What happens to Ko-fi account when the owner dies
Ko-fi Labs Limited has a formal process for transferring account after an account holder dies
Ko-fi Help Center (support hub)
Ko-fi Support (no dedicated estate team published; submit a request through the support hub)
Ko-fi publishes no timeline for a deceased creator's account, because it publishes no estate process; requests are handled case by case through the support hub. For the money, the relevant timelines belong to the payment processors: funds paid to the creator's PayPal or Stripe account follow those providers' own hold and payout schedules and their own deceased-account procedures.
Ko-fi's Terms of Service (last updated February 2026) do not address death, estates, inheritance, account transfer, or assignment, and Ko-fi publishes no deceased-user or estate process, so handling a deceased creator's account is a discretionary support matter decided case by case. The load-bearing structural fact is that Ko-fi holds no money: the Terms state Ko-fi is "not a marketplace, a payment agent or intermediary, financial institution, merchant, creditor, charity, advisor, or broker" and does "not process or hold payments," and that "Payments are made directly from Supporters to Creators externally to Ko-fi using a third-party payment provider (e.g. PayPal, Inc., and Stripe, Inc.)." Ko-fi's help center says the same in plainer terms: creators are paid directly into their PayPal or Stripe account and never hold a balance on Ko-fi. So a deceased creator's funds are addressed through PayPal's and Stripe's own deceased-account procedures and through the estate's bank account, not through Ko-fi. What Ko-fi holds is the account: the page, posts, messages, supporter list, and transaction history. None of that is documented as transferable, and Ko-fi's help center states that deleting a creator account permanently removes the transaction history, posts, supporter list, and all other account information, cancels active subscriptions to that page, and cannot be undone. Two recurring-payment traps matter to an executor: fans keep being charged on active memberships until those memberships stop, and the creator's own paid Ko-fi subscription keeps charging as well — the Terms state that "Merely deleting your Account without cancelling your subscription will not stop these payments," so the subscription has to be cancelled in its own right.
How to request a transfer
To request a transfer of Ko-fi account after an account holder's death, follow these steps:
- •PayPal — see the separate PayPal estate guide for PayPal's deceased-account process
- •Stripe — funds sit in the creator's Stripe account or have already paid out to the linked bank account; handle the bank account through the estate and Stripe through its own support
- •The linked bank account — recent and ongoing Ko-fi income lands there, so the estate's bank records are the clearest picture of what is still arriving
- •A copy of the death certificate
- •Documentation of your authority over the estate (for example, Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
- •The creator's Ko-fi page name and the email address on the account
Required Documents
- Copy of the death certificate
- Documentation of your authority over the estate (for example, Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
- The creator's Ko-fi page name and the email address on the account
- Estate handling of the connected PayPal and/or Stripe account, where the funds actually reside
Timeline
Ko-fi publishes no timeline for a deceased creator's account, because it publishes no estate process; requests are handled case by case through the support hub. For the money, the relevant timelines belong to the payment processors: funds paid to the creator's PayPal or Stripe account follow those providers' own hold and payout schedules and their own deceased-account procedures.
Frequently asked questions
No. Ko-fi's Terms of Service state that Ko-fi is not a payment provider and does "not process or hold payments," and that "Payments are made directly from Supporters to Creators externally to Ko-fi using a third-party payment provider (e.g. PayPal, Inc., and Stripe, Inc.)." Ko-fi's help center puts it the same way: creators are paid directly into their own PayPal or Stripe account and never hold a balance on Ko-fi. So a deceased creator's money is claimed through PayPal's and Stripe's deceased-account procedures and through the estate's bank account, not from Ko-fi.
No published one. Ko-fi's Terms of Service do not mention death, estates, inheritance, transfer, or assignment, and Ko-fi operates no deceased-user channel. Requests are handled case by case through the general support hub at help.ko-fi.com. Because there is no form to follow, a written request that states who died, who you are, and exactly what you are asking for — with a death certificate and your Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration enclosed — is the practical starting point.
Ko-fi documents no way to transfer a creator account to another person or to an estate. The Terms of Service say nothing about transfer or assignment, and there is no family-sharing or beneficiary feature. The page, posts, supporter list, and transaction history are tied to the account. An executor can report the death and ask Ko-fi what it will do; anything Ko-fi grants is at its discretion.
Supporters keep being charged on a recurring basis until the memberships stop. Ko-fi's help center states that deleting a creator account cancels active subscriptions to that page. Until that happens, membership income continues to arrive in the connected PayPal or Stripe account, so the estate's bank records are the clearest way to see what is still coming in. An executor has to decide whether to wind the memberships down gracefully or end them at once.
No, and this catches estates out. Ko-fi's Terms state that "Merely deleting your Account without cancelling your subscription will not stop these payments." The creator's own paid Ko-fi subscription has to be cancelled in its own right, separately from any account deletion, or the recurring charge continues against the payment method on file.
Everything on it. Ko-fi's help center states that deleting a creator account permanently removes the transaction history, posts, supporter list, and all other account information, and that a deleted account cannot be recovered. Because the transaction history is the estate's record of what the creator earned and from whom, ask Ko-fi to preserve the account and provide the records first, and treat closure as the last step.
After the transfer is complete, the recipient can use the account according to the program's standard terms. Document the deceased account holder's details to make this process easier for your executor or family.
Sources
Data sourced from Ko-fi Labs Limited primary sources (6 pages reviewed). How we research.
Ko-fi Help Center (support hub)
Ko-fi Support (no dedicated estate team published; submit a request through the support hub)
Ko-fi publishes no timeline for a deceased creator's account, because it publishes no estate process; requests are handled case by case through the support hub. For the money, the relevant timelines belong to the payment processors: funds paid to the creator's PayPal or Stripe account follow those providers' own hold and payout schedules and their own deceased-account procedures.
