The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 14 : Decedents Estates and Fiduciary Relations
Chapter 125 : Vermont Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act
(Cite as: 14 V.S.A. § 3552)-
§ 3552. Definitions
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Account” means an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which a custodian carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of the user or provides goods or services to the user.
(2) “Agent” means an attorney-in-fact granted authority under a durable or nondurable power of attorney.
(3) “Carries” means engages in the transmission of an electronic communication.
(4) “Catalogue of electronic communications” means information that identifies each person with whom a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication, and the electronic address of the person.
(5) “Content of an electronic communication” means information concerning the substance or meaning of a communication that:
(A) has been sent or received by a user;
(B) is in electronic storage by a custodian providing an electronic-communication service to the public or is carried or maintained by a custodian providing a remote-computing service to the public; and
(C) is not readily accessible to the public.
(6) “Court” means the Probate Division of the Superior Court of Vermont.
(7) “Custodian” means a person who carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of a user.
(8) “Designated recipient” means a person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer digital assets of the user.
(9) “Digital asset” means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. The term does not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.
(10) “Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(11) “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as in 18 U.S.C. § 2510(12).
(12) “Electronic-communication service” means a custodian who provides to a user the ability to send or receive an electronic communication.
(13) “Fiduciary” means an original, additional, or successor personal representative, guardian, agent, or trustee.
(14) “Guardian” means a person appointed by a court to manage the estate of a living individual. The term includes a limited guardian.
(15) “Information” means data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, databases, or the like.
(16) “Online tool” means an electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement between the custodian and user, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person.
(17) “Person” means an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity.
(18) “Person under guardianship” means an individual for whom a guardian has been appointed. The term includes an individual for whom an application for the appointment of a guardian is pending.
(19) “Personal representative” means an executor, administrator, or special administrator, or a person who performs substantially the same function as an executor, administrator, or special administrator under law of this State other than this chapter.
(20) “Power of attorney” means a record that grants an agent authority to act in the place of a principal.
(21) “Principal” means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney.
(22) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(23) “Remote-computing service” means a custodian who provides a user with computer-processing services or the storage of digital assets by means of an electronic communications system as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2510(14).
(24) “Terms-of-service agreement” means an agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian.
(25) “Trustee” means a fiduciary with legal title to property under an agreement or declaration that creates a beneficial interest in another. The term includes a successor trustee.
(26) “User” means a person who has an account with a custodian.
(27) “Will” includes a codicil, testamentary instrument that only appoints an executor, and an instrument that revokes or revises a testamentary instrument. (Added 2017, No. 13, § 1.)
