Estate planning as a Amazon Seller account holder

Amazon Seller Central is the account a business or individual uses to sell products on the Amazon marketplace. Sales accumulate in the seller account and Amazon settles the balance to a registered bank account roughly every two weeks. The estate-relevant assets are the unpaid disbursement balance (money Amazon owes the seller), any FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) inventory stored in Amazon fulfillment centers, and the account's sales and customer records. Amazon treats seller accounts as non-transferable, so the estate cannot inherit the account itself; the practical task is recovering the balance and inventory and closing the account. This is distinct from the deceased's consumer Amazon account (Kindle, Prime, Photos, Alexa) — for that, see the [Amazon estate guide](/digital-assets/amazon/).

Amazon.com Services LLC reviews transfer requests for Amazon Seller balance on a case-by-case basis after the account holder's death. Approval is at the company's sole discretion, and documentation requirements must be met before any transfer is considered.

What happens at death

Amazon does not publish a self-service deceased-seller transfer procedure, and it treats seller accounts as non-transferable: if the ownership of a selling business changes for any reason, the new owner must establish a new seller account rather than take over the deceased's account. There is no beneficiary designation. The estate-relevant assets are real money and goods, however — the unpaid disbursement balance Amazon owes the seller for settled sales, plus any FBA inventory stored in Amazon's fulfillment centers — so this is a recoverable asset, not a forfeited one. Amazon handles deceased-account situations individually through its Bereavement Support channel, which takes requests by email at bereavement-support-cs@amazon.com; Amazon publishes no seller-specific bereavement channel. Amazon states it can share account details or take most account actions only when the request comes from the authorized estate manager, and that without full authorization documents it can still terminate subscriptions, stop recurring deliveries, and deactivate the account. Because the balance and inventory are recoverable but only through Amazon's individual review (with no published timeline or fixed document list), and because the account itself cannot be inherited, the policy is classified as case-by-case. Closing the account generally requires a zero balance and a valid payment method on file, so any final balance is disbursed through the next settlement cycle before closure.