If your business is on Facebook, you may wonder what happens to your business Facebook page when you die. To ensure someone you choose can take it over, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got your legacy contact set up for your personal page and another administrator set up for your business Facebook page.
Legacy Contacts
Legacy contacts allow people with personal Facebook accounts to designate someone they choose to manage their account after they pass away. But Facebook also offers business fan pages. So what happens to those pages if you pass away? You probably don’t want your business page to expire with you.
Let’s start with the basics. How did you initially set up your account? In all likelihood, you simply connected your business fan page to your personal page. Facebook has a strong preference for connecting business pages to personal pages, even though the two appear as separate on Facebook. But if you don’t have a personal account, Facebook allows you to create a free standing business page (although not optimal due to limitation discussed below).
Personal Facebook accounts holders can decide how they want their pages to be handled when they die from among three options: memorialized accounts, adding legacy contacts, and account deletion. Memorialized accounts place the word “remembering” next to the person’s name on their profile page. This allows friends and family to continue to share memories, and the page remains visible to its audience.
A memorialized account may be used alone or may be combined with a legacy contact. The legacy contact must be named by the account holder before death. The account holder sets the legacy contact’s authority, including things such as dealing with and making posts, reading messages, and responding to friend requests. The third option is account deletion. Again, this option must be chosen by the account holder prior to death.
Business Facebook Page Setup
If you also set up a business/fan page from your personal account, then you can and should designate another account administrator. This administrator should have the same rights as you to the business/fan page so that it can be continued. They would sign in through their Facebook account to manage it allowing it to continue after your passing. Be careful, however, to only add people you trust as admins. Admins can remove any other admin, even you as the owner of the page.
Let’s say, on the other hand, that you didn’t have a personal Facebook account, and instead created a freestanding business page. In this case, you were prompted to choose additional account administrators who would also have rights to handle that account. However, most people do not use freestanding business pages for two big reasons. First, Facebook does not allow someone with a personal account to create a freestanding business account. And second, freestanding business accounts are much more limited in their customizability of pages.
Even if you have dealt with your personal estate planning, it’s critical – if you are a business owner – to also make plans for your business.
Facebook is just one of the many things to plan for. If you have not considered comprehensive business succession planning, contact us, we can help.
Continuing to serve your customers could make or break your company’s goodwill with your customer base. On the other hand, notifying them properly in the event of your death can help customers move on smoothly. It could also mean the difference between continued income or a huge liability for your loved ones. Now that you know what happens to your business Facebook page after you die, be sure you take the necessary steps!
Let Bridge Law LLP Help You Prepare Your Business In The Event of Your Death
This article is a service of Bridge Law LLP. We are an award-winning law firm that specializes in business and estate planning for clients like you. The goal for every family is to stay educated, avoid probate, avoid estate taxes, and build a legacy for you and your loved ones. What sets our firm apart is that we build lasting, lifelong relationships with our clients. They rely on us to keep them updated and provide sound legal counsel. Lastly, we are there for them immediately if any problems should ever arise. Not to mention, we don’t charge hourly fees to our families. You will never have to worry about speaking to us. If you’re ready to keep your family out of Court, contact us today to schedule an initial consultation.