Closing Online Accounts After Death: A Step-by-Step Guide

Closing online accounts after death is one of the quietest, most frustrating parts of settling an estate. There is no single office to call and no universal form. Every platform has its own process, its own paperwork, and its own idea of who counts as the right person to ask.

This guide is for survivors -- the spouse, adult child, sibling, or executor who is now holding a phone full of notifications from accounts they cannot access. If you are here to prepare your own digital affairs in advance, read our companion guide to cremation estate planning instead. What follows assumes the death has already happened.

One note before you start: this is general information, not legal advice. Platform policies change often, and state law varies. Confirm current steps in each company's own help center, and talk to a probate attorney if the estate is complex.

Step One: Build an Account Inventory, Starting With Email

Before you contact anyone, make a list. You cannot close what you do not know exists, and most families badly underestimate how many accounts a single person accumulates.

Start with email, because email is the master key. Almost every other account uses an email address for password resets, billing receipts, and two-factor codes. Whoever controls the email inbox can see the shape of the entire digital life behind it.

Good places to find accounts:

• The inbox itself -- search for "receipt," "welcome," "your subscription," "renewal," and "verify your email"
• Bank and credit card statements for the last 12 months, which reveal recurring charges the family never knew about
• The phone's home screen and app store purchase history
• A password manager, if one was used -- this is often the single most valuable find
• Browser saved-password lists and bookmarks on their computer
• Physical mail for services that still send paper notices

Write each account into a simple spreadsheet with four columns: platform, username or email, what you want to happen (close, memorialize, transfer, download first), and status. That last column matters, because several of these requests take weeks and you will lose track otherwise.

The Documents Platforms Typically Ask For

Nearly every company asks for the same core set of proof. Gather these once and you can reuse them across dozens of requests.

• A certified copy of the death certificate. Not a photocopy, not a scan of a photocopy in most cases. Order more copies than you think you need -- our death certificates guide explains how many and where to get them.
• Your own government-issued photo ID, usually scanned front and back.
• Proof of your authority, such as letters testamentary, letters of administration, a small-estate affidavit, or a court order naming you executor or personal representative.
• Proof of relationship if you are next of kin rather than a court-appointed executor -- a marriage certificate, birth certificate, or the obituary naming you.
• Account details: the exact email address or username, and sometimes a billing record or the last four digits of a card on file.

Some platforms accept a next-of-kin relationship for simple actions like memorializing or closing an account, but require a court order before releasing any actual content. That distinction shows up over and over, and it is worth understanding early so you are not surprised.

Do Not Simply Log In With Their Saved Password

This is the single most common mistake, and it is understandable. The laptop is right there, the password is saved, and it feels far easier than mailing paperwork to a company that may never answer.

Do it anyway at your peril. Logging in as the deceased typically violates the platform's terms of service, which almost universally prohibit account sharing and impersonation. Beyond terms of service, unauthorized access to a computer system can implicate federal and state computer-access laws, and those statutes were not written with grieving families in mind.

There is also a practical estate reason. An executor has fiduciary duties, and quietly accessing accounts outside the proper channel can undermine your position if another heir later disputes what happened to assets, photos, or messages. Documented, official requests create a paper trail that protects you.

If you have already logged in once to stop a charge or retrieve something urgent, do not panic. Stop, write down what you did and why, and switch to the formal process going forward.

RUFADAA: The Legal Framework Behind Executor Access

Most states have adopted some version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, usually shortened to RUFADAA. It exists precisely because families kept hitting walls at tech companies with no legal standing to push back.

RUFADAA sets a rough order of priority:

1. The platform's own online tool wins first. If the person set up a Google Inactive Account Manager plan, an Apple Legacy Contact, or a Facebook legacy contact, that choice controls.
2. A will, trust, or power of attorney comes next, if it explicitly grants access to digital assets.
3. The platform's terms of service apply if neither of the above exists.

The law also distinguishes between the catalog of communications -- who was emailed and when -- and the content of those communications. Executors can generally get the catalog more easily; content usually requires explicit consent from the deceased or a court order. You can read background on the uniform act at the Uniform Law Commission. Because adoption and wording differ by state, check your own state's version before making assumptions.

Cancel Subscriptions and Recurring Charges First

Everything else can wait a few weeks. Recurring charges cannot, because they keep draining the estate every month while you work through paperwork.

Scan 12 months of bank and card statements and flag anything that repeats. The usual suspects:

• Streaming video and music services
• Cloud storage and photo backup plans
• App Store and Google Play subscriptions, which are often buried and easy to miss
• Software and productivity tools billed annually
• Dating apps, which quietly auto-renew and are frequently overlooked
• Gym memberships, meal kits, and box subscriptions
• Domain names, web hosting, and email hosting
• Antivirus, VPN, and identity monitoring services

For each one, call or email the company, say the account holder has died, and ask for cancellation effective immediately. Many will process a cancellation with far less documentation than a full account closure requires, and some will refund a recent charge. Ask -- the worst answer is no.

If a charge will not stop and the company is unresponsive, contact the card issuer or bank. Notifying the bank of the death usually stops future charges on that card anyway, though be careful about closing a card that is paying for something the family still needs, like a phone line.

Download and Preserve Photos, Videos, and Messages First

Once an account is closed, the content inside it is usually gone permanently. There is no undo, and support agents cannot retrieve it. Preserve before you close.

Priorities worth grabbing:

• Photo and video libraries in cloud storage
• Documents, tax records, and financial statements stored online
• Email archives, which often contain the only record of accounts and obligations
• Voice recordings, voicemails, and video messages -- families consistently say these matter most
• Social media posts and photo albums, which many platforms let you export as a single archive

Several major services offer a bulk data export. If you have legitimate access through a legacy contact tool or a court order, run the export before submitting a closure request. Save everything to at least two places -- an external drive and a family cloud account, for instance.

