Do I need a will if I have a trust?

Yes. Even with a living trust, you need a pour-over will to capture any assets that weren't transferred into your trust during your lifetime. Without one, those assets pass through Oregon's intestacy laws rather than according to your wishes.

What is the difference between a will and a living trust?

A will takes effect at death and must go through probate before assets are distributed. A living trust takes effect immediately, avoids probate, and allows for faster, private transfer of assets to your beneficiaries. Trusts also provide better protection for blended families and beneficiaries who are minors or have special needs.

How much does estate planning cost in Oregon?

Track Town Law offers flat-fee estate planning services in Oregon and Idaho. Fees vary based on the complexity of your plan — whether you need a simple will package, a full revocable living trust plan, or a more complex plan involving Medicaid planning or special needs considerations. Consultations are free.

Do I need an LLC for my small business in Oregon?

Most small business owners in Oregon benefit from forming an LLC. It separates your personal assets from business liabilities, can provide tax flexibility, and signals credibility to clients and vendors. The key is not just forming the LLC but setting it up correctly with an operating agreement, a dedicated bank account, and an EIN.

What does Medicaid planning involve?

Medicaid planning involves structuring your assets and income to qualify for Oregon Medicaid long-term care benefits while protecting as much of your estate as possible. This may involve Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, spousal protection strategies, and coordinating with VA benefits if applicable. Planning works best when started at least five years before care is needed.

Can I work with Track Town Law if I don't live in Eugene?

Yes. Track Town Law is a fully virtual firm serving clients throughout Oregon and Idaho. All meetings are conducted by video or phone, and documents are signed electronically. You never need to come to an office.

What is Oregon's estate tax threshold?

Oregon imposes its own estate tax with a threshold of $1 million — significantly lower than the federal exemption of $15 million. This means many Oregon families who wouldn't owe federal estate tax may still owe Oregon estate tax. Proper planning with trusts and other strategies can reduce or eliminate this exposure.

How do I get started with Track Town Law?

Start with a free consultation. You can book online at tracktownlaw.com/book-now. Consultations are conducted by video or phone and typically last 30 to 45 minutes. There is no obligation and no charge for the initial meeting.

Digital Assets in Oregon Estate Planning: What Happens to Your Accounts When You Die?

Jun 28

Written By Jared Hight

Most Oregon estate plans address the house, the bank accounts, and the retirement funds. Almost none of them address the email inbox, the streaming subscriptions, the cloud storage full of family photos, or the cryptocurrency sitting in an exchange. Here's why that gap matters — and what to do about it.

When someone dies today, they leave behind more than a physical estate. They leave a digital one — an email account, a social media profile, cloud storage full of irreplaceable photos, streaming subscriptions quietly billing a credit card, an Amazon account with saved payment methods, and possibly financial accounts that exist entirely online. None of these appear on a traditional estate inventory. Most families don't know they exist until they're trying to cancel them, access them, or figure out who owns them.

Oregon recognized this problem before most states did. In 2016, Oregon became the first state in the country to adopt the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which took effect January 1, 2017. The law gives personal representatives, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney legal authority to manage a deceased person's digital assets — but only when the estate plan explicitly addresses it. Without that language, your fiduciary may have no legal standing to access your accounts, even with a death certificate and a probate order in hand.

Here's what digital estate planning actually involves — and what Oregon residents should do now.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

Under Oregon's RUFADAA (ORS Chapter 119), a digital asset is any electronic record in which you have a right or interest. That's a deliberately broad definition. It includes:

Email accounts and the contents of electronic communications
Social media profiles — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Cloud storage — Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox — including photos, documents, and files
Online financial accounts — PayPal, Venmo, investment platforms
Cryptocurrency and digital wallets
Domain names and websites
Online businesses, storefronts, and monetized content
Streaming subscriptions and digital media libraries
Loyalty points, airline miles, and reward balances

Some of these have real financial value. Others have sentimental value that can't be replaced. And some — like recurring subscriptions — have a cost your family will keep paying until someone cancels them.

The Problem Oregon's RUFADAA Solves — and Doesn't

Before RUFADAA, Oregon personal representatives frequently ran into a wall when trying to access a deceased person's online accounts. Platform terms of service treated accounts as non-transferable and personal. Providers demanded court orders before disclosing anything. Families waited weeks or months for access to accounts that contained everything from financial records to the last photos of someone they loved.

RUFADAA established a hierarchy that gives fiduciaries a legal path to access. Under RUFADAA, the highest priority goes to online tools provided by the platform itself — like Google's Inactive Account Manager or Facebook's Legacy Contact designation. These override all other instructions, including the platform's own terms of service. If no online tool is in place, the law looks to the estate plan — a will, trust, or power of attorney that explicitly grants the fiduciary access to digital assets. If neither exists, the platform's terms of service control — and those terms frequently restrict or deny access entirely.

