What Will Happen To My Facebook Account When I Die?

What is a Legacy Contact?

If you are thinking about and trying to plan ahead (where your social media is concerned) for when you’re no longer here, you can appoint a friend or family member to look after your Facebook account. You can choose to either appoint a legacy contact to look after your memorialised account or have your account permanently deleted from Facebook.

This person is your legacy contact, and they’ll be allowed to have limited access to your account after your death.

Firstly, someone will have to submit proof of your death to Facebook. To do this, they fill out a memorialisation form, and include an obituary.

Once a request has been processed, the account will be memorialised, and the legacy contact is allowed access.

A memorialised account is marked by the word “Remembering” over the person’s name. Accounts without a legacy contact can’t be modified.

It’s important to note that a family member (anyone with authority over your estate, not just the legacy contact) can also request the account’s deletion, rather than memorialisation.

According to Facebook Support, you must submit a scan of the death certificate, or, if you don’t have it, an obituary and proof of authority — meaning your loved one’s last will and testament or power of attorney.

What Can A Legacy Contact Do With My Account?

• Write a pinned post for your profile (example: to share a final message on your behalf or provide information about a memorial service).
• View posts, even if you had set your privacy to ‘Only Me’.
• Decide who can see and who can post tributes, if the memorialised account has an area for tributes.
• Delete tribute posts.
• Change who can see posts that you’re tagged in.
• Remove tags of you that someone else has posted.
• Respond to new friend requests (example: old friends or family members who weren’t yet on Facebook).
• Update your profile picture and cover photo.
• Request the removal of your account.
• Turn off the requirement to review posts and tags before they appear in the tributes section, if you had timeline review turned on.
• Download a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook (if you have this feature turned on).

Facebook have said they “may add more capabilities for legacy contacts in the future.”

A Legacy Contact Cannot:

• Log into your account.
• Read your messages.
• Remove any of your friends or make new friend requests.

Learn more about memorialisation and how to add a legacy contact to your account.

If you’re a legacy contact, learn how to manage a memorialised profile.

(Note: You must be 18 or older to select a legacy contact.)

How do I set up a Legacy Contact?

To designate a legacy contact, follow these steps:

• Go to your “Settings”.
• Under the “general” tab, you’ll find an option “Manage account.” This is where you can also deactivate your account while you’re still alive, as well.
• From this page, you can select which of your friends (and you must be Facebook friends with them) you want to be your ‘legacy contact’.
• Once you choose a friend, Facebook sends the friend an email explaining that you’ve selected them and what this means.

If you don’t want your profile to be memorialised, you can also request that your account be deleted once proof of your death is submitted. This option is also available on the Manage account page.

Mark Tucker, the founder of MT Legal Services has nearly 40 years of experience in matters regarding Wills and Probate. As a member of the Institute of Professional Will Writers, you can be sure that you’re in good hands when you employ MT Legal Services. 

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