The executor's digital-accounts checklist
If you are settling someone's affairs, their online accounts are part of the work. This checklist puts the steps in a sensible order. Take it at your own pace. Very little here is urgent except charges to a card.
1. Gather the documents
- Several copies of the death certificate. Some platforms ask for one each.
- Your proof of authority, if you have it: Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the court. Some platforms will not close an account without them.
- Your own photo ID.
- A link to the online obituary, if there is one. Several platforms accept it for memorial requests.
2. Stop what is charging
- Read the last two or three card and bank statements. Every recurring charge is an account.
- For an urgent charge, the card issuer can usually stop the card while the accounts are sorted out.
3. Make a list of accounts
- Email addresses and phone numbers the person used. Platforms find accounts by these.
- Paper statements, receipts and letters in the mail.
- Apps on their phone, if the family has the phone. Look; do not sign in.
- Anything they wrote down for you.
4. Decide before you request
- What the family wants to keep: photos, documents, messages. Closing usually deletes them.
- For each social account: memorialize or close.
- Gift card or store balances that could be used first.
5. Do not sign in as them
- Do not sign in with their password, even if you know it, and do not change it. Platforms can lock the account, and the official request becomes harder. Every major platform has a process for families that does not need it.
6. Send the requests, one platform at a time
- Use each platform's own process. Our guides cover Facebook, Google and Gmail, Instagram, LinkedIn and Amazon.
- Note the date you sent each one and what you sent.
- Expect waits of a week to several weeks. If nothing arrives, ask again.
7. Keep the record
- Keep each platform's reply. The estate may need to show what was closed and when.
Accounts this list does not cover
Bank, investment, retirement, insurance and government accounts have their own processes, usually through the institution and the estate attorney. They are outside this checklist and outside our services.
If you would rather hand it over
We do steps 3, 4 and 6 with you and for you. We check the person's identifiers against the platforms people actually use, submit each request through the platform's official process, and track every reply. We never ask for a password. When the last platform has replied, you receive one closure report covering every platform we checked, including where no account was found.
Standard Closure is $300. Custom Closure, which adds the accounts you name, is $400. The fee is agreed before we begin. We do not give legal advice; for questions about your authority as executor, an estate attorney is the right person.