When someone dies in New Jersey, the people they leave behind expect to deal with the obvious things: the house, the bank account, the car. What catches almost everyone off guard is everything else. The Gmail account holding ten years of family correspondence. The iPhone full of photos nobody can unlock. The Coinbase account where the password died with the person who set it up. The Facebook profile that keeps reminding everyone of birthdays. Digital assets after death in NJ are governed by a specific law, and the rules are not what most people guess. The short version: the executor (the person legally in charge of the estate) has real authority, but it’s narrower than you’d think, and the limits surprise families every time. Here’s what New Jersey law actually allows, what it blocks, and the simple steps that prevent a difficult situation from becoming a permanent loss.
The Law That Controls Digital Assets After Death in NJ
In September 2017, New Jersey passed a law called the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. It lives in the state code at N.J.S.A. 3B:14-61.1 through 3B:14-61.18. Before this law, executors hit a brick wall. A federal privacy law called the Stored Communications Act bars companies like Google, Apple, and Meta from handing over the contents of someone’s email or messages without permission, and a dead person can’t grant permission. So tech companies refused. New Jersey’s law was designed to fix that. It gives executors, trustees, agents under power of attorney, and court-appointed guardians a recognized legal pathway to handle someone’s digital property after death, while still respecting the privacy expectations built into federal law.
Three Levels of Authority, and the First One Wins
The law sets up a clear pecking order. Whoever is trying to get into a deceased person’s account walks through these three levels in sequence. The first one that applies controls. Level one: an online tool. If the person used Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Apple’s Legacy Contact, or Facebook’s Legacy Contact while they were alive, those instructions win. They override the will. They override everything. This is why those tools matter so much. They are legally binding directives in New Jersey. Level two: estate planning documents. If no online tool was used, the will, trust, or power of attorney controls, but only if those documents specifically mention digital assets. A general clause that says “all my property goes to X” is not enough to unlock email content. The authorization has to be explicit. Level three: the platform’s terms of service. If neither of the above applies, the company’s fine print controls. And almost every company’s fine print says no. This is the worst-case scenario for families, and it’s where most people end up by default, because most people never set up the tools or update their wills.
The Envelope vs. the Letter: The Distinction That Trips Up Everyone
This is the single most important idea in NJ’s digital assets law, and it confuses almost everyone. The law splits emails, texts, and messages into two parts. Think of it like a letter in the mail. The outside of the envelope (who sent it, who received it, when it was sent, what address it came from) is something an executor can usually get. The law calls this the “catalogue.” The executor sends a written request, attaches a death certificate and the court paperwork, and the platform is supposed to provide it. The inside of the envelope, what the email actually says, is much harder. The executor can only get the content if the deceased specifically said yes while they were alive. That “yes” has to come through one of those online tools, or through a will, trust, or power of attorney that explicitly authorizes content access. Without that, the company will refuse, and federal law backs them up. Why does this matter in real life? Because executors often need to read the emails to do their job. A brokerage statement comes by email. A digital-only bank holds five figures and the only paper trail is in the inbox. A subscription auto-charges the estate every month and the cancel link is buried in Gmail. Knowing the email exists isn’t enough. The executor needs to see what’s in it.
What Executors Can Almost Always Get
Other digital property, meaning things that aren’t private messages, is more accessible. With the proper court paperwork, an executor can typically request:
- Online banking and brokerage records
- Domain names, websites, and blogs the person owned
- Cloud-stored files, documents, and photos
- Loyalty points and airline miles (subject to the program’s rules)
- Cryptocurrency held on regulated exchanges
- Digital business assets like an Etsy shop, eBay account, or YouTube channel
The law treats these more like regular property than like private correspondence, which is why they’re easier to deal with.
How the Big Platforms Actually Handle Death
The law is one thing. What the tech companies actually do is another. Here’s what we see in real cases.
