Home Death admin
The index
A dying person generates an astonishing amount of paperwork.
You should not have to do it while grieving. This is the actual list, 49 tasks, free, no email required. Take it and do it yourself, or hand any part of it to me.
Death administration, or “death admin”, is the practical work a death leaves behind: certificates, notifications, accounts, subscriptions, the estate, the digital estate, the gathering and the notes. It is work you can hand to someone. Most people do not know that.
The list below is in roughly the order it arrives. Nothing on it is urgent except the first section; everything else can wait until you have slept. Where a task needs a lawyer, an accountant or a doctor, I say so, and I will help you find a good one.
The first days8 tasks
- Confirm who pronounces and certifies the deathAt home on hospice, the hospice nurse; otherwise 911 or the attending physician.
- Decide who is told first, and by whomWrite the list. Nobody should hear it from social media.
- Choose a funeral home or direct-cremation providerYou are allowed to ask prices on the phone. They must give them.
- Arrange for surviving animalsFood, medication, and a person for today, before anything else.
- Secure the home, car and valuablesLock up, collect keys, water the plants, empty the fridge.
- Locate the will, and note who is named executorCheck the desk, the safe, the lawyer, and the bank's safe-deposit box.
- Find any pre-paid funeral or burial planLook in the filing cabinet and with the life-insurance papers.
- Write down what the person wanted for their bodyBurial, cremation, donation, green burial, a home vigil. Honor it if you can.
Certificates and notifications10 tasks
- Order certified death certificatesTen is a sensible start; banks, insurers and pensions each want an original.
- Notify Social SecurityUsually done by the funeral home; confirm it was.
- Notify the employer, HR and payrollFinal pay, accrued leave, group life insurance, retirement plan.
- Notify pension providers and annuitiesSurvivor benefits often have deadlines.
- Notify life-insurance carriersClaims need the certificate and the policy number.
- Notify the VA, if a veteranBurial benefits and a flag are available on request.
- Notify Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurersStops premiums and prevents later clawbacks.
- Cancel the driver's license and voter registrationPrevents identity fraud later.
- Notify the three credit bureausA deceased flag on the file stops new credit being opened in their name.
- Redirect the mailA forwarding order to the executor keeps the paperwork flowing to one place.
Money and the estate8 tasks
- Open an estate bank accountThe executor needs an EIN for the estate first; it is free from the IRS online.
- Inventory every accountChecking, savings, brokerage, retirement, crypto, PayPal, Venmo, gift cards.
- Gather statements for the lawyer or the probate courtOrganized by institution, most recent first.
- List debts and recurring billsMortgage, car loan, credit cards, medical bills, taxes owed.
- Stop automatic payments that should stopAnd keep the ones that must continue: mortgage, insurance, utilities.
- File the final income-tax returnDue the following April; an accountant is worth it here.
- Decide whether probate is neededSmall estates and trusts often avoid it. Ask before assuming.
- Claim any refunds owedPrepaid premiums, deposits, unused memberships, airline credits.
The digital estate8 tasks
- Find the passwordsA password manager, a notebook, the browser, a phone's saved logins.
- Keep the phone and email running for nowAlmost every account reset goes through them. Do not cancel them first.
- Inventory subscriptionsStreaming, software, news, apps, meal kits, gym. Cancel one by one.
- Memorialize or close social profilesFacebook and Instagram memorialize; most others close on request.
- Rescue the photosOff the phone, the laptop, the cloud, before any account is closed.
- Transfer or close the domain names and websitesThey lapse silently and are gone.
- Move utilities, phone and internetInto the surviving name, or close them.
- Close the loyalty programs, or transfer the pointsAirlines and hotels often allow a transfer with a certificate.
People, ritual and the weeks after8 tasks
- Draft the obituary and death noticesNewspaper, alumni, professional bodies, faith community.
- Plan a gathering, or decide not toA funeral, a memorial, a meal, a walk. It can be later.
- Track who sent whatFlowers, food, cards, donations, so the thank-you notes are possible.
- Write the thank-you notesWeeks later is fine. I will write them with you.
- Return borrowed medical equipmentHospital bed, oxygen, wheelchair. The supplier collects.
- Dispose of medication safelyPharmacies and police stations take it back.
- Sort the clothes and belongings, when readyThere is no deadline. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.
- Mark the datesThe first birthday, the first anniversary. Plan something small.
When it is an animal7 tasks
- Decide where, and with whomAt home with a mobile vet, or at the clinic. Both are right answers.
- Decide who is in the roomChildren can be, with preparation. I can help with that conversation.
- Choose burial, communal cremation or private cremationPrivate returns the ashes; communal does not. Ask which the clinic uses.
- Keep somethingA paw print, a clipping of fur, the collar. The clinic will help if asked.
- Cancel the pet insurance, the food subscription, the microchip registryEach one is a small ambush later.
- Tell the people who loved the animalThe dog walker, the sitter, the neighbor who kept treats.
- Notice the householdOther animals grieve. So do the children. So do you.
I am an administrator, not a lawyer, accountant or medic. Rules on probate, estate tax and home burial vary by state; where the list says “ask”, ask.
Hand me the list. Or just the worst three things on it.
Thirty minutes, free. Remote anywhere; this part of the job travels fine.