Get a legal pronouncement of death
If your loved one died in a hospital or nursing home where a doctor was present, the staff will handle this. An official declaration of death is the first step to getting a death certificate, a critical piece of paperwork. But if your relative died at home, especially if it was unexpected, you’ll need to get a medical professional to declare her dead. To do this, call 911 soon after she passes and have her transported to an emergency room where she can be declared dead and moved to a funeral home. If your family member died at home under hospice care, a hospice nurse can declare him dead. Without a declaration of death, you can’t plan a funeral much less handle the deceased’s legal affairs.
Tell friends and family
Send out a group text or mass email, or make individual phone calls to let people know their loved one has died. To track down all those who need to know, go through the deceased’s email and phone contacts. Inform coworkers and the members of any social groups or church the person belonged to. Ask the recipients to spread the word by notifying others connected to the deceased. Put a post about the death on social media.
Within a Few Days of Death
Make funeral, burial or cremation arrangements
- Search the paperwork to find out if there was a prepaid burial plan. If not, you’ll need to choose a funeral home and decide on specifics like where the service will be held, whether to cremate, where the body or ashes will be interred and what type of tombstone or urn to order. It’s a good idea to research funeral prices to help you make informed decisions.
- If the person was in the military or belonged to a fraternal or religious group, contact the Veterans Administration or the specific organization to see if it offers burial benefits or conducts funeral services.
- Get help with the funeral. Line up relatives and friends to be pallbearers, to eulogize, to plan the service, to keep a list of well-wishers, to write thank-you notes and to arrange the post-funeral gathering.
- Get a friend or relative who is a wordsmith to write an obituary.
Secure the property
Lock up the deceased’s home and vehicle. Ask a friend or relative to water the plants, get the mail and throw out the food in the refrigerator. If there are valuables, such as jewelry or cash, in the home, lock them up.
Provide care for pets
Make sure pets have caretakers until there’s a permanent plan for them. Send them to stay with a relative who likes animals or board them at a kennel.
Forward mail
Go to the post office and put in a forwarding order to send the mail to yourself or whoever is working with you to see to the immediate affairs. You don’t want mail piling up at the deceased’s home, telegraphing to the world that the property is empty. This is also the first step in finding out what subscriptions, creditors and other accounts will need to be canceled or paid. “The person’s mail is a wealth of information.
Two Weeks After Death
Secure certified copies of death certificates
Get 10 copies. You’re going to need death certificates to close bank and brokerage accounts, to file insurance claims and to register the death with government agencies, among other things. The funeral home you’re working with can get copies on your behalf, or you can order them from the vital statistics office in the state in which the person died.
Find the will and the executor
Your loved one’s survivors need to know where any money, property or belongings will go. Ideally, you talked with your relative before she passed and she told you where she kept her will. If not, look for the document in a desk, a safety deposit box or wherever she kept important papers. People usually name an executor in their will. The executor needs to be involved in most of the steps going forward. If there isn’t a will, the probate court judge will name an administrator in place of an executor.
Take the will to probate
Probate is the legal process of executing a will. You’ll need to do this at a county or city probate court office. Probate court makes sure that the person’s debts and liabilities are paid and that the remaining assets are transferred to the beneficiaries.
Track down assets
Part of the work of making that inventory of assets is finding them all. The task, called marshaling the assets, can be a big job. For complex estates, this can take years.
Make a list of bills
Share the list with the executor so that important expenses like the mortgage, taxes and utilities are taken care of while the estate is settled.
Get Help
Do you have more questions about Probate? Our attorneys are ready to give you all the help and answers you need. Call us today.
FAQs
What happen to a bank account when someone dies?
When someone dies, their bank accounts are closed. Any money left in the account is granted to the beneficiary they named on the account.
What need to be done when someone dies in Canada?
You either need to call the emergency service or call the doctor who was caring for the deceased person before the death of that person.
