How to protect your AWS account while you are alive
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an AWS account. While the account holder is alive, Amazon Web Services allows transferring the account.
Amazon Web Services decides requests about an AWS 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 AWS account. While the account holder is alive, Amazon Web Services allows transferring the account.
How to protect your AWS accounts
Naming who acts after a death
- Designation
AWS offers no way to name someone to act on the account after a death. Alternate contacts (billing, operations, security) are a notification list and carry no authority to close, transfer or access the account.1
What Amazon Web Services, Inc.'s terms say about sharing and transfers3
- Pooling with family
AWS has no consumer family-sharing or pooling feature. Its organizational equivalent, AWS Organizations, combines several AWS accounts under a management account and optional delegated administrator accounts; a standalone account is acted on only by its own root user.2
- Workspace roles and admin access
In All Features mode, authorized IAM users or roles in the management or delegated admin account can close member accounts and update member account settings, including the root user email address, without the member account's root credentials.2
Centralized root access lets an organization remove member account root credentials, so those accounts cannot sign in as root or recover the root password unless account recovery is enabled; the management or delegated administrator account can run an "Allow password recovery" task.2
- Transferring the account or registration
The AWS Customer Agreement cannot be assigned or transferred, with any of the customer's rights and obligations under it, without AWS's prior written consent.3
Sources3
- 1.Close an AWS account
- 2.AWS account root user
- 3.AWS Customer Agreement, Last Updated: August 14, 2026
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 Web Services, Inc. primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
More from Amazon
Is this your situation?
Get a complete guide for your specific circumstances.
New Baby or Adoption
Your family is growing. Your protection should too. Guardian nominations, trusts for minors, beneficiary updates, and the documents new parents need in place.
Learn more
Marriage
What married couples need in place: one joint trust or two, wills, beneficiary updates, and the spousal rights your state grants you automatically.
Learn more
New Home
How to put your house in a revocable trust: the deed you record, what it does to your mortgage and property taxes, and when a TOD deed is simpler.
Learn more
Retirement
Retirement changes your financial picture. Healthcare directives, beneficiary reviews, long-term care planning, and protecting what you've built.
Learn moreForms for Planning Your Estate
Free forms for planning your estate: a will, living trust, pour-over will, both powers of attorney, living will, and TOD deed.
Revocable Living Trust
Create a revocable living trust to avoid probate, protect privacy, and control asset distribution.
Last Will and Testament
Name your heirs, guardians, and final wishes. Free for every state.
Codicil to a Will
Add, revoke or replace provisions of your will and republish the rest, signed as your state requires for a will.
Tools for Planning Your Estate
Free tools for planning your estate: what a will or trust costs, whether you need a trust or TOD deed, and how documents are signed.
How Much Does a Revocable Living Trust Cost?
Compare revocable living trust costs across providers including online services and attorneys.
How Does SimplyTrust Compare to LegalZoom, Trust & Will, and Other Services?
Compare what it costs to make a trust official across SimplyTrust, LegalZoom, Trust & Will, Rocket Lawyer, and Quicken WillMaker.
Do I Need a Revocable Trust?
Find out if a revocable trust makes sense based on your state, estate value, and family situation.
Trust or Will: Which Costs Less?
Compare the cost of probate vs a trust for your state and estate value.
How Much Is the Federal Gift Tax?
Whether a gift owes federal gift tax, how much of the annual exclusion and lifetime exemption it uses, and whether Form 709 is due.
What Does Estate Planning Actually Cost?
Compare costs across estate planning providers including online services and attorneys.
