(a) The legal duties imposed on a fiduciary charged with managing tangible property apply to the management of digital assets, including:

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Terms Used In Alabama Code 19-1A-15

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
  • property: includes both real and personal property. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • writing: includes typewriting and printing on paper. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
(1) the duty of care;
(2) the duty of loyalty; and
(3) the duty of confidentiality.
(b) A fiduciary’s or a designated recipient’s authority with respect to a digital asset of a user:

(1) except as otherwise provided in Section 19-1A-4, is subject to the applicable terms of service;
(2) is subject to other applicable law, including copyright law;
(3) in the case of a fiduciary, is limited by the scope of the fiduciary’s duties; and
(4) may not be used to impersonate the user.
(c) A fiduciary with authority over the property of a decedent, protected person, principal, or settlor has the right to access any digital asset in which the decedent, protected person, principal, or settlor had a right or interest and that is not held by a custodian or subject to a terms-of-service agreement.
(d) A fiduciary acting within the scope of the fiduciary’s duties is an authorized user of the property of the decedent, protected person, principal, or settlor for the purpose of applicable computer-fraud and unauthorized-computer-access laws, including this state‘s law on unauthorized computer access.
(e) A fiduciary with authority over the tangible, personal property of a decedent, protected person, principal, or settlor:

(1) has the right to access the property and any digital asset stored in it; and
(2) is an authorized user for the purpose of computer-fraud and unauthorized-computer-access laws, including Article 5A of Chapter 8, Title 13A, 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq., and 47 U.S.C. § 222.
(f) A custodian may disclose information in an account to a fiduciary of the user when the information is required to terminate an account used to access digital assets licensed to the user.
(g) A fiduciary of a user may request a custodian to terminate the user’s account. A request for termination must be in writing, in either physical or electronic form, and accompanied by:

(1) if the user is deceased, a copy of the death certificate of the user;
(2) a copy of the letters testamentary, letters of administration, court order, power of attorney, or trust giving the fiduciary authority over the account; and
(3) if requested by the custodian:

(A) a number, username, address, or other unique subscriber or account identifier assigned by the custodian to identify the user’s account;
(B) evidence linking the account to the user; or
(C) a finding by the court that the user had a specific account with the custodian, identifiable by the information specified in subparagraph (A).
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