IMPROVING ACCESS TO DIGITAL ASSETS AFTER DEATH OR INCAPACITY Frequently Asked Questions

How would new legislation address the problem we’re trying to solve? ALRI proposes adopting new legislation in Alberta based on the Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act which was developed by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada to address the access problem created by restrictive service agreements. [...] Once a fiduciary has provided the necessary documentation to the custodian as required by the new legislation, the custodian must provide access to the digital asset within 30 days (if the custodian is located within Canada) or 60 days (if the custodian is located outside Canada). [...] The new legislation would also confirm that any term in a service agreement that limits a fiduciary’s access to the digital asset is void and unenforceable unless the account holder expressly and separately agrees to that term after the legislation comes into effect. [...] For the proposed legislation to apply to a digital asset, the custodian must be identifiable and compellable – in other words, there must be a specific person or entity who may be ordered by a court to provide a fiduciary with access to the digital asset. [...] A fiduciary cannot use the proposed legislation to get access to non-custodial digital assets if the account holder did not make plans to transfer the access information to them in some other way.