Recently a young (he was 55/56) YouTuber died. He had no wife and no children. His YouTube channel is still getting views – indeed, his videos probably got a yuge bump when news of his death broke.
Does this money go to his estate (presumaby his parents?). Does YouTube demonetize a channel when its owner dies?
From what I can tell, the Income from a deceased YouTuber goes to their designated beneficiaries or estate until their channel is closed. I assume this is all set up before their channel goes public. Someone will chime in if I have it wrong.
Adsense revenue is usually paid by bank transfer - If nothing specific is done to redirect the payments and the account of the deceased person gets closed, the bank transfers will just fail.
Google does have a process for transferring ownership of accounts - the process can be made simpler by nominating designated people in advance of death; otherwise there is a formal process where a death certificate and proof of authority must be presented.
One of my favorite YouTubers, Phyllis Stokes, died in 2020 (from cancer, not COVID). Her son took over the channel, and while Phyllis used the monetization as income, her son, Steven, would get the royalties, and in his case he donated it to a fund his late sister had started at her church, to underwrite Vacation Bible School, and any leftover money would be used for church camp scholarships.
His views are about 1% of his mother’s, and the videos went from hers being several a week, to him doing it maybe once a month, but he’s still working FT.
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/165678
As a rightful heir to a deceased person, how do I get payment for any unpaid earnings?
Because the AdSense system doesn’t know that an account owner is deceased, the system will automatically continue to make payments using the payment settings in the AdSense account. If you are the rightful heir and need payment of accrued earnings to be redirected, please upload the requested documentation electronically here or fax or mail your request and appropriate legal documentation to:
Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, AdSense Support
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 618-8507, Attn: Google AdSense Support
~Max