Digital Assets in Your Maine Estate Plan: RUFADAA and What to Do

Your estate plan covers your house, your bank accounts, your car. But what about the $12,000 in a cryptocurrency wallet, the family photos stored only in iCloud, the small business run entirely through online platforms, or the social media accounts your family wants to memorialize?

Maine adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) under Article 10 of the Uniform Probate Code (18-C M.R.S. § 10-101 et seq.), giving residents explicit legal tools to control what happens to digital assets after death or incapacity.

The Three-Tier Hierarchy

RUFADAA establishes a strict priority system that determines who can access your digital accounts:

Tier 1: Online tool settings (highest priority). If a platform provides an "online tool" that lets you direct what happens to your account — like Google's Inactive Account Manager or Facebook's Legacy Contact — that direction controls. If the tool lets you modify the setting at any time, it legally overrides anything in your will, trust, or POA.

Tier 2: Estate planning documents. If you haven't used an online tool (or the platform doesn't offer one), you can grant digital asset access through your will, revocable trust, or durable power of attorney. This requires explicit language — a general bequest of "all my property" doesn't automatically include digital assets.

Tier 3: Terms of service (default). If you haven't used an online tool and haven't addressed digital assets in your estate plan, the platform's standard terms of service govern. Most platforms prohibit third-party access and many will permanently delete the account after a period of inactivity.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

Digital assets include far more than social media:

• Financial accounts — cryptocurrency wallets, payment platforms (PayPal, Venmo), online banking, investment apps
• Business assets — domain names, website hosting, email lists, SaaS subscriptions, e-commerce accounts
• Content and intellectual property — blogs, YouTube channels, digital art, ebooks, music libraries
• Communication — email accounts, messaging apps, cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud)
• Social media — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter/X
• Loyalty programs — airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards
• Gaming and entertainment — digital game libraries, streaming accounts, in-game assets

What to Do Now

Step 1: Create a Digital Asset Inventory

List every digital account, the platform, whether it has monetary or sentimental value, and your instructions (transfer, archive, memorialize, or delete). Include:

• Account name and platform
• Purpose (financial, personal, business)
• Whether the platform offers an online tool for legacy planning
• Your preference (transfer access to specific person, download content, delete)

Do NOT include passwords in your will — it becomes a public document when filed in probate court. Use a password manager with an emergency access feature, a sealed letter stored with your will, or a digital vault service.

Step 2: Configure Platform Online Tools

For platforms that offer them, set up the legacy feature now:

• Google — Inactive Account Manager lets you designate up to 10 people to receive data after 3-18 months of inactivity
• Facebook — Legacy Contact can manage your memorialized profile, or you can request account deletion
• Apple — Legacy Contact (iOS 15.2+) lets designated contacts access your iCloud data
• Instagram — memorialization request or deletion request through the help center

Step 3: Add Digital Asset Language to Your Estate Plan

Include explicit authorization in your will or trust for your personal representative or trustee to:

• Access digital accounts and devices
• Manage, distribute, or delete digital assets
• Take control of domain names and online business accounts

Also include this authorization in your durable financial power of attorney for incapacity situations — your agent needs explicit digital asset authority under RUFADAA.

Step 4: Cryptocurrency Requires Special Handling

Cryptocurrency isn't held by a custodian who can verify your identity and transfer funds. If you hold crypto in a self-custody wallet, the recovery phrase (seed phrase) is the only way to access those funds. Without it, the assets are permanently lost.

Document the wallet type, the location of the recovery phrase, and instructions for your personal representative. Consider whether a hardware wallet in a safe deposit box with instructions is more appropriate than embedding this information in a document that could be compromised.

The Maine Basic Estate Planning Kit includes a digital asset inventory worksheet and the specific RUFADAA-compliant language needed for your will and power of attorney under current Maine law.

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