What happens to your domains when you die?

[Johnn]

My brother has all the info just in case i die due to alcohol intoxication....or poisoning...ha

Did you check your accounts?

He sold me some cheap names last week.

 

[Onward]

This is a really good topic and I have given it some thought, but have not come up with a solution...even if my spouse had control over my names...she would not have a clue what to do with them.

 

[Creature]

Perhaps domains could be treated in a totally separate way to any estate. Would it not be easier to simply name the beneficiary in the whois details of the domain? Or we need an official icann site like DomainWills .com ( )where domain owners can register a beneficiary if they so wish.

 

[Johnn]

Perhaps domains could be treated in a totally separate way to any estate. Would it not be easier to simply name the beneficiary in the whois details of the domain? Or we need an official icann site like DomainWills .com ( )where domain owners can register a beneficiary if they so wish.

It is not as easy as you think.
I have pulled my hair for the past several months for this project.
Also all the names that I wanted are already registered and parked.
ex:domainwills.com, etc...

 

[Focus]

I am a 200 year old zombie so this does'nt really matter...

 

[Creature]

Someone mentioned sex.com in this thread and I notice that the sexdotcom.info book is out next week.

 

[H2FC]

This is not a difficult question...the answer is easy. Domain owner greed is what makes the question appear more difficult and when the owner dies his greed dies with him/her so the biggest obstacle to an easy answer will be eliminated...the game will be over. Thats why I suggest placing a portfolio price on your domains before then and let your beneficiaries have the responsibility of selling for that price. Make it easy for them to sell. Forget your greed and set a reasonable price.

 

[Raider]

This is not a difficult question...the answer is easy. Domain owner greed is what makes the question appear more difficult and when the owner dies his greed dies with him/her so the biggest obstacle to an easy answer will be eliminated...the game will be over. Thats why I suggest placing a portfolio price on your domains before then and let your beneficiaries have the responsibility of selling for that price. Make it easy for them to sell. Forget your greed and set a reasonable price.

Again H2FC I agree with your solution, however many of us want our domains to live on, to be handed down to our kids who are not old enough right now to manage them...I think thats the problem some of us are having.

...even if my spouse had control over my names...she would not have a clue what to do with them.

This reason alone is what made me post this.

 

[JuniperPark]

This was discussed a few months back, perhaps on another board. Someone suggested setting up a group to volunteers to handle such matters -- and the person would have to join as a MEMBER of the group before they die, and enter (in a safe place) the correct passwords and such.

Upon death, the next of kin would just need to know who to contact and say "he's dead - do your thing".

My feelings were that such a group should not try to continue the business (way too complicated and a legal mess!), but to:

1) Get funds from the family quickly to renew all domains expiring in less than 1 year.

2) Get the family gets best value for the SALE of the asset. Most likely that would mean a fair evaluation, income statements (if a website or traffic domains), then a widely publicized auction.

Also, I would REQUIRE that the person move all of the domains to 1 (or 2) registrars (If you don't want to clean up your business while you're alive, you shouldn't expect others to do so after your death!).


H2FC: Soon after death, your credit card will be cancelled, and failing that, suspended for nonpayment of minimum charges, so your auto-renew will fail:

Rico: 27 year olds die every day. If could happen to you today - you're not immortal.

 

[namestrands]

I have to say that what does it matter. You will be dead and therefore you wont need to worry about what happens to the domains.

Best case scenario is that you stick it in your will and arrange for the executor to auction off your domains and sites.

 

[JuniperPark]

I have to say that what does it matter. You will be dead and therefore you wont need to worry about what happens to the domains.

Best case scenario is that you stick it in your will and arrange for the executor to auction off your domains and sites.

This isn't about you, it's about your heirs. If you don't care about them, then you're right, this is not an issue.

Unless your executor is one of the people on this forum or very knowledgeable about the business, your portfolio will probably go to the first person to offer $50.... or, they'll spend 3 years 'looking into it', trying find your passwords, while all of your domains expire and the money goes to the drop catchers and auctioning registrars. This is probably already happening.

 

[dotNetKing]

As my financial situation improves, I'm renewing the most valuable domains several years in advance which should help to reduce the damage if things come to the worse.

I think the key information will be access to the e-mail account (or e-mail accounts if more than one). With that information, it should be possible to retrieve all required passwords.

It will require quite a lot of work on the part of someone though to administer the domains.

I have a large number of domains that could potentially sell for US$200 to US$1000 or so, which will obviously be harder work per $1 than someone who has higher value domains all in the $1000s.

My concern would be to provide for my wife and two children, especially things like university education, although I expect they would get by without any domain money. I think people do. Good reason not to have all my money in domains, like I pretty much did earlier on.

Another option I have considered is working with a good domain friend so that whoever goes first has their matters administered by someone trustworthy who knows the business.

 

[namestrands]

well. perhaps this is a business idea for someone to set up a service to manage domain names in such an event.

 

[garyrcanuck]

I like aliengg's reply- who cares.

Kinda like Bob Hopes reply when asked where do you want to be buried? He answered, surprise me.

Really tho, Put the details in your will.

Garyrcanuck
Domain Guy

 

[VirtualT]

well. perhaps this is a business idea for someone to set up a service to manage domain names in such an event.

I would like to see the forum set this up for exclusive members

 

[Dave Zan]

This topic has indeed been discussed here before and in other forums. A lot of
people here have already given some good suggestions.

The important thing is to plan ahead and put it into action ASAP. Get a lawyer
if need be to deal with the worst case scenarios that can happen, especially if
your in-laws or what-have-you decides to dispute this in court.

Someone asked who cares. No one cares if you don't.

 

[Raider]

This isn't about you, it's about your heirs. If you don't care about them, then you're right, this is not an issue.

Unless your executor is one of the people on this forum or very knowledgeable about the business, your portfolio will probably go to the first person to offer $50.... or, they'll spend 3 years 'looking into it', trying find your passwords, while all of your domains expire and the money goes to the drop catchers and auctioning registrars. This is probably already happening.

Well said JP, many of us spent years building this great portfolio and we naturally want to see our spouse and children benefit from it. I think many more Men are in this business than Woman, with the Wife knowing nothing about the domain business, all she knows is that you spend more time in front of the computer than with her, and when she does show a interest, its usually when you sell a big one!, I think housewives hate it and don't realize that there hubby built a virtual gold mine, lucky for me our business is Husband and Wife, but I know many of you operate solely on your own.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Got a Buy / Sell with my biz partner in an S Corp..but Raider you bring some interesting thoughts to the issue. If both die the wives have no clue how to get a fair price / dispose of A) a multi million $$ business B) the six figure domains. If you havent ever done a buy sell..you can go on forever on "what if's"

 

[Jacksplat]

If you have ccTLD's read the policies. Some state that when you die the names go back into the system. Meaning if your spouce/family or even partner should take control after you die they are doing this like theft. And as a result they can be taken back after a review, given someone knows what's going n and reports it.

I registered my personal name as a business and in the event of my death my wife will take my business and do what she pleases with it. The business doesnt die, the person does. I keep her informed of my registrars, my parksites, and keep it simple to run. I also have some names registered for the 10 year max to insure some re-grouping time in the event she isnt ready to handle my 1500 domains and several sites. My passwords are complicated and I dont write them down, but she has access to all my pw retrieval forms and emails I use. I make every effort to keep the bulk of my domains with the right registrars.

 

[Honan]

Always look on the bright side of life:
A nuclear holocaust should take care of domain ownership as well as all the owners