How to protect your Amazon account while you are alive
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an Amazon account. While the account holder is alive, Amazon.com allows family pooling.
Amazon.com decides requests about an Amazon account after a death case by case, so nothing in its terms promises a survivor anything; what the account holder sets up in advance is what holds. There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an Amazon account. While the account holder is alive, Amazon.com allows family pooling.
How to protect your Amazon accounts
Naming who acts after a death
- Designation
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an Amazon account, and Amazon accounts are non-transferable.1
What Amazon.com, Inc.'s terms say about sharing and transfers6
- Family plans and household sharing
Amazon Family, called Amazon Household in the Conditions of Use, shares Prime benefits and digital content at the primary residential address with one other adult, up to four teens (added "before April 7, 2025, or after January 1, 2026, where available") and up to four children.1
Both adults can keep separate accounts; they share the primary residential address and agree to share payment methods for household verification. Prime Video Ad Free cannot be shared, and free-trial, Student and Young Adult (18-22) and Prime Video-only members cannot share Prime benefits.1
Amazon states that Prime benefit sharing through the Prime Invitee program "will end on 1 October 2025," and that former invitees move to Amazon Family or buy their own membership.2
- Pooling with family
Through Family Library, two linked adult accounts share eBooks, audiobooks, apps and games title by title from the Content page; the Amazon Family page lists eBooks, apps and games.3, 1
- Expiry and activity requirements
A member can leave and rejoin an Amazon Family anytime but must wait 12 months before joining a different Amazon Family, and child profiles inactive for more than 18 months are automatically removed.1
- Transferring the account or registration
Amazon accounts are non-transferable, and no portion of the Amazon.com Balance may be transferred to another Amazon.com account.1, 4
Echo and other Amazon devices can be factory-reset for a new owner, but Alexa routines do not transfer.5
- Exporting and backing up data
Amazon Photos gives Prime members unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5 GB of video storage, and other customers 5 GB; over the limit, existing items can still be viewed, downloaded and shared, but nothing new uploads.6, 7
- Authorized users and delegates
For incapacity rather than death, Amazon's Power of Attorney Support works by email from official certified documentation showing the requester is the authorized person, photo ID of the person named on the letter of authorization, and the account email.8
A mobile number, charge ID or order number substitutes for the account email when it is unknown, and Amazon deletes the power of attorney documents after validation.8
Sources8
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Sources
Data sourced from Amazon.com, Inc. primary sources (16 pages reviewed). How we research.
Amazon customer support
Amazon Customer Service
Website
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