Google has the best tool of any major platform. It’s called Inactive Account Manager. While you’re alive, you can pick up to 10 trusted contacts and choose exactly which Google services each one gets data from, Gmail, Photos, Drive, whichever. After your account has been inactive for a period you set, Google notifies your contacts and gives them a download link. If you never set this up, your family is in for a much harder process. Google requires extensive documentation, often a court order, and even then access is not guaranteed. Google will not hand over your password under any circumstances.
Apple
Apple has Legacy Contact. While you’re alive, you pick a person (or several) and Apple generates an access key. After you die, that person submits the access key plus a certified death certificate, and Apple gives them access to your iCloud data for three years. What Legacy Contact does not include: your saved passwords (called Keychain), your Apple Pay information, and anything you purchased, movies, music, books. Without a Legacy Contact set up in advance, your executor is usually looking at a court order that specifically names them as the rightful inheritor of your personal information. Standard executor paperwork alone doesn’t unlock an iCloud account.
Facebook and Instagram
Facebook offers a Legacy Contact, but the powers are narrow. A Legacy Contact can pin a memorial post, change the profile picture, respond to friend requests, and request deletion. They cannot log in, read private messages, or post as the deceased. If your goal is to recover what’s in someone’s Messenger conversations, Facebook’s Legacy Contact won’t get you there. The alternative is to ask Facebook to either memorialize the account or delete it, which any family member can do with proof of death.
Microsoft
Microsoft doesn’t offer a planning tool like Apple or Google. Family members or executors have to write to Microsoft’s Custodian of Records with documentation, and the company decides case by case. Getting full access without pre-planning is difficult.
Cryptocurrency
Crypto is where digital estate planning fails most badly, because the technology doesn’t care about probate. If your loved one held their own crypto, meaning they kept the private keys or seed phrase themselves on a hardware wallet, paper wallet, or app they controlled, and nobody else has those keys, the crypto is essentially gone. No court in New Jersey or anywhere else can force the blockchain to release it. We’ve seen six-figure and even seven-figure positions disappear this way. If the crypto was held on a regulated exchange, Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, it works more like a brokerage account. The exchange has the keys; the executor doesn’t need them. With the proper death paperwork and the exchange’s claim forms, the assets can usually be transferred to the estate. Each exchange has its own process, and timelines run from a few weeks to several months. This is why we always tell clients with meaningful crypto: write down what you have, where it lives, and how to find the access information. The seed phrase doesn’t go in the will, since wills become public record after probate. But your executor needs to know the crypto exists and where to look.
What an Executor Actually Has to Do in New Jersey
If you’ve been put in charge of a loved one’s estate and you need to get into their digital accounts, here’s the basic playbook. Step one: get the court paperwork. Go to the Surrogate’s Court in the county where your loved one lived, Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, wherever. The court will issue you a document called Letters Testamentary (if there was a will) or Letters of Administration (if there wasn’t). That document is your proof that you have legal authority to act for the estate. Step two: write to each company. New Jersey law requires a written request, physical or email, along with a copy of the death certificate and your court paperwork. Some companies want extra information: the username, an affidavit, sometimes a separate court order saying the access is necessary to wrap up the estate. Step three: wait. The law gives companies 60 days to respond. In practice, the bigger platforms sometimes miss that deadline. If a company drags its feet, you can ask the court to order them to comply. Step four: do not log in as the deceased. This part surprises people. Even if you have the password sitting on a sticky note, signing in as the deceased may violate state and federal computer fraud laws. The New Jersey law is explicit that an executor can’t impersonate the user. The proper path is through the company, not around it. If you’re dealing with this right now, check out our post about the executor duties in New Jersey timeline. It explains how the executor process works in our state. For specific guidance on accessing digital accounts during probate, call or contact Sammarro & Zalarick to discuss your situation.
How to Make Your Own Digital Life Easier to Inherit
If you’re reading this as someone planning ahead rather than someone in the middle of a crisis, the work is straightforward and doesn’t take long.
