Adsense +Death?

i'm terrible when it comes to reading the terms and conditions of stuff, so i was hoping someone else might know the answer to this.

what happens to my adsense account if i get hit by a car tomorrow and die? do i need to leave it to someone in my will or will google just keep all the money? i know this is a random question , but some people have a lot of $ coming in through adsense. i know i'd like my account to go to family if something like that happened.... not to google.

That's a matter of civil law unless otherwise stated in the TOS. Naturally, this is an inheritable asset so it can be passed according to your will. However, inheriting is a sensible matter of law and there might be many traps and interpretation visions.

Any law school graduate here?

Do you have a will?

Any money owed to you will end up belonging to your estate unless you have named a specific beneficiary. Your estate will be liquidated under the terms of your will. If you don't have a will, it's likely that some judge somewhere will determine the estate's fate.

as long as the judge doesn't give the earnings all to google that would be fine.

If you want your websites to continue operating and generating income, whether it be AdSense, Affiliate Income or other, you have two options in my opinion.

#1. Register a LLC or Corp. and operate EVERYTHING through the company. This includes ownership of the Domain Name, Affiliate accounts, Credit Cards, Bank Accounts and so on...

When you Die (lets hope it doesn't happen any time soon!) you simply leave the Shares to the beneficiary. They can then resume operation without a single day of downtime or dollar lost, it's owned by the company, not you personally.

#2. Leave VERY detailed instructions along with a will. That way whoever gets ownership of your domain name can open their own affiliate and adsense account and continue operating under their ownership... you'll have to tell them what affiliate programs to sign up to and how to sign up to adsense (also the adsense banner and color settings to use!).

I hope you won't need this info but I think these are the 2 best options.

All your assets, including these, will end up in probate (in the U.S.) unless you set up a trust. Even with a will.

Probate will eat your assets up big time.

Cheerios

I think that depends upon the structure of the will and the size of the estate.

Possibly Bernard, not sure. It was one of the topics my attorney and I were talking about last week (as I need one) so we delved pretty deep into it. However, most of it was mumbo jumbo to me...lol

My wife was appointed as the independent executrix for her late grandfather's estate by probate court just last week. The court has no claim on any of the assets. My wife is free to handle the estate in accordance with the terms of the will as best she can.

Well, I've just spent the last hour trying to find an old post that I wrote about a similar subject. Couldn't find it here or on any other forum. Sometimes searching sux. Anyway, I'll try to recreate.

About a year and a half ago, an online seo friend of mine suddenly died. The family found some emails between us and they contacted me (having never known me), asking me for help. They had no clue how to keep the family business (i.e. websites) going, and wanted to know if I would run the sites for them. I agreed, and have handled them ever since. However, the first few months were agonizing. Absolutely no information had been written down or documented for the family to use. They had no domain info, no hosting info, no usernames or passwords. In fact, they didn't even know what sites they owned. I not only had to track down all the sites, and all the info about the sites, but then I also had to figure out what affiliate programs were being used - and of course the username/passwords of everything. For those that we couldn't figure out, we had to go through a long process of sending copies of death certificates and wills to the companies to get the information. It was a very long, tedious, process. I learned a lot from it. I now keep documentation on every site I own, and I have it in a safe deposit box along with my will. When the info changes, the document has to change. I know my family wouldn't have a clue what to do to keep the income going. Of course, the documentation won't help them much, but at least they can give it to someone they trust that is knowledgeable so that person can handle things.

So...if you want your family to be able to continue on with your sites, be prepared. Document everything for them. They'll thank you for it someday.

Donna, I couldn't give you rep and sooooooooo wanted to!! I created a word document with all the PW and site I own and lots of details etc placing it in a specific folder and specific name. Only my ex-wife knows where it is (as everything goes to our daughter). I keep this up to date with every change and addition that I do.

Given the revenues and business growth, it is important to me as I want to insure they (dollars) continue for my daughter. The only thing I have not done is designate a SEO to "maintain" the sites rankings to protect the revenue. I just don't know anyone...lol

Though I have some notes in it about coming here and certain members of the forum to talk to... Heaven help me, I hope nothing happens as I sure like breathing, but one never knows, Getting out of bed every day is a risk much less getting in the car.

That was good stuff and hope anyone that has websites generating significant revenue reads it and learns from your post. Why I need a trust. My grandmother died 18 months ago in a car accident. I (and my sister) am in the will and is still in probate as uncles and aunts are fighting over a piece of the big $ pie (my father is dead and so grandmom designated his children with his share)...sigh...what happens when serious money and assets are involved.

I was joking with my sister just this afternoon that the attorney will end up getting more than anyone else in the will....lol

So....if you are doing well..definitely think about protecting your assets for your family.

Donna, I just spent two day doing exacly this, made a nice three ring binder with all URLS, passwords, hosts, etc for my family in case I get hit by a wayward meteor. ;) Sounds silly but I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that someone could help my wife out because I took the few hours of preperation required.

Glad to hear it, Henny. The agony the family goes through after a death is bad enough. They don't need the hassle of trying to figure all this stuff out on top of it.

thanks for the info everybody.. great stuff.