Estate planning as a AWS account holder

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon's cloud infrastructure platform. An AWS account can hold compute instances, databases, object storage, snapshots, domain registrations, and recurring service charges, all controlled by the account root user (the email address used to create the account) plus any IAM users and roles created under it. AWS shares Amazon's ownership and brand color but signs in separately from the consumer Amazon account and is not covered by Amazon Bereavement Support. The estate-relevant facts are that only the root user can close a standalone account, AWS publishes no deceased-owner process, the AWS Customer Agreement cannot be assigned or transferred without AWS's prior written consent, and running infrastructure keeps billing until the account is closed.

After a AWS account holder dies, Amazon Web Services, Inc. may transfer accounts to a designated recipient, but this is handled case by case. The outcome depends on the documentation provided and is entirely at Amazon Web Services, Inc.'s discretion.

AWS supports transferring accounts to another person during the account holder's lifetime.

What happens at death

AWS publishes no bereavement or deceased-owner procedure, which is the key difference from the consumer Amazon account (Amazon runs a formal Bereavement Support process; AWS has none). Closing a standalone AWS account (one that is not part of AWS Organizations) requires signing in to the AWS Management Console as the root user; the account cannot be closed while signed in as an IAM user or role, the "Close account" button is not displayed to anyone who is not the root user, and the task is not supported through the AWS CLI, the SDKs, or any API. The same is true of a management account, and AWS states a management account can be closed only once every member account in the organization shows as closed. AWS Support will not close a standalone account on the estate's behalf. If the account is a member account in an AWS Organizations organization running in All Features mode, authorized IAM users or roles in the management account or a delegated administrator account can close the member account centrally, without the member account's root credentials; in Consolidated Billing mode the Close button does not appear and the member account is closed by its own root user. Alternate contacts (billing, operations, security) are a notification list — AWS describes them as allowing AWS "to contact up to three alternate contacts associated with the account," and they carry no authority to close, transfer, or access it. AWS also states that closing an account "will serve as your notice of termination of the AWS Customer Agreement for this account," which is what puts the estate in the agreement's post-termination provisions. On ownership, the AWS Customer Agreement 11.1 provides that "you will not assign or otherwise transfer this Agreement or any of your rights and obligations under this Agreement, without our prior written consent," that any transfer in violation of that section "will be void," and that the agreement "will be binding upon, and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective permitted successors and assigns" — so a transfer of account ownership to an estate or successor is consent-gated by AWS rather than a published estate path. Running infrastructure continues to incur charges until the account is closed. After closure there is a 90-day post-closure period during which the account can be reopened (charges for remaining services restart on reopen); to reopen, AWS Support must be contacted as soon as possible and AWS must receive full payment of any outstanding balance within 30 days from the date of account closure. After the 90-day period the account is permanently closed, the account ID can never be reused, and AWS deletes the remaining content and resources in the account (CloudTrail trails are the documented exception). Because the practical outcome depends on whether the estate lawfully controls the root user email address and MFA, or whether the account sits inside an organization, AWS is case-by-case rather than a defined estate process.