A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for managing a subscription hierarchy in a presence system. The method includes receiving a presence information request within a presence server, wherein the request is one of a subscription request and an un-subscribe request, determining if the request corresponds to an existing subscriber in the presence server, and if so, sending a redirect message to the existing subscriber, and if not, processing the request within the presence server, and enhancing functionality of subscribers to accept and handle subscription and un-subscribe requests.