Originally Posted by Dave Zan

Hal, my point is the registrar doesn't really care if you think a domain name is
property or not. Their only obligation is to the contracting party, namely the
registrant or whoever signed up with them, and their contract likely has that
no-property-rights clause.

When you finally go and your loved one or whoever talks to the registrar, tells
them the circumstances, and wants to gain access to that domain name, the
registrar might have a process addressing that or, worse, tell him to go get a
court order. Whichever way that person takes, the registrar is not going to do
anything for him until he somehow satisfies that registrar's requirement/s.

Of course, if your loved one has the login details, then that should solve that
potentially bureaucratic problem.