Estate planning as a Substack account holder

Substack is a newsletter platform where writers earn recurring revenue from paid subscribers. A Substack publication holds the writer's posts, subscriber list, and paid subscriptions; Substack's terms state that the writer owns both the publications and the subscriber lists. Paid-subscription money does not sit with Substack: Substack is integrated with Stripe through Connect accounts, the writer is the merchant of record, and payouts go from the writer's own Stripe account to the writer's bank. A living writer can transfer a publication to a new owner through a self-service flow (Settings > Danger Zone > Transfer ownership). After death, Substack's published process is narrow: it can remove a deceased publisher's content (or delete a deceased reader's account), and it states it cannot grant account access, change banking information, grant Stripe access, refund subscribers, transfer ownership, make paid-only content free, or export publication account data.

After a Substack account holder dies, Substack Inc. may transfer accounts to a designated recipient, but this is handled case by case. The outcome depends on the documentation provided and is entirely at Substack Inc.'s discretion.

Substack supports transferring accounts to another person during the account holder's lifetime.

What happens at death

Substack publishes two deceased-user help articles. For a deceased writer, the article states: "We can only remove content of deceased publishers," and lists seven actions Substack cannot take on behalf of a deceased publisher: grant account access to a non-account holder, change banking information, grant Stripe access to a non-account holder, refund subscribers to the publication, transfer ownership of the account, make paid-only content free, or export publication account data. For a deceased reader, Substack can delete the account and cancel subscriptions, and cannot change reader profile information, allow account access, or change payment methods. A LIVING writer can transfer a publication through Settings > Danger Zone > Transfer ownership; after the transfer the new owner has "full administrative control over the publication, including access to settings, subscribers, and billing." That transfer is not available posthumously. The Terms of Use (effective April 21, 2025) contain no death, estate, or succession provision; they state: "You may not transfer your account to anyone else without our prior written permission," and "You may not assign, delegate or transfer these Terms or your rights or obligations hereunder, or your Substack account, in any way (by operation of law or otherwise) without our prior written consent." The same terms state that the writer's ownership covers "publications, subscriber lists, any other text or photos you upload." Paid subscriptions keep billing until subscribers cancel, billing is paused or turned off from the publication's Settings, or subscribers claim a refund under Substack's dormancy rule (no posts for at least 1 month from the payment date for monthly subscribers, or at least 6 months for yearly subscribers).

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