What happens to your Facebook, Instagram and other accounts when you die
1 August 2026 · Inherit Vault
Nothing happens to a social media account when someone dies, not automatically. The account sits exactly as it was left, sometimes for years, unless a specific person takes a specific action the platform requires, and every platform's process is different.
Facebook and Instagram
Meta offers "memorialisation": the account stays visible with "Remembering" added to the name, existing posts remain, but nobody can log in unless a "legacy contact" was set in advance. Without one nominated beforehand, family members can only request memorialisation or removal, not access, even with a death certificate.
An "Inactive Account Manager" lets someone nominate a trusted contact in advance to receive access, or specific data, after a set period of inactivity. Without it set up beforehand, a family must apply directly to Google with legal documentation, a slower, uncertain process with no guarantee of full access.
Apple
Apple's "Legacy Contact" (set up in Settings before death) can access photos, messages, and files with a death certificate and an access key generated in advance. Without a Legacy Contact, Apple has historically required a court order to release any account data, no exceptions for close family.
The pattern
Every platform's fast, simple path requires setup while the account holder is alive: naming a legacy contact, an inactive account manager, a nominated trustee. Every platform's fallback path, for families who didn't know to do that in advance, is slow, document-heavy, and sometimes simply refuses to hand over content at all, on privacy grounds that don't bend for grief.
What this means practically
The useful thing to leave isn't your passwords, sharing login credentials usually breaches a platform's terms of service and can put whoever uses them on uncertain legal ground. What actually helps is a list: which accounts exist, whether a legacy contact is set, and what you'd want done, deleted, memorialised, or downloaded. That's a map, not a set of keys, and it's exactly the kind of thing that belongs in a vault built for after you're gone rather than a sticky note nobody finds in time.
Sorting this out for someone else? Make sure your family never has to.
Most of the time goes on finding out what the person had and who to call. Inherit Vault keeps that list for you: your accounts, pensions and policies, and where your will is kept. Only you can read it. Your executor gets it when it is needed.
Read more
- Joint bank accounts and death: what actually happens (UK)
- How to find and claim a deceased person’s bank accounts (UK)
- What to sort out with your bank accounts before you die (UK)
- TOD and POD accounts: the simplest way to avoid probate in the US
- What happens to a bank account when someone dies (US guide)