Florida probate for digital and financial accounts is the court-supervised process of identifying, gaining lawful access to, and distributing a deceased person’s bank accounts, brokerage holdings, cryptocurrency, email, cloud storage, and online business assets. When someone dies without a will in Florida, the personal representative appointed by the probate court derives authority over these assets from the intestate succession statute and, for digital property, from Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. In short: no will does not mean no path; it means the statute, not the decedent, decides who controls the accounts and who inherits what is left in them.
I’ve handled enough Palm Beach estates to tell you that the hard part is rarely the law. It’s the locked phone, the password no one wrote down, the brokerage that won’t talk to you until you produce Letters of Administration, and the crypto wallet whose seed phrase died with the owner. This article walks through how Florida probate actually treats these accounts when there is no will, and where families get stuck.
Why digital and financial accounts are different in an intestate estate
Most people think of an estate as a house and a checking account. In 2026, a meaningful slice of net worth lives behind logins. Traditional financial accounts — banks, credit unions, brokerages, retirement plans — are tangible enough that the law has handled them for a century. Digital assets are newer, and the rules governing who may even look at them are governed by service-provider contracts and federal privacy law, not just Florida probate.
When there is a will, a decedent can name an executor and grant explicit authority over digital property. In an intestate estate, none of that exists. The personal representative steps into a role defined entirely by statute, and the family often has no idea which accounts exist in the first place. That discovery problem — finding the assets before they go dormant, escheat to the state, or get permanently deleted — is the defining challenge of intestate digital probate.
Two categories that get conflated
- Financial accounts with stored value: checking, savings, brokerage, money market, and cryptocurrency held on an exchange or in a private wallet. These are estate assets with a dollar value that pass through probate unless a beneficiary designation or joint title carries them outside it.
- Digital accounts that are primarily access or content: email, social media, cloud photo storage, domain names, loyalty points, and subscription accounts. Some have economic value (a domain, a monetized channel), but the legal question is usually about access rather than ownership.
The personal representative needs different tools for each. A bank responds to Letters of Administration. Google and Apple respond to their own internal processes layered on top of Florida law.
The Florida statutes that control the process
Three areas of Florida law do the heavy lifting in an intestate estate involving accounts.
Intestate succession — Chapter 732
Because there is no will, the question of who inherits the money in the accounts is answered by Florida’s intestate succession statute, sections 732.101 through 732.111. The rules favor the surviving spouse and descendants. Under section 732.102, a surviving spouse who is the sole parent of all the decedent’s children inherits the entire intestate estate. If the decedent left descendants who are not also descendants of the surviving spouse, the spouse takes one-half and the descendants share the other half. With no surviving spouse, section 732.103 sends the estate to descendants, then parents, then siblings, and outward through the family tree.
These shares apply to the net value of the financial accounts after debts, the same way they apply to a bank balance or a house. Cryptocurrency and brokerage holdings are no exception — they are property of the estate and distributed by the same intestacy formula.
Administration and the personal representative — Chapter 733
Authority to deal with any account comes from appointment under Chapter 733. The court issues Letters of Administration, and those Letters are the credential that unlocks financial institutions. Section 733.607 vests the personal representative with the right to take possession of the decedent’s property, and section 733.612 lists the transactions a personal representative may carry out without prior court order, including collecting assets and dealing with financial institutions. Without Letters, a bank will not — and legally should not — release funds.
Digital assets — Chapter 740, the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act
This is the statute most families have never heard of and most need. Florida adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act as Chapter 740, effective 2016. It establishes a hierarchy for who controls digital assets after death:
- An online tool offered by the provider (such as Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Apple’s Legacy Contact) controls first, if the decedent used it.
- If no online tool was used, the decedent’s will, trust, or other record controls — irrelevant in a true intestate estate, since there is none.
- If neither exists, the provider’s terms-of-service agreement governs.
For an intestate decedent who never set up a legacy tool, the personal representative’s access typically runs through the provider’s terms and a formal request supported by the death certificate and Letters of Administration. Chapter 740 distinguishes between the content of electronic communications (the body of emails, which has heightened protection) and the catalogue of communications (metadata — who, when), which is easier to obtain. Custodians may require a court order before disclosing content.
How a personal representative actually accesses each account type
Bank and brokerage accounts
Once Letters of Administration issue, the personal representative presents them with a certified death certificate. Solely owned accounts move into an estate account. Watch for two things that pull money out of probate entirely:
- Payable-on-death (POD) and transfer-on-death (TOD) designations: these pass directly to the named beneficiary and never enter the intestate estate.
- Joint accounts with rights of survivorship: these vest in the survivor by operation of law.
In an intestate estate this matters enormously, because a POD designation can override the intestacy formula. A child expecting a one-half share under section 732.102 may discover the account was POD to a sibling. That is not a contest you win by arguing fairness; the designation controls.
Cryptocurrency and self-custodied wallets
Crypto is where intestate estates go to die — literally. An exchange-held account (Coinbase, Kraken) behaves like a brokerage: the personal representative submits Letters, a death certificate, and the exchange’s estate paperwork. A self-custodied wallet is different. If no one has the seed phrase or private key, there is no legal mechanism — no court order, no statute — that recovers it. The asset is real but permanently inaccessible. I tell clients the single most valuable estate-planning act for crypto is a securely stored, location-documented recovery phrase, precisely because intestacy offers no fallback.
