Housekeeping After a Death
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
FUNERAL HOME
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Housekeeping After a Death
The death has occurred. The funeral is over. What’ s next? There are so many tasks being thrown at you at once. A good start is this:
• Find important documents.
Documents such as insurance policies, bank documents, investments, deeds to property, vehicle titles, and pension papers are all needed.
• Claim life insurance proceeds.
Start the claims process early. You will need a certified copy of the death certificate. Some companies can take 30 / 60 / 90 days to pay out a policy. Bills can accumulate quickly.
Check your life insurance policies. Who are the beneficiaries? Do they know they are a beneficiary? Recently, a family had a life insurance policy to pay the funeral bill. The husband and wife had only been married six years prior to her death. The policy was still in her maiden name and the beneficiary was a son, not the husband. The insurance company could not give the husband any information. Update policies regularly to keep up with changing family situations.
• Set up the estate.
You may need to set up an estate. Contact an attorney. Will you be going through the probate process or going through trust administration? Your attorney will help guide you through the process, and can change deeds to real estate, help transfer stocks / bonds / pensions, contact your accountant to file taxes, and many other daunting tasks.
• Close bank accounts.
The bank needs a death certificate and a funeral bill to either close an account, take a loved one’ s name off of the account, or transfer the account to become an estate account. If you have a joint account, upon the death, take the co-owner off of the account.
• Transfer bills.
Whose name is on the bills? Transfer bills into survivors’ names to avoid a headache down the road. Here’ s a scenario: Six months down the line, Mom’ s cable goes out and she calls the cable company.“ Sorry Mrs. Johnson, we can’ t speak to you. Mr. Johnson is the account holder, so we cannot give you any information.” Now, in addition to trying to fix the television, Mom is worrying about trying to find the death certificate to send to the cable company— just so a representative can talk to her about the line being fried outside of the house.
• Transfer titles to vehicles.
This can be done with a death certificate, or Pennsylvania also offers a form called Notification of Assignment / Correction of Vehicle Title Upon Death of Owner( DMV-39). Your funeral director or physician can certify the death, allowing the transfer of the vehicle to happen quicker.
• Call Social Security and follow up.
Funeral directors can notify Social Security that your family member has died. Ten days after the death has occurred, call Social Security to follow up and make sure things have been taken care of. If you are a surviving spouse, call for a phone interview to review your benefits and your new pay structure. The staff member will walk you through the process.
By no means is this a complete list or in any particular order. You can call Perman Funeral Home to help guide you through more tasks that may need to be completed.
This Industry Insight was written by Jesse McElroy-Torquato, licensed funeral director at Perman Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Inc. She also holds Certified Preplanning Consultant and Crematory Operations Certified designations. Currently McElroy-Torquato is president of the Allegheny County Funeral Directors Association. Inquiries may be made to her at 412.486.3600 or jesse @ permanfuneralhome. com.
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