Set Up the Online Tools: It’s the Single Best Move
Spend fifteen minutes setting up Google’s Inactive Account Manager. Pick an Apple Legacy Contact. Choose a Facebook Legacy Contact. These tools override everything else under New Jersey law, and most people we meet have done none of them. It’s the highest-leverage estate planning move you can make for digital property, and it’s free.
Update Your Will and Power of Attorney
The standard language in older estate planning documents almost never addresses digital assets. Your will should specifically authorize your executor to access the contents of your emails and other digital assets. Your durable power of attorney should give the same authority to your agent during your lifetime in case you become incapacitated. The phrase “digital assets” needs to appear in both documents. We’ve updated thousands of estate plans for clients across Bergen County, and digital asset language is now standard in everything we draft.
Keep a Simple List
A basic inventory of what you have, accounts, crypto holdings, cloud services, domains, online side businesses, is enormously helpful. You don’t put passwords in your will. You don’t put crypto seed phrases in your will. But you do tell your executor what to look for. A password manager (1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass) with an emergency-access feature handles the credentials. The list itself can live in a sealed letter with your attorney or somewhere your executor knows about.
Don’t Forget Two-Factor Authentication
Most accounts now send a code to your phone when you log in from a new device. When the phone gets shut off after a death, the executor can be locked out even with the right password. If you’re an executor in this situation, contact the carrier early and ask whether the line can be kept active during estate administration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my executor read my emails after I die in New Jersey?
Only if you said yes while you were alive. New Jersey law protects the contents of your emails unless you authorized access, either through an online tool like Google’s Inactive Account Manager, or through specific language in your will, trust, or power of attorney. Your executor can usually get a list of who you emailed and when, but the words inside the messages are off-limits without your explicit permission.
Does my executor’s court paperwork get them into my Apple account?
Not automatically. Apple typically requires either a Legacy Contact you set up in advance with an access key, or a court order specifically naming the executor as the rightful inheritor of your personal information. Standard executor paperwork alone usually isn’t enough to unlock iCloud. This is exactly why setting up a Legacy Contact in advance saves your family a major headache.
What happens to my cryptocurrency if I die without sharing my keys?
If you held your own crypto on a hardware wallet, paper wallet, or app you controlled, and nobody else has the seed phrase or private keys, the crypto is functionally lost. No court can order the blockchain to release it. Crypto held on regulated exchanges like Coinbase can be claimed by your executor with the right documentation, but self-held assets need advance planning.
How long does a company have to respond to my executor request in NJ?
New Jersey law gives them 60 days from receiving a complete request. If they don’t respond, you can ask the court to order them to comply. In real cases, the bigger platforms sometimes miss the deadline, and a court order is often what finally gets things moving.
Can I just use my late spouse’s password to log into their accounts?
We strongly advise against it. Logging in as a deceased person, even with the right password, may violate state and federal computer fraud laws. New Jersey’s digital assets law specifically prohibits an executor from impersonating the user. The right way is to request access through the company using your authority as executor, not to log in directly. We know this feels overly cautious when you’re grieving, but it protects you legally.
The Bottom Line
New Jersey gave executors real authority over digital assets in 2017, but the law draws sharp lines: between the outside of the envelope and the inside, between accounts the deceased authorized access to and accounts they didn’t, between online tools that override everything and default rules that lock everyone out. The families who get through this well are usually the ones whose loved one took an hour to set up Legacy Contacts and update their will. The families who don’t are usually the ones we meet in crisis, holding a death certificate and staring at a Coinbase login they can’t crack. In our 30+ years of practice, we’ve seen the same pattern over and over: digital estate planning is the easiest thing to get right in advance and the most expensive thing to fix after the fact. If you’re an executor trying to access a deceased family member’s accounts right now, or if you want to make sure your own digital life passes cleanly to the people you love, we can help. Call Sammarro & Zalarick to discuss your estate plan or to get help with a digital assets issue you’re facing today. We’ve been helping New Jersey families for over three decades, and we know how to move these cases forward.
Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different. Contact Sammarro & Zalarick directly to discuss your specific situation.
Written by Gary J. Zalarick, Esq.
