Group Ownership Succession

If your group owner is incapacitated or has died, we are so sorry. Managing administrative aspects is often the last thing you may want to do under these circumstances. We’ve tried to set up a process that makes managing your loved one’s GroupNews account as smooth as possible while also honoring the privacy and security obligations we have to our customers.

If you just want to stop the account from being billed and do not need access to any data, the fastest way to do this is by canceling the associated credit card directly via the credit card company.

If you have the login credentials of the account, you can manage billing, export data, and cancel an account through the account Billing & Plans page. You can access the Billing & Plans by Settings from the group menu on the upper left hand corner of the page.

If you do not have login credentials but do have the legal authority to manage someone’s affairs, we will still try to help. However, please know in advance that we cannot provide login credentials. The following process may take anywhere from 4–7 days as we go through verification steps. To get started, please email support@groupnews.com with:

  • Legal documents proving your designated role in managing this person’s affairs. Acceptable documents include a copy of a fully-executed Power of Attorney; or a copy of an official Death Certificate and one of the following: a) a copy of a will or trust document naming you as executor or beneficiary; b) a marriage certificate if you are a surviving spouse; c) a birth certificate if you are their parent or proof of guardianship for legal guardians.
  • The email address your loved one used with their GroupNews account.
  • A few pieces of information to help with the verification process:
    • If the name on the legal documents does not match the name we have on record for the account owner, we’ll need some sort of proof that the document is for the same individual
    • A photograph showing the following things in the same picture: 1. a photo selfie showing your face; 2. a picture of your Government Issued ID (Passport, Drivers License, etc…) next to your face; 3. a piece of paper with “Verification for GroupNews” and today’s date
    • The region and postal code likely used for the person’s billing address
    • The last four numbers of the credit card likely used to pay for the person’s account

If we are able to successfully verify the information you have shared, we will email the account in question with a notification and the option to dispute the request.

After 72 hours, if we do not receive a dispute response, we’ll be able to help with the following:

  • Cancelling the account, which will lead to deleting the account data. Please refer to our Cancellation policy for more information.
  • Providing an export of the account contents.

We delete all information shared with us for verification purposes immediately after we finish the verification process.

Still have a question?

Please email us at support@groupnews.com.