What happens to AWS accounts when the owner dies
Amazon Web Services, Inc. has a formal process for transferring accounts after an account holder dies
AWS Support
AWS Support (no dedicated estate or bereavement channel)
Closure confirmation arrives by email to the root user address within a few minutes, though AWS states closure may not occur immediately across all Regions and services and can take several hours. The post-closure period is 90 days, during which AWS states content and services are reachable only by reopening the account; the AWS Customer Agreement separately provides that for the 30 days following the Termination Date AWS will not remove Your Content as a result of the termination and will allow it to be retrieved if all amounts due are paid. To reopen, AWS Support must be contacted and AWS must receive full payment of any outstanding balance within 30 days from the closure date. After 90 days the account is permanently closed, the account ID is never reusable, and remaining content and resources are deleted (CloudTrail trails excepted). AWS publishes no timeline for estate access, because it has no deceased-owner process.
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. 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. A management account can only be closed after every member account in the organization is closed. 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 must be contacted through AWS Support and 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 controls the root user email and MFA, or whether the account sits inside an organization, AWS is case-by-case rather than a defined estate process.
How to request a transfer
To request a transfer of AWS accounts after an account holder's death, follow these steps:
- •Back up any resources or data to be kept — AWS deletes remaining content and resources after the 90-day post-closure period (CloudTrail trails are the documented exception).
- •Open the Account page, choose Close account, type the account ID to confirm, and choose Close account again.
- •Watch for the closure confirmation email, which AWS sends only to the root user email address within a few minutes.
Required Documents
- Control of the root user email address for a standalone AWS account (AWS documents closure only by the root user signing in to the AWS Management Console)
- Access to the MFA device or recovery method, if multi-factor authentication is enabled on the root user (AWS states MFA is not removed automatically when an account is closed)
- The AWS account ID (typed into the closure dialog to confirm)
- For a member account: access to the AWS Organizations management or delegated admin account (in All Features mode, no member root credentials are needed)
- AWS does not publish an estate document set (death certificate, letters testamentary, etc.), because it has no deceased-owner process; AWS Support will not close a standalone account on the estate's behalf
Timeline
Closure confirmation arrives by email to the root user address within a few minutes, though AWS states closure may not occur immediately across all Regions and services and can take several hours. The post-closure period is 90 days, during which AWS states content and services are reachable only by reopening the account; the AWS Customer Agreement separately provides that for the 30 days following the Termination Date AWS will not remove Your Content as a result of the termination and will allow it to be retrieved if all amounts due are paid. To reopen, AWS Support must be contacted and AWS must receive full payment of any outstanding balance within 30 days from the closure date. After 90 days the account is permanently closed, the account ID is never reusable, and remaining content and resources are deleted (CloudTrail trails excepted). AWS publishes no timeline for estate access, because it has no deceased-owner process.
Frequently asked questions
No. Unlike the consumer Amazon account, which has a formal Bereavement Support process, AWS publishes no deceased-owner or estate-access procedure. Closing a standalone AWS account requires signing in as the root user, and AWS Support will not close the account on the estate's behalf. This is the key difference between AWS and the rest of the Amazon ecosystem.
Only the root user. A standalone AWS account (one not part of AWS Organizations) can be closed only by signing in to the AWS Management Console as the root user, using the email address that created the account plus MFA if enabled. AWS states the Close account button is not displayed to anyone who is not the root user, and the task cannot be done as an IAM user or role or through the AWS CLI, the SDKs, or any API. Where no one controls the root user email address, AWS documents no path to close the account from outside.
AWS publishes no estate-transfer procedure. The only mechanism AWS documents is Section 11.1 of the AWS Customer Agreement, which provides that the agreement and the rights under it cannot be assigned or transferred "without our prior written consent," that a transfer in violation of that section is void, and that the agreement binds the parties and "their respective permitted successors and assigns." A request to assign the agreement to the estate or to a named successor is therefore a consent request AWS decides in its discretion, not a defined process.
Yes. If the account is a member account in an AWS Organizations organization running in All Features mode, an authorized IAM user or role in the management account or a delegated administrator account can close the member account centrally without the member account's root credentials. AWS states this option appears only in All Features mode; in Consolidated Billing mode the member account is closed by its own root user. AWS also limits closures to 20% or 250 member accounts (to a maximum of 1,000) within a rolling 30-day period.
Yes. Running infrastructure continues to incur charges until the account is closed. Compute instances, databases, storage, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and AWS Marketplace subscriptions keep billing. AWS states that Marketplace subscriptions are not automatically canceled by closing the account, and that invoices for Reserved Instances and Savings Plans continue after closure until they expire. A final AWS bill arrives the month after closure for usage incurred before it.
After closure there is a 90-day post-closure period during which the account can be reopened, and during which AWS states content and services are reachable only by reopening it. To reopen, AWS Support must be contacted and AWS must receive full payment of any outstanding balance within 30 days from the closure date. 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. AWS recommends backing up any resources or data to be kept before closing.
No. Amazon Bereavement Support handles the consumer Amazon account — Kindle, Prime, Amazon Photos, Alexa, gift card balances, and Amazon Pay. AWS signs in separately under its own root user and is not part of that process. AWS publishes no deceased-owner or estate-access procedure, and AWS Support will not close a standalone account on the estate's behalf. What happens to an AWS account after death depends on whether the estate controls the root user email address and MFA, or whether the account is a member account in an AWS Organizations organization in All Features mode.
For a domain registered with Amazon Route 53, AWS sends daily emails for up to five days after the account is closed before it suspends the domain. Once the domain is suspended, AWS deletes domains registered with Amazon Registrar after 30 days, and releases domains registered with Gandi to Gandi when the account becomes permanently closed. Identifying Route 53 registrations before closing the account is what keeps that clock from running unnoticed.
Once transferred, accounts are subject to the program's standard terms. Having the deceased account holder's details documented in advance makes the transfer process significantly easier for the family.
Sources
Data sourced from Amazon Web Services, Inc. primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
AWS Support
AWS Support (no dedicated estate or bereavement channel)
Closure confirmation arrives by email to the root user address within a few minutes, though AWS states closure may not occur immediately across all Regions and services and can take several hours. The post-closure period is 90 days, during which AWS states content and services are reachable only by reopening the account; the AWS Customer Agreement separately provides that for the 30 days following the Termination Date AWS will not remove Your Content as a result of the termination and will allow it to be retrieved if all amounts due are paid. To reopen, AWS Support must be contacted and AWS must receive full payment of any outstanding balance within 30 days from the closure date. After 90 days the account is permanently closed, the account ID is never reusable, and remaining content and resources are deleted (CloudTrail trails excepted). AWS publishes no timeline for estate access, because it has no deceased-owner process.