The practical takeaway for Oregon residents: RUFADAA gives your fiduciary legal authority, but only if you've taken steps to grant it — either through the platform's own tools or through explicit language in your estate planning documents. A will, trust, or power of attorney that explicitly mentions digital accounts is a much faster path than showing up at customer support with just a death certificate.

The Subscription Problem Nobody Thinks About

Beyond account access, there's a quieter problem: recurring subscriptions that keep billing after death.

Most households carry more subscriptions than they realize — streaming services, cloud storage, software licenses, news outlets, fitness apps, password managers. Each one is tied to a payment method. Unless someone knows to cancel them, they'll continue charging the estate's credit card or bank account for months.

This is where the absence of a digital inventory creates real financial waste. A family that doesn't know what subscriptions exist can't cancel them. And if the primary payment method isn't immediately identified and frozen, the charges accumulate invisibly while everything else about the estate is being sorted out.

What Oregon Residents Should Do Now

Digital estate planning doesn't require a separate document or a complicated process. It integrates into the estate planning you should already be doing. Here's what it involves:

Create an inventory of your digital accounts. A simple written list is enough: which services you use, where you have accounts, which ones carry financial value, and which are paid subscriptions. This doesn't need to be elaborate — it needs to exist. Store it somewhere your personal representative can find it, whether that's a physical document with your other estate planning papers or a secure digital file with access instructions clearly documented.

Use the legacy tools major platforms provide. Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you designate trusted contacts who can access your data — emails, Drive files, photos, YouTube content — after a defined period of inactivity, or have your account deleted automatically. Apple's Legacy Contact, available through your Apple ID settings, allows designated contacts to access iCloud data after your death using a special access key and death certificate. Meta allows you to designate a legacy contact for Facebook and Instagram. These tools take minutes to set up and override platform terms of service under RUFADAA.

Store passwords securely with access instructions. The most useful thing you can do for your personal representative is give them a way to access your accounts. A password manager with the master password stored securely — in a sealed envelope with your estate documents, in a safe deposit box, or with your attorney — is the most practical approach. Some password managers offer emergency access features that allow a designated person to request access if you become incapacitated or die.

Include digital asset language in your estate planning documents. Under Oregon's RUFADAA, your will, revocable living trust, and durable power of attorney should include explicit language authorizing your personal representative, trustee, or agent to access, manage, and close your digital accounts. Without this language, your fiduciary may lack legal authority to act even if they know the accounts exist. A simple addition — authorizing the named fiduciary to access, manage, and if appropriate cancel or delete digital accounts and online services — is often enough.

Update the inventory regularly. A digital account list created in 2020 is already incomplete. New accounts accumulate. Old ones get forgotten. Review your inventory the same way you'd review your beneficiary designations — annually, and after any major life change.

A Note on Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency deserves special mention because it operates differently from every other digital asset. Crypto held in an exchange — Coinbase, Kraken, or a similar platform — can often be accessed by a fiduciary through the same process as other online financial accounts, with appropriate documentation.

Crypto held in a self-custodied wallet is different. The wallet is only accessible with the private key or seed phrase. If that information isn't documented somewhere your personal representative can find it, the cryptocurrency is permanently inaccessible — not locked, just gone. No court order, death certificate, or attorney letter will retrieve it. If you hold cryptocurrency in a self-custodied wallet, documenting the access information in a secure location with your estate papers isn't optional.

How This Fits Into Your Estate Plan

Digital assets are an estate planning issue, not just a technology issue. Under Oregon's RUFADAA, your estate plan is the primary mechanism for giving your fiduciary legal authority to act. A well-drafted will or revocable living trust that addresses digital assets explicitly — and a personal representative who knows where to find the inventory and access information — is what makes the difference between a family that can settle a digital estate efficiently and one that spends months trying to prove they have the right to access accounts they didn't know existed.

As covered in the revocable living trust post, the goal of a good Oregon estate plan is to make things as simple as possible for the people who have to carry it out. Digital assets are now part of what that requires.

To help you get started, I've put together a free Digital Estate Inventory you can download, fill out, and store with your estate planning documents. It covers email accounts, social media profiles, financial accounts, cryptocurrency, subscriptions, and more.

At Track Town Law, I offer flat-fee estate planning that addresses digital assets as part of a complete Oregon estate plan. Schedule a free consultation here.

This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Digital asset laws and platform policies change frequently. Contact a licensed Oregon estate planning attorney to discuss your situation.