This is also where you may find material for the funeral or memorial. If you are writing a tribute, our guide on how to write an obituary pairs well with the photos you are about to recover.

Platform-by-Platform Guide to Closing Online Accounts After Death

Each major platform handles this differently. Below is the general shape of what each one allows. Because these processes are revised regularly, look up the current steps in the company's own help center rather than relying on any article's screenshots or form links -- including this one.

Google

Google's Inactive Account Manager is a tool the user sets up while alive, telling Google what to do after a set period of inactivity and who may be notified. If it was configured, that plan governs. If not, Google offers a request process for close relatives and representatives to close the account or, in narrower cases, obtain content. Expect a review, and expect content requests to face a higher bar than closure requests.

Apple

Apple's Legacy Contact feature, part of its Digital Legacy program, lets a user designate someone who receives an access key. With that key plus a death certificate, the legacy contact can access much of the account data. Without a legacy contact, Apple generally requires a court order to access data, though account deletion follows a separate request path.

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook offers two outcomes: memorialization, which preserves the profile with "Remembering" beside the name and freezes it from logins, or permanent deletion. A legacy contact designated in advance can manage a memorialized profile in limited ways -- pinning a post, updating the profile photo, responding to friend requests -- but cannot read private messages. Instagram, also owned by Meta, offers memorialization or removal through a similar request flow, and generally asks for proof of death such as a death certificate or obituary link.

LinkedIn, X, Microsoft, Amazon, and PayPal

LinkedIn allows either a memorialized profile or full closure, and asks for basic proof plus your relationship. X provides a process for an authorized person to deactivate an account, but does not grant account access. Microsoft can close an account, with content release tightly restricted. Amazon closure also cancels Prime and other subscriptions -- worth doing early. PayPal, because it holds money, is closer to a bank: expect executor documentation and expect any balance to be handled as an estate asset.

Cryptocurrency, 2FA, and Assets That Can Vanish Permanently

This is the category where delay causes irreversible loss, so handle it early.

Cryptocurrency held in a self-custody wallet has no customer service department. If the seed phrase or private key is not found, the asset is unrecoverable -- no court order, no death certificate, no amount of paperwork will bring it back. Search for a written seed phrase, a metal backup plate, or a hardware wallet among their papers and safe deposit box contents. Crypto held on an exchange, by contrast, works more like a brokerage account and has a formal estate process.

Two-factor authentication creates a related trap. If codes go to a phone or an authenticator app on a specific device, do not wipe, reset, or cancel that phone line until you have finished everything that depends on it. Keep the device charged and the SIM active while you work.

Other items in this category:

• Loyalty points and airline miles, which some programs transfer to heirs and others simply void
• Domain names, which expire on a fixed date regardless of the circumstances
• Business, advertising, or seller accounts producing income
• Paid app licenses and digital media libraries, most of which are non-transferable licenses rather than owned property

Practical Order of Operations

If you want a single sequence to follow, use this one, alongside the broader what to do when someone dies checklist:

1. Secure the phone, computer, and any hardware wallets, and keep the phone line active
2. Order certified death certificates -- more than you think you need
3. Build the account inventory, email first
4. Cancel recurring subscriptions to stop the bleeding
5. Download and back up photos, videos, and documents
6. Memorialize social profiles the family wants preserved
7. Close or delete remaining accounts one at a time, tracking status
8. Notify credit bureaus and monitor for identity theft

Take your time with the memorialization decisions. Families often disagree, and a deleted profile cannot be restored -- when in doubt, memorialize now and delete later.

Helpful Resources

Authoritative starting points for survivors handling an estate:

• USA.gov: What to do after someone dies
• FTC consumer guidance on identity theft and scams
• Social Security Administration: reporting a death
• Uniform Law Commission: fiduciary access to digital assets

Related guides on this site:

• compare local cremation providers
• cremation estate planning
• what to do when someone dies checklist
• death certificates guide
• how to write an obituary

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the deceased person's saved password to close their accounts?

You should not. Logging in as someone else violates nearly every platform's terms of service and can raise issues under computer-access laws. It can also weaken your position as executor if heirs later dispute what happened to the account. Use each platform's official process for survivors instead, even though it takes longer.

Should I memorialize or delete a Facebook account?

Memorialization preserves the profile as a place for friends to post memories and prevents anyone from logging in, which reduces hacking risk. Deletion removes everything permanently. Because deletion cannot be reversed, most families memorialize first and revisit the decision after a year. If a legacy contact was designated in advance, that person can manage the memorialized profile.

What happens to a deceased person's email account?

Most providers will close the account on request from a close relative or executor with a death certificate and proof of authority. Getting the contents is harder and often requires a court order, unless the person set up a tool like Google's Inactive Account Manager in advance. Handle email early, since it controls password resets for everything else.

How do I cancel subscriptions after death?

Pull 12 months of bank and card statements, list every recurring charge, and contact each company directly to report the death and cancel. Many will cancel with less documentation than a full account closure requires. If a charge persists, ask the card issuer or bank to block it. Notifying the bank of the death generally stops future charges.

Do I need a court order to access digital accounts?

Sometimes. Under most states' version of RUFADAA, a platform's own legacy tool takes priority, followed by explicit language in a will or trust. Without either, companies often release only limited information without a court order -- especially the contents of messages. Requirements vary by state and by platform, so check both.

What if I cannot find the password to a crypto wallet?

If it is a self-custody wallet and the seed phrase or private key cannot be found, the funds are almost certainly unrecoverable. Search papers, safes, safe deposit boxes, and for hardware wallet devices or metal backup plates. If the crypto was held on an exchange, contact that exchange -- it has an estate process similar to a brokerage account.