if you know someone has died irl. what happens to their account?

[Yumikun]

I know someone who has died, and has many accounts and buisness connections on the game. What happens to his account and the risk of his family being billed? do you report the death to linden labs?

[Peewee Musytari]

Some people have prior arrangements with LL, where they leave their account & buisness`s to another person & in the event of their death this is actioned when the death certificate is sent in to LL.

If there is nothing set up with LL the account cannot be taken over by someone else, though I am sure that there are probably instances where that has happened without LL`s knowledge,  but when LL are given a death certificate the account in question is deleted. If no one notifies LL and the account fails to pay something like a premium membership or tier fee as a result  of the family closing the bank accounts, the account would be suspended for failure to pay.

If its a basic account & no one ever tells LL, it probably just sits there forever.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

If the accounts were basic (no charge) then they will just exist since there is no associated billing.  If he had premium accounts or land/sim tiers being charged to a credit card, then the family will need to cancel those credit cards which will then default on payment.  This would be true with any Internet fee based service like a website or email that does automatic billing. 

--Cinn

[Rolig Loon]

I don't know how significant it is, but there's a small trickle of L$ from the accounts of deceased (or otherwise departed) residents who have had group liabilities.  I can think of several people who have died over the past 4 years that I have been in SL but whose accounts are still active. If they died with L$ in their accounts, they are probably paying out a few L$ every billing period to some of the groups that they belong to.   :smileyindifferent: