Where the in-product designation is enforceable.

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) is the model law that governs whether a person’s designation of who can access their digital accounts after death is enforceable in court. Most US states have adopted some version of it. Where they have, an in-product designation made through a service’s own “online tool” is given the highest tier of legal weight (often called “tier-1 enforceability”) — higher than a will, higher than a power of attorney. The TellSophie designated-guardian flow is structured to qualify as a tier-1 online tool wherever a state recognizes the form.

A designated guardian is the person you name, in the product, to receive a final export and to carry the recordings if you die or become unable to act before your child is old enough to receive them. The point of publishing this page before launch is to be precise about what that button can and cannot do in court. We will not claim “legally binding under your state’s law” for a state until a written opinion for that state is in hand.

Status: every row in the table below is opinion pending. No per-state finding has been published yet. A 50-state plus District of Columbia legal opinion is planned before the iOS app launches in Phase 2. Rows will change from “Opinion pending” to a dated finding as each opinion completes. Until then, treat the table as a map of work remaining, not as advice.

Regardless of per-state enforceability under RUFADAA, our Terms of Service create a contractual right that approximates the same outcome in states where the in-product designation is not directly enforceable. The contractual fallback is not a substitute for the statutory tier-1 status, but it is a real obligation we accept and that a court can enforce against us. The fallback covers our duty to honor the named person for export and continuity; it cannot rewrite a state statute that has not adopted the online-tool tier.

If you have questions about your state, email privacy@tellsophie.com. We will not give you legal advice. We will tell you whether an opinion for your state exists, and we will point you at the Terms language that applies in the meantime.

State table

Columns: the jurisdiction, whether a RUFADAA opinion is in hand, whether we currently treat the in-product designation as a statutory online tool there, and a short note. “Pending legal opinion” means we have not published a finding — not that the statute is silent, and not that the designation is unenforceable.