What happens to AWS accounts when the owner dies

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 lawfully controls the root user email address, AWS documents no path to close the account from outside. AWS Customer Agreement 2.4 also states that AWS log-in credentials and private keys "are for your internal use only and you will not sell, transfer or sublicense them to any other entity or person," so a stored password is not the route.

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, and can also update the member root email address. 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. An alternate contact on the account, by contrast, is only a notification address and carries no authority to close or access it.

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, and the AWS Customer Agreement states the customer remains responsible for all fees and charges incurred through the termination date.

After closure there is a 90-day post-closure period during which the account can be reopened, and during which AWS states content and AWS services are reachable only by reopening it. 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 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, and states that closing the account serves as notice of termination of the AWS Customer Agreement for it.

No. Amazon Bereavement Support handles the consumer Amazon account — Kindle, Prime, Amazon Photos, Alexa, gift card balances, and Amazon Pay — and runs through Amazon's bereavement email intake. 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 lawfully 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. There is a trap AWS documents specifically: if the root user email address itself uses a domain registered through Route 53 in that same account, closing the account suspends the domain and breaks email delivery to the root address — "Without email, you cannot recover the account, and without the account, you cannot reinstate the domain." Identifying Route 53 registrations before closing is what keeps that clock from running unnoticed.