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 selling account and Amazon settles the balance to a registered bank account roughly every two weeks, after withholding an account-level reserve. The estate-relevant assets are the undisbursed balance, any inventory stored in Amazon fulfillment centers under Fulfillment by Amazon, and the account's sales and transaction records. The Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement bars the seller from assigning it by operation of law without Amazon's prior written consent, so the estate's task is recovering the balance and the inventory and closing the account rather than inheriting it. 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 publishes no deceased-seller procedure. The governing Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement addresses the question only through its assignment bar: the seller may not assign the Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without Amazon's prior written consent, and any attempt to assign or transfer in violation of that section is void. Transfer on death is a transfer by operation of law, so the account is not something an heir simply takes over, and there is no beneficiary designation. The estate-relevant assets are real money and goods, though — the undisbursed balance Amazon holds for settled sales, and any inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers — so this is a recoverable asset rather than 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, and that page names no seller process. 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 assist with terminating subscriptions, stopping recurring deliveries, and deactivating the account. Because the balance and the inventory are recoverable but only through Amazon's individual review, with no published deceased-seller timeline or document list, the policy is classified case-by-case. Closure itself is constrained by published rules: Amazon states accounts cannot be closed within 90 days of the last sale, the balance must be zero before the account can be closed, an FBA seller must submit a request to return or dispose of all inventory before closing, and Amazon cannot reactivate or reinstate a closed account.