Access to deceased's Apple ID

I would be interested to hear whether any members of this forum have had experience in assisting Executors with the work required to gain access to a deceased’s Apple ID.

Initial contact with Apple suggests, instead of a Grant of Probate, they require:-

"(…) a court order that specifies:

  1. The decedent was the user of all accounts associated with the Apple ID.
  2. The requestor is the legal personal representative of the decedent.
  3. As legal personal representative, the requestor is the “agent” of the decedent, and their authorization constitutes “lawful consent” as those terms are used in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
  4. Apple is ordered by the court to assist in the recovery of decedent’s personal data from their accounts, which may contain third party personally identifiable information or data, from their accounts."

This would be a fairly expensive exercise for what is essentially a password reset.

Many thanks.

Hauke Harrack
Hewitsons

This article may help.

However, if anyone has executed a will with a digital assets clause included, it would be useful to get their experience on dealing with Apple.

The digital clause I use includes the phrase …the power to obtain, access, modify, delete, and control my passwords and other electronic credentials associated with my digital devices and digital assets.

I hope that is enough to convince Apple that the decedent has given permission to release the password… but I think I may modify it , just in case.

Andre Davidson
Finantium

1 Like

Apple did lose a case in NYC last month:

https://www.step.org/news/recent-digital-assets-case-highlights-confusion-over-online-ownership-after-death

Although as you mentioned, be prepared for an expensive battle.

Anthony Rogers
Fusion Partners

1 Like

I appreciate this is a historic thread but wonder if anyone has had more recent experience with Apple ID?

I have an estate where Deceased died very suddenly. He used Apple face recognition to access his computer. His surviving spouse has no idea what is stored on the computer but her husband held the majority of his assets in his sole name.

The thread above seems to suggest a very lengthy and costly battle with Apple but as this comment was almost 5 years ago I just wondered if any progress had been made?

Many thanks
Kathy Melkerts