Why Letting an Agency or Employee Own Your Instagram Is Risky
If an agency or employee owns the Business Portfolio or connected Page, they can lock you out of your own Instagram. Keep ownership in-house and grant access by role instead.
Instagram has no in-app "owner" — but a Professional account is controlled through its Business Portfolio and connected Facebook Page. Whoever owns those effectively controls the Instagram. So when an agency sets up the portfolio on your behalf, or an employee creates it under their own name, you are running your brand on access someone else can switch off. The fix is simple: ownership belongs to the business; everyone else gets access through it.
The principle: own the assets, lend the access
Three rules that keep control of your Instagram where it belongs.
- Principle 1
The business owns the portfolio
The Business Portfolio that holds your Instagram must be owned by the business — set up under a business account, not an agency's or an individual's.
- Principle 2
Access flows downward
From a business-owned portfolio you grant roles to employees and Partner access to agencies. They get what they need without ever owning the asset.
- Principle 3
Ownership and access stay separate
An agency can manage every part of the account day to day and still own none of it. Operating it is not the same as owning it — keep the two distinct.
Review cadence: Confirm ownership at setup and re-check it whenever you change agencies or key staff.
What goes wrong when ownership leaks
The agency that built your portfolio holds the keys. When the relationship ends — or sours — they can revoke your access to your own account, and you have little leverage because, on paper, the asset is theirs.
The employee who created the portfolio under a personal account takes it with them when they leave. Recovering control then depends on their goodwill or a slow platform dispute, neither of which you want to rely on.
In both cases the brand keeps running, audiences keep growing — all on a foundation someone else controls. The risk is invisible until the day it is not.
How ownership ends up in the wrong hands
Letting the agency "set everything up for you"
Convenient at the start, costly at the end. Have them set it up inside a portfolio you own, then add themselves as a Partner.
Already happened: Who should own your portfolio
An employee creating the portfolio under their own name
Always create business assets under a business-owned account, and keep more than one admin so no individual is the owner of record.
Delvia
Access issues are easier to prevent when roles, owners, and responsibilities are recorded clearly
Most access problems trace back to the same gap — no clear record of who has access, what role they hold, and what should happen when that changes. Delvia helps you keep that record so problems are visible before they become incidents.