Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour
I'm not certain having your own domain is any greater guarantee of having an "email address for life"
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A Gmail email address is probably fairly safe, though you might one day need to pay to keep it. However, whatever you might in the future think about Google, you will never have the option of changing your email service unless willing to use a new email address. In practice, this is quite likely to mean you lose some emails, as (even when you inform people of your new address) some correspondents will persist in using the old one.
If using a smaller free email service, there is a good chance of their going out of business at short notice. An issue often forgotten is that registrations for other services are often tied to email addresses. If that email address ceases to exist, you can often find it impossible to continue use of that service.
With your own domain, as long as you keep your domain registration current, you keep control of all email addresses using that domain name. If you want to use Google as your mail service, you can. If you want to move to FastMail, you can. You have complete freedom in the matter.
What happens after your death depends on the arrangements you have made in advance. If you leave an envelope with passwords and simple instructions with a competent family member, there is nothing preventing your old email addresses from remaining as long as considered expedient with about 15 minutes effort a year.