. Organizations and individuals should identify who owns each task, what information must be collected, when review occurs, and where final documents are retained. A policy that exists only in a handbook may offer little protection if actual practices differ. Periodic audits can reveal inconsistent forms, outdated language, missed deadlines, or informal procedures that have become routine without legal review.

Templates should be treated as starting points rather than substitutes for analysis. The governing rule may depend on location, timing, contractual language, the people involved, and facts that are not obvious at the beginning. When several jurisdictions are implicated, the most protective applicable rule may provide a practical baseline, but counsel should confirm whether separate notices, elections, or procedures remain necessary.

## When to Involve Counsel

Early advice is often less expensive than correcting a completed transaction or defending a claim. Counsel can help preserve evidence, identify privilege issues, evaluate competing interpretations, and distinguish a business preference from a legal requirement. Urgent review is especially appropriate when a deadline is approaching, a government agency has made contact, litigation is threatened, substantial assets are involved, or the parties disagree about their rights.

Readers should also verify that cited rules remain current. Statutes, regulations, agency guidance, and judicial decisions change, sometimes with transition periods or unresolved appeals. This article provides general educational information and is not legal advice for any particular matter.

## Practical Takeaways

- Create a written checklist identifying the responsible person, required documents, and applicable deadlines. - Preserve signed agreements, notices, communications, calculations, and evidence supporting important decisions. - Review forms and policies after significant legislation, agency guidance, or appellate decisions. - Do not assume that a federal rule displaces stricter state or local requirements. - Obtain fact-specific legal advice before acting when the financial or litigation risk is meaningful.