Planning ahead for your GoDaddy accounts

Lifetime transfer options and steps to take now for GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC accounts

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GoDaddy Account Recovery (Estate Access)

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Verified Jul 2026

GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC has a transfer process for GoDaddy accounts after the account holder dies. Lifetime planning complements this by giving the account holder direct control over accounts while alive.

How to protect your GoDaddy accounts

Here are 8 steps to protect and manage your GoDaddy accounts while the account is active:

1
Enable auto-renew on every domain that matters, and attach a payment method that will persist beyond your lifetime. If a domain expires while the estate is gathering documents, the 72-day clock starts and can permanently consume the domain before access is granted. Consider a shared family credit card, business card, or prepaid card with a long expiration.
2
Document the GoDaddy account email and customer number in your digital asset inventory. GoDaddy provides an Estate Administrator review process an executor can use to gain access and manage or transfer the domains.
3
For high-value domains, consider transferring to a shared GoDaddy account owned jointly with a spouse or co-owner, or to a family member's account, while you are alive. Transfers between GoDaddy accounts are free and the recipient has 10 days to accept (https://www.godaddy.com/help/transfer-my-domain-to-another-godaddy-account-822). A 60-day transfer lock may apply after a Change of Registrant.
4
Set up Delegate Access for a trusted person. Delegates can manage domains and complete purchases without sharing a password, but cannot transfer the account to themselves. This gives an executor or spouse operational control without handing over full credentials.
5
Inventory which domains have real monetary value (short, memorable, or brand-matching names) and name them explicitly in your will or trust. Unlike game libraries or streaming content, domains are licensed property that can be sold, transferred, and appraised; an executor who does not know which are valuable may let them expire.
6
Understand that Domain Privacy does not block estate access. The estate process routes through GoDaddy's account recovery form, not through WHOIS lookup, so privacy redaction does not impede an administrator with the required documents. Domain Protection may add SMS or authenticator verification steps during transfers, so record the protection settings and backup codes.
7
Back up website files, databases, and email mailboxes on a regular schedule. Hosting products expire on their own renewal dates, and connected products do not transfer with a domain transfer, so a missed renewal after death can delete the website content even if the domain survives.
8
Maintain a list of every domain in the account with its renewal date so your executor knows which domains are next to expire and can prioritize renewals within the 72-day post-expiration window.

Family sharing

GoDaddy accounts are not transferable as a whole, but individual domains can be transferred between GoDaddy accounts at no cost. Process: open the Domain Portfolio, select the domain, choose "Transfer to another GoDaddy account," enter the recipient's email address (and optionally their customer number), decide whether to copy current contact information, and send the request. If Domain Protection is enabled, the sender completes identity verification via SMS code, authenticator app, or one-time password. The recipient must accept within 10 days or the transfer expires. Connected products (websites, email, hosting) do not transfer with the domain. Domains cannot be transferred if they are pending contact update approval, within one day of expiration, already expired, or already pending transfer; bundled free domains cannot transfer within 120 days of new registration. GoDaddy also offers Delegate Access, which lets an account owner share management rights without sharing a password or transferring ownership, and a formal Change of Registrant process governed by the ICANN Change of Registrant Agreement (typically followed by a 60-day transfer lock).

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).

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

There is no beneficiary designation option for GoDaddy. This account type does not support naming a recipient the way bank or investment accounts do.

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Sources

Data sourced from GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC primary sources (9 pages reviewed). How we research.