Planning ahead for your Facebook accounts

Steps you can take now to control who receives Meta Platforms, Inc. accounts

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Request to Memorialize or Remove an Account

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Verified Jul 2026

Transfer of accounts after death is not guaranteed under Meta Platforms, Inc.'s terms. Lifetime planning offers a more reliable way to manage and share accounts while the account is active.

How to protect your Facebook accounts

Here are 9 steps to protect and manage your Facebook accounts while the account is active:

1
Designate a Legacy Contact now. In Accounts Center, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Accounts Center > Personal Details > Account ownership and control > Memorialization. This is the single most important step. Your Legacy Contact can manage your memorialized profile, write a pinned tribute post, and (if you grant permission) download a copy of your shared content.
2
Choose in advance whether you want your account memorialized or permanently deleted at death. The same Memorialization screen lets you select "Delete account after death." If you choose nothing, memorialization is the default.
3
Grant your Legacy Contact permission to download a copy of your shared content. This is an opt-in toggle when you designate the Legacy Contact. Without it, even the Legacy Contact cannot download your photos and posts.
4
Add at least one additional admin to any Facebook Business Page, Group, or ad account you manage. If you are the sole admin and die, access becomes extremely difficult for the estate to recover.
5
Keep your Meta Pay / Meta Credits balance low. Per the Meta Credits Terms, balances are forfeited on account deletion and have no estate recovery path.
6
For creator monetization (Facebook Stars, in-stream ads): confirm your payout method is linked to a bank account or PayPal that your executor can access. Payments above the payout threshold may continue processing automatically.
7
Document your Facebook account information (email on file, phone on file, profile URL) for your executor. The executor cannot log in, but needs to identify the account to submit the appropriate request.
8
For Instagram: note that Instagram has no Legacy Contact feature. Use Meta's "Download Your Information" tool periodically to export your data for your family.
9
For state-law purposes: many states have adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which allows the Legacy Contact designation to function as a "tool" that overrides a general consent clause in your will. Consult a licensed attorney if a will provision needs to match your Legacy Contact selection.

Family sharing

Facebook accounts are non-transferable. The primary pre-death planning tool is the Legacy Contact, designated in Accounts Center (Settings & Privacy > Settings > Accounts Center > Personal Details > Account ownership and control > Memorialization). The Legacy Contact is not a co-owner -- they cannot log in, read messages, remove friends, or delete past content. They can only perform limited management tasks on the memorialized profile. Facebook Business Pages can have multiple admins, which provides continuity for business assets. Ad accounts with prepaid balances have no formal estate recovery process.

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).

Frequently asked questions

A Legacy Contact is a person you choose to manage your account after it is memorialized. You must be 18 or older to designate one, and the contact must be 18 or older. They can write a pinned tribute post, update your profile and cover photos, respond to new friend requests, moderate tributes, and -- if you pre-authorized it -- download a copy of your shared content. They cannot log in, read messages, remove friends, or delete past posts. Designate one in Accounts Center under Personal Details > Account ownership and control > Memorialization.

No. The Meta Terms of Service require that users not "transfer your account to anyone else (without our permission)" and state "You will not transfer any of your rights or obligations under these Terms to anyone else without our consent." Accounts are personal, non-transferable licenses, not inheritable assets. The only post-death options are memorialization (with limited Legacy Contact management) or permanent removal.

Listing the Facebook account in an estate inventory identifies it for a fiduciary, who works through the operator's official channels to manage or close it.

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Sources

Data sourced from Meta Platforms, Inc. primary sources (17 pages reviewed). How we research.