That is really something to consider. I have thought about it every once in awhile and realize those images will sit on those sites forever unless the site goes out of business and if they continue to sell that income will just pile up forever and ever. And sites like Shutterstock will send you a 1099 at the end of the year to you after you're dead. I don't think the IRS would be understanding on this matter. You would have to go through a probate process to get the income put into your name and would have to show you inherited the copyright. More than likely I would assume the sites would remove your images. Depending on the country and the agency they more than likely wouldn't coraparate and if there was any large sums of money you'd proubably have to end up taking them to court and that would cost a fortune.....so the stock company would again hold on to the money so they can cushion their coffers.

the most recent comments have indeed open up this thread to dig deeper into this matter. i am glad because i remember reading somewhere that in Canada, for example, the Bank of Canada has lots of money transferred to them due the deceased persons bank account that laid dorment after the account holders demise. many of these contain lots of money because of mental failure, eg. alzheimer, senility,etc. 

the same stockpiling (arghhh, terrible pun) can apply to stock accounts  under many circumstances.
individually, we could turn a blind eye to say, "oh well, it's only a couple of dollars". but as a consortium, this could accumulate to something substantial for the stock agencies.

much like real estates that sprawl many countries where beneficiaries neglect to claim or simply ignore their inheritance, to leave the property to deteriorate into derelicts .  but in this particular case , commissions do not deteriorate if left dorment and unclaimed by the contributors or heirs.

as i said, we don't want to think about it, because it's about death.
 

This is a question worth posing to get clarifications, at least to the bigger sites.  Maybe I'll shoot off a question to the admins at SS, IS, DT and FT to ask them that if a contributor dies, can the spouse log in and update payment information into his/her name and update the social security number and other pertinent info.  It would really bother me to think they might prevent this.  I have come to see my microstock revenue as a sort of secondary life insurance that would provide a nice dividend for my family at least for a little while after my death.

Good suggestion...let us know what you find out. hopefully it will be what we'd like to hear.

Good suggestion...let us know what you find out. hopefully it will be what we'd like to hear.

OK, I have sent the question to SS, IS, DT and FT... will post the answers here as I get them.