Email, cloud, and social media
Email is the master key, because password resets for everything else route through it. Under Chapter 740, gaining access to email content usually requires Letters plus, frequently, a court order, given the federal Stored Communications Act overlay. Social platforms have their own memorialization or deletion options. Photos in cloud storage are often the asset families care about most emotionally, and they are typically recoverable through the provider’s deceased-user process once fiduciary authority is established.
A practical checklist for Palm Beach families with no will
- Secure devices immediately. Do not reset a phone or laptop. A logged-in device may be the only practical route to an account, and a factory reset can destroy access permanently.
- Inventory before you litigate. Check mail and email for statements, 1099s, and provider notices. Look for hardware wallets, written seed phrases, and password managers.
- Open probate and obtain Letters of Administration. Nothing meaningful happens with institutions until the court appoints a personal representative.
- Request the catalogue before the content. Under Chapter 740 you can often confirm an account exists and its activity before fighting for full content disclosure.
- Map beneficiary designations. Determine which accounts are POD/TOD or jointly held and therefore outside the intestate estate.
- Document everything for the court accounting. Digital and financial assets must appear on the inventory required under Chapter 733.
Probate in Florida is detail-driven, and intestate administration adds the burden of proving who is entitled to inherit. If you are organizing an estate, our overview of how Florida probate works explains the broader timeline, and our guide to wills shows how a simple document would have changed everything described above.
Why so many of these accounts trigger disputes
Intestate estates with digital and financial assets are a fertile ground for conflict. A surviving partner who was never married has no intestate share at all in Florida. Adult children fight over who controls the password to a profitable online business. A POD designation made years earlier contradicts what the family believed the decedent wanted. These are the same fault lines that surface in any contested administration. The challenges that complicate the process generally — disputed heirs, asset discovery, fiduciary disputes — are well summarized in Morgan Legal Group’s discussion of , and where someone alleges the decedent did leave a will that points elsewhere, the procedural mechanics resemble the framework explained in their guide to . The legal labels differ by state, but the human conflicts and the fiduciary duties are strikingly similar.
For families with assets or attorneys spanning both coasts, Morgan Legal also maintains a Florida-focused that handles these multi-account estates under Florida law directly.
The bottom line for intestate digital and financial probate
When a Palm Beach resident dies without a will, the money in their bank and brokerage accounts is distributed by Florida’s intestacy statute, the personal representative’s authority to collect it comes from Letters of Administration under Chapter 733, and access to email, cloud, and social accounts is governed by Chapter 740’s fiduciary-access framework. Cryptocurrency held in a private wallet stands apart: if the keys are lost, the law cannot recover it. The estates that resolve cleanly are the ones where someone moved quickly — securing devices, inventorying accounts, and opening probate before assets went dark.
If you are administering an estate with online or financial accounts and no will, speak with a Palm Beach probate attorney early. You can reach our office to discuss your situation before access windows close.
This article is general information about Florida probate and is not legal advice. Statutory citations reflect Florida law as of 2026; consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific estate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a personal representative access a deceased person's email if there was no will in Florida?
Yes, but it requires steps. The personal representative must first be appointed by the probate court and receive Letters of Administration. Access to email is then governed by Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Chapter 740). Because email content has heightened federal privacy protection under the Stored Communications Act, providers frequently require a court order in addition to the death certificate and Letters before releasing the actual content of messages.
What happens to cryptocurrency when someone dies without a will in Florida?
Cryptocurrency is estate property and is distributed under Florida’s intestate succession statute (Chapter 732), the same as any other asset. Crypto held on an exchange can be claimed by the personal representative using Letters of Administration and the exchange’s estate process. Crypto in a self-custodied wallet, however, can only be reached if someone has the seed phrase or private key. If those are lost, no court order or statute can recover the funds.
Do payable-on-death bank accounts pass under Florida intestacy rules?
No. A payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) account passes directly to the named beneficiary outside of probate, and a beneficiary designation overrides the intestate succession formula. This means heirs who would otherwise inherit under Chapter 732 may receive nothing from that particular account if it was designated POD to someone else.
What Florida statute governs digital asset access after death?
Florida’s version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, codified as Chapter 740, governs fiduciary access to digital assets. It sets a priority order: an online tool offered by the provider controls first, then the decedent’s will or other record, and finally the provider’s terms of service. In a true intestate estate with no will or online tool, access typically runs through the provider’s terms supported by Letters of Administration.
Who inherits financial accounts in Palm Beach when there is no will?
Under Florida Statutes section 732.102, a surviving spouse who shares all children with the decedent inherits the entire intestate estate. If there are descendants outside that marriage, the spouse takes one-half and the descendants share the other half. With no surviving spouse, section 732.103 directs the estate to descendants, then parents, then siblings. These shares apply to the net value of all probate financial accounts.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of probate in Palm Beach. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .
