[WSBAPT] Criminal to Wipe out Accounts?

[Neli Espe, J.D. - Olympic Legal]

Hello,

Arguably, yes. I found this article helpful and have copied the relevant passage below:

Federal law is outdated and thus provides little guidance on planning for digital assets. The two federal laws governing digital assets are the Stored Communications Act (SCA) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), both passed in 1986. In fact, federal law may add constraints to planning because it allows access to on-line accounts or computers only with specific user authorization and makes intentional unauthorized access, including exceeding authorized access, a criminal offense. For example, under federal law it is unclear whether a fiduciary would be prosecuted if access to a password was directly (and voluntarily) obtained from an account holder and the fiduciary used the password to access the on-line account.

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/probate_property_magazine_2012/2015/january_february_2015/2015_aba_rpte_pp_v29_1_article_klein_parthemer_planning_for_digital_legacy.html


Neli

__________________________________________________________________________
Neli Espe | Olympic Legal Services, P.S. | Your Skagit Valley Business and Estate Counsel
General Counsel * Real Property * Estate Planning * Probate
tel: 360.630.3635 | web: www.olympiclegal.com<http://www.olympiclegal.com> | neli at olympiclegal.com<mailto:neli at olympiclegal.com>

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On Feb 9, 2016, at 11:58 AM, Paul Neumiller <pneumiller at hotmail.com<mailto:pneumiller at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Man dies and his leaves everything to girlfriend of many years and she is the nominated PR.  He owned a house (passing via transfer on death deed) with mortgage to BECU, savings and checking accounts with BECU of about $6k, and a credit card debt of $9k to BECU.   I remember learning on this Listserv that BECU has aggressively offset bank accounts for credit card debt.  The girlfriend (who has  his login information and passwords) asks if she can legally zero out the savings and bank accounts before BECU offsets the accounts for the credit card debt.  She is not listed on the accounts.  She inherits everything anyway but most likely will not probate his Will in light of the few assets and in light of BECU probably going to offset the checking and savings accounts anyway.  (Let’s not address the moral issue of if she should zero out the accounts.)

I’m not sure it passes the smell test and it may be bank fraud to use the decedent’s passwords to wipe out the accounts.  On the other hand, while BECU has the power to probate his Will as a creditor, it seems unlikely that they would do it for $9k in credit card debt.  Does she has the right to wipe out the accounts because she inherits everything under the Will?  Does she have a duty to creditors even if she doesn’t probate his Will?
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