Broad Coverage Across Estate Planning Documents
One of RUFADAA's strengths is its reach. The law does not just apply to documents created after it was enacted. It covers fiduciaries acting under wills, powers of attorney, trusts, and conservatorship orders regardless of when those documents were signed or when those proceedings began.
This chapter applies to all of the following: 1. A fiduciary acting under a will or power of attorney executed before, on or after August 6, 2016. 2. A personal representative acting for a decedent who died before, on or after August 6, 2016. 3. A conservatorship proceeding commenced before, on or after August 6, 2016. 4. A trustee acting under a trust created before, on or after August 6, 2016.
A.R.S. § 14-13103(A)This means that even if your trust was created years ago, a successor trustee can use RUFADAA to request access to your digital accounts from service providers. The same applies to a personal representative administering an estate under a will that was signed decades before RUFADAA existed.
Geographic and Employer Exceptions
RUFADAA applies when the account holder (called the "user" in the statute) lives in Arizona or lived in Arizona at the time of death. This geographic connection ensures that Arizona residents and their families have a clear legal framework for digital asset management, even if the service provider is located in another state.
This chapter does not apply to a digital asset of an employer used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business.
A.R.S. § 14-13103(C)There is one notable exception: employer-owned digital assets used by an employee in the ordinary course of business are excluded. A work email account or company-managed software account is controlled by the employer, not by the employee's estate. This distinction keeps RUFADAA focused on personal digital assets while respecting the separate legal relationship between employers and employees.
