But who owns what on the Internet, legally, is still being debated, says Suzana Popovic-Montag, a partner at Toronto-based firm Hull & Hull, which specializes in estate law.
"I don't think it's really been tested," she says. She now suggests that clients consider online issues in their estate planning. "We've got to be ahead of the curve."
There may also be times when Facebook lags behind. Ms. Barker says the company requests proof that a member has really died. But is that enough to prevent pranks? "Certainly," she says.
Yet no one came to Simon Thulbourn's aid the day his friend decided to kill him.
Last month, the 23-year-old software engineer posted a link to Facebook's submission form to memorialize accounts and, as a joke, encouraged friends to knock each other off: "I just wanted to see how reliable it was," he says from his home in Munich.
His friend Johnny did just that. As proof, he submitted an online obituary - for a woman named Margaret. The only link was that the minister at her funeral had a name similar to Mr. Thulbourn's. He says he doubts Facebook staff even looked at the evidence before he was locked out of his memorialized account.
The problem took about five days to resolve. Facebook did apologize for any "inconvenience" Mr. Thulbourn experienced as a result of his premature virtual demise.
Despite such errors, Ms. Barker argues that the site can be a powerful tool of remembrance. The first memorialized account belonged to a Facebook staffer who died when the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., was still quite small.
"We all realized the value of keeping his profile up on the site as a way to mourn his loss," Ms. Barker says. "There is an element to Facebook that is creating a history of a person's life."
But for Amelia Shaw, the "eerie" prompting to connect with her friend Karl online only reminds her that in reality it's no longer possible.
"It's my first encounter with suicide. I see it as such a waste that he went and did that. He is someone I'm going to miss a lot."
Susan Krashinsky is a reporter for Report on Business.
