What happens to a Substack account when someone dies

“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.”¹

Substack lists expected support response times of within 24 hours, including weekends and holidays, for paid creators; free publications, subscribers and general inquiries are prioritized based on urgency.²

The Terms of Use state that the writer owns what they create, including publications, subscriber lists and any other text or photos uploaded.¹

The license the writer grants Substack is royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable and worldwide, and the terms state that it is a license only and does not affect the writer's ownership of posts.¹

The self-service ownership transfer needs both the writer and the recipient to confirm it, and Substack cannot transfer ownership of a deceased publisher's account.^{3, 4}

For a deceased publisher, Substack cannot transfer ownership of the account or make paid-only content free.⁴

For a deceased publisher, Substack cannot grant account access or Stripe access to a non-account holder.⁴

Substack cannot export publication account data for a deceased publisher.⁴

For a deceased publisher, Substack cannot change banking information or refund subscribers to the publication.⁴

Substack is integrated with Stripe through Connect accounts, and individual publishers are the merchant of record responsible for refunds and chargebacks.⁶

Under the Publisher Agreement, the payment processor pays Substack's revenue share and the remaining amount, after the processor's fees, is retained by the writer.⁷

Payout account details are managed directly in Stripe, not in Substack, and web-subscription payments usually reach the writer's bank within 48 hours of each transaction.⁸

For subscriptions bought in the iOS app, Apple pays Substack up to 45 days after the end of the month, and Substack deposits the earnings into the writer's Stripe account or, in select countries, directly into the writer's bank account.⁹

In those select countries, a held in-app balance under $100.00 USD is released on reaching $100, or early for a Stripe fee.⁹

For a deceased reader, Substack can delete the account and cancel subscriptions; it cannot change reader profile information, allow account access or change payment methods.⁵

Substack honors a subscriber's refund request when the publication is dormant: no posts for at least 1 month from the payment date for monthly subscribers, or at least 6 months for yearly subscribers.¹⁰

Substack also refunds a request made within 7 days of payment, unless a subscriber perk was claimed or the publisher marked the subscription non-refundable; later requests are left to the publisher.¹⁰

Pausing billing from Settings > Payments freezes billing cycles without notifying subscribers. Apple-managed subscriptions cannot be paused.^{11, 9}

Turning off paid subscriptions from Settings > Danger Zone > Disconnect Stripe refunds and notifies all paid subscribers and needs enough balance in the Stripe account to cover those refunds.¹²

Pausing and turning off billing are Settings actions, and an Admin has full access to the publication and Settings.¹³

Apple manages subscriptions bought in the iOS app, and readers cancel them or request refunds directly on the App Store.⁹

The writer's payout account, subscription revenue, refunds and chargebacks^{6, 8}