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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 3, 2017 03:26 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Thomas H. Killion |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act |
| I plan to introduce legislation which will give people the power to plan for the management and disposition of their digital assets in the same way they can make plans for their tangible property: by providing instructions in a will, trust, or power of attorney. The Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act will be based on proposed legislation developed by the Uniform Law Commission. For most people, at least some of their property and communications are stored as data (e.g., photos, documents, e-books, music files, and video files) on a computer server and accessed via the Internet. Access to these digital assets is usually governed by the terms-of-service agreement provided by a private company. This can create problems when an account holder dies or otherwise loses the ability to manage their own digital assets. This legislation will deal with four common types of fiduciaries: 1. Executors or administrators of deceased persons’ estates; 2. Court-appointed guardians or conservators of protected persons’ estates; 3. Agents appointed under powers of attorney; and 4. Trustees. If a person fails to plan for the management and disposition of their digital assets, the same court-appointed fiduciary that manages the person’s tangible assets can manage the person’s digital assets. Some companies provide an online planning option by which account holders can choose to delete or preserve their digital assets after some period of inactivity. This legislation will defer to the account holder’s choice in such circumstances, but will override any provision in a click-through terms-of-service agreement that conflicts with the account holder’s express instructions. For a fiduciary to gain access to digital assets, this legislation will require the fiduciary to send a request to the custodian, accompanied by a certified copy of the document granting fiduciary authority. This legislation will be designed to work in conjunction with Pennsylvania’s existing laws on probate, guardianship, trusts, and powers of attorney. It will simply extend a fiduciary’s existing authority over a person’s tangible assets to include the person’s digital assets, with the same fiduciary duties to act for the benefit of the represented person or estate. This legislation will be similar to Senate Bill 518 (Pileggi) from the 2015-16 Legislative Session, which was unanimously approved by the Senate, but remained in the House. |
Introduced as SB827