Practical
The paperwork, in order
Seven steps, in the order they actually happen. Some of them are ours and some belong to a doctor, a city office or a court, and knowing which is which is most of what makes this week less confusing.
The order is the useful part
Each step waits on the one before it
This is not a list of jobs that can be shared out and done at the same time. Every one of them needs the one above it finished first, which is why nobody can start at the bottom and work up, and why a hold-up near the top moves everything below it by the same number of days.
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The medical certification
A doctor, or the Medical Examiner
Somebody medically qualified has to certify the cause of death. In a hospital or under hospice care that is usually straightforward and quick. Where the death was sudden, unattended or unexplained, it goes to the Medical Examiner instead, and their timetable is not ours and cannot be hurried by anