Email Accounts

Providing an email or webmail address seems to be necessary for everything and the vast majority of people have at least one of these accounts.

• An Email account is a software application you install onto your computer to manage, send, and receive mail. Although Email interacts with a remote server that transfers correspondence, the messages are stored on your computer. Email services include GMX Mail, Mailfence, ProtonMail, Trustify, and Zoho.
• A Webmail account is a form of email, but you can only access and manage it from the internet. Webmail exists primarily on the cloud, you manage it from your internet browser, and no messages are stored on your computer. Webmail providers include AOL, Gmail, iCloud Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail.
• In a practical sense there is no difference between them and the term Email will be used for the rest of the section.

Email is used for everything from personal communications, business, notifications from multiple sources, access to multimedia, and billing. After a loved one’s death, email can be used to gather important information about them that can help you manage their affairs.

Once you have acquired all relevant information, you will need to discontinue their individual accounts so others will not be able to access it.

Although it’s almost always in the Terms of Service of every email platform to never share email account information with anyone, hopefully your loved one shared it with at least one friend or family member so this information is available to manage and delete their email account after they die. It could have been given before your loved one’s death or included in a digital estate plan that is only available after their death. 

When you know your loved one’s password and username or email you must login to their account to begin the process.

If they didn’t want to share their user or account name and password and you weren’t able to access the account, you will need to go through the necessary channels to close an account. Some companies like Google and Microsoft outline their policies well. Apple’s iCloud is known to be difficult for grieving families to gain access.

Before you delete any email service, make sure you have looked through their emails for necessary information on all the accounts that notified your loved one by email. 

• Although you may come across something upsetting, you don’t want to miss important messages about their finances and/or estate that may have otherwise come after the account was closed.
• If you don’t have the email, password, or credentials to access the account, this will take communicating with the platform and providing proof of your identity and your loved one’s death.
• In some cases you may need a court order to do so.

There are details for the commonly used email servers.