# Access to deceased relative's emails



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I run some email services for family members. Because I'm the administrator, I can reset passwords and get people into their accounts.

Recently, one of my relatives who used the family email passed away. All of this is outside Canada, both the death, and their closest family members.

This person was a relatively high profile artist who had significant productions, and was pretty important in their community. I can see from the administration console that there is several GB worth of email. Of course I have no idea what the contents are, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are things of business relevance, and much more likely: artistic importance. I don't want these things to be lost.

Any idea what my legal duties are? Moral duties? I have not touched the email, but I do have the ability to recover access for someone. I haven't received any directions or requests from anyone. I know the adult child of the deceased, and have spoken a bit with the child, but never got into this topic.

I want to do the right thing, but I also don't want the potentially important contents to be lost. Should I just wait and see if anyone contacts me? Or should I reach out to the child of the deceased?


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Sticky topic. Not sure what the best advice would be other than to have users give an indication of whether they would like to grant access to executors etc when they die.

For the current situation, maybe you should ask the executor of the estate.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

andrewf said:


> For the current situation, maybe you should ask the executor of the estate.


This ^^


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Thanks andrewf and cainvest. I will find out who the executor is, and contact them.

Do most European-like countries use the same "executor" system we have? I will have to first figure out who this executor is.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

I agree with contacting the executor. You will certainly have to be careful regarding the legal repercussions if you give anyone access. I would have thought that as the administrator, there would have been provision made for this in an agreement. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ema...rome..69i57.7126j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

im curious ......is the use of "family email services" , overseen by an "administrator", such as j4b describes, very widespread?


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Have never heard of it but then I've never been interested in operating my own domain, never mind one for extended family members. Too much potential liability in my opinion.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

jargey3000 said:


> im curious ......is the use of "family email services" , overseen by an "administrator", such as j4b describes, very widespread?


No, not very widespread but I know a few people that still do it. It's not very complicated to setup, any Linux box will do it.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

james4beach said:


> I run some email services for family members. Because I'm the administrator, I can reset passwords and get people into their accounts.
> 
> Recently, one of my relatives who used the family email passed away. All of this is outside Canada, both the death, and their closest family members.
> 
> ...




interesting case which is right-on-the-money in today's e-world

IP experts have been advising that persons should draw wills naming both a regular executor plus an e-executor.

many parties nowadays have e-property that is valuable. I can think of a few cmffers who own e-property that definitely has value.

a regular executor will not know how to gather, inventory or dispose of such property. Only an IP or e-executor will have this expertise.

it sounds like jas4's relative should have named an IP executor. It sounds like there is no executor who has the ability to gather, inventory, evaluate & dispose of what may possibly be e-property in this estate.

the takeaway is that all persons drawing up a will should consider if their estate includes e-property or not. If it includes valuable e-property - ie a business, art properties such as photographs, videos, other works of art, literature or music, or a website that generates revenue - such a testator should look into finding an e-executor as well as a regular executor.

much easier said than done, i am sure!


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

james4beach said:


> Thanks andrewf and cainvest. I will find out who the executor is, and contact them.
> 
> Do most European-like countries use the same "executor" system we have? I will have to first figure out who this executor is.



executor will be named in the will

if you didn't know the deceased well enough to be able to ask around in the family who is the executor & obtain a correct response, then it might be a good idea to let this whole matter go

but in general i think the idea of considering carefully if one's estate includes valuable e-property or not - then naming an IP executor or e-executor in the will if it does - is an excellent exercise.

SIL attended a workshop on e-executoring. Ironically enough it was a physical go-to workshop where live human participants assembled together for one day at an IP centre in montreal.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Thanks these are extremely helpful replies. I will be wary of liability and be cautious going forward. It seems clear I should only engage with the executor on this matter, and I'll also keep documentation of my communications so there are no misunderstandings later.

Google used to offer a service where you could take some domain you own (yourfamilyname.com) and turn it into a gmail service with a full gmail interface. I have one of these because I started using it back when it was free. That's how multiple people got accounts. This particular person (who passed away) was actually the main user of the service other than myself.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

james4beach said:


> Thanks these are extremely helpful replies. I will be wary of liability and be cautious going forward. It seems clear I should only engage with the executor on this matter, and I'll also keep documentation of my communications so there are no misunderstandings later.



it's an unusual situation but one that's sure to become more commonplace, hence the interest in the topic

i think what i would do is respect existing common law precedent. i'd think it would be OK to ask the surviving chlld for the name of the executor named in the will. But i'd deliver access to the e-account only to the executor.

poor executor! if he's not computer savvy but he's mindful of his duties & responsibilities, it will likely be his sad task to view & evaluate each & every item in the cache


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

We had a similar but not quite same situation with the servers and sites that we used to host. One of our clients passed away suddenly and a family member contacted us for the information for the business login. We asked for the executor's paper work.


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