When the Person Who Built the Memorial Dies: Who Inherits an Online Memorial Page
The short answer: nobody inherits an online memorial page automatically. The page belongs to an account, the account belongs to the person who opened it, and most platforms treat accounts as personal and non-transferable. What happens next depends on three things — whose card was paying, whether anyone else was already an administrator, and what the platform agrees to do when you write to them. In most cases a family member can take it over. It just does not happen by itself.
This comes up more often than people expect. A memorial page is usually built by one person — often a spouse, or the sibling who is good with computers — and a memorial for a grandparent is meant to last decades. Sooner or later the person who built it is the one who is gone.
What actually happens to the page
When the creator dies, the page does not know. Nothing changes on the day. The changes come later, and quietly:
| If the page was… | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| On a free plan | It stays up, but nobody can edit it, answer comments, or remove anything posted on it |
| On a monthly or yearly subscription | The card stops being charged when the bank account is closed. The page drops to whatever the platform does with lapsed accounts — sometimes a free tier, sometimes hidden, sometimes deleted after a notice period |
| A one-time "lifetime" purchase | Usually the safest. It stays up, but still locked to one login |
| A Facebook memorial profile | Managed by a legacy contact if one was chosen. If none was, nobody can manage it at all |
The subscription row is the one that catches families out. The renewal notice goes to an inbox nobody is reading, the payment fails, and the first anyone knows is a relative saying the link no longer works. Read the platform's terms for "lapsed", "expired" or "inactive" accounts now, not after.
Who has the right to it
There is no legal priority list for memorial pages the way there is for funeral decisions (who legally decides the funeral covers that order). Two separate things are going on:
- The content — the photos, the written tributes, the life story — is personal property. Whatever the creator wrote themselves passes through their estate like anything else. In practice nobody argues about this unless the family is already arguing.
- The account is governed by the platform's terms of service, not by the will. Most terms say an account cannot be transferred. Most support teams will still help a family member with a death certificate, because refusing helps nobody.
So the honest answer to "who inherits it" is: whoever the platform agrees to hand it to. Usually that is the spouse, an adult child, or the executor, and usually the platform asks for proof of death and proof of relationship.
Do not log in with their password. It is tempting if you know it, and for a few days it may be the only way to reply to people. But logging in as someone who has died breaks most platforms' terms, can lock the account when the platform notices a new device, and in some places touches computer-access law. Use it, if at all, to download a copy — then go through support.
If it has already happened
1. Save everything first. Before you write to anyone, go through the page and save what is on it: photos at full size, the written tributes, the comments people left. Screenshots are fine for comments. If something goes wrong in the next step, this is what you rebuild from.
2. Do not start a second page yet. A duplicate splits the family's attention and the comments. Old links in obituaries, funeral programs and group chats still point at the original, and search engines keep sending people there. Taking the original over is almost always better than starting again.
3. Write to the platform's support team. Say plainly that the person who created the memorial has died, give the page link, and ask for one of three things: ownership transferred to you, you added as an administrator, or the page frozen as it is. Attach the death certificate or a funeral notice and something showing your relationship. Keep the email short; support staff handle these every week.
4. Sort out the payment. If the page was on a subscription, ask what happens when it lapses and whether you can take over the billing. If the family has a choice, a one-time plan removes the problem for good.
5. Tell the others who now looks after it. One message to the people who visit it most — "Mum's page is now looked after by me, write to me if something needs changing" — prevents a year of confusion.
If you built a memorial and want to plan ahead
This is the part almost nobody does, and it takes about ten minutes.
Add a second administrator, if your platform allows it. Many dedicated memorial sites let the creator add co-administrators. Choose someone a generation younger than you if you can — a memorial for your parent will need looking after when you are no longer here to do it.
Write it down where your family will look. A line in your will or in a letter left with it: which platform, the page link, the email address the account uses, and who you want to look after it. Digital legacy after death covers the same idea for email, photos and social accounts, and it is worth doing all of them in one sitting.
Keep a copy outside the platform. A folder with the photos and the text, on a drive or in family cloud storage. Pages outlive companies more often than not, but not always. How to keep an online memorial permanent goes through the belt-and-suspenders version.
Do not leave it on a card that dies with you. If the memorial is on a subscription, either move it to a one-time plan or tell someone which card it is on.
On Facebook
A Facebook profile becomes a memorialized account once Facebook is told the person has died. If the owner chose a legacy contact in their settings, that person can pin a post to the top of the profile, change the profile and cover photos, accept friend requests, and ask for the account to be removed. They cannot log in as the person or read their messages.
If no legacy contact was chosen, nobody can manage the profile at all, and the only option left is to request removal. That is one of the reasons many families keep a separate page. Online memorial vs a Facebook memorial compares the two properly.
If you use Facebook, choose your own legacy contact today. It is under Settings → Accounts Center → Personal details → Account ownership and control → Memorialization.
On GetMemorial
Since this is our site, it would be odd not to say how it works here.
Each memorial on GetMemorial belongs to one account, the one that created it. There is no co-administrator feature yet, so the planning step above — writing down which account the memorial lives on — matters more with us, not less.
If a subscription lapses, the memorial is not deleted: it moves back to the free plan and stays online. A lifetime memorial does not expire.
If the person who built a memorial on GetMemorial has died and you need to look after it, write to support@getmemorial.com with the memorial's link and tell us what happened. We would rather hear from you than have a page nobody can reach.
FAQ
Can I inherit someone's online memorial page? Not automatically. The account belongs to the person who created it. In practice most platforms will transfer it or add you as an administrator if you contact support with proof of death and your relationship.
What happens to a memorial page when the subscription stops being paid? It depends on the platform. Some drop it to a free tier and keep it online, some hide it, some delete it after a notice period. Check the terms for "lapsed" or "expired" accounts before it happens.
Is it legal to log in to a dead person's account to manage their memorial? It breaks most platforms' terms of service and can get the account locked. Go through the platform's support team instead.
Should I make a new memorial page instead? Usually not. Existing links in obituaries and messages point to the original, and people's comments live there. Take over the original if you can.
How do I make sure my memorial page outlives me? Add a second administrator if the platform allows it, write the platform and account email down with your will, keep a copy of the content elsewhere, and avoid leaving it on a subscription tied to your card.
GetMemorial helps families build beautiful, lasting online memorials in minutes — a permanent home for tributes, photos, and stories, meant to be looked after long after the first year. Start their online memorial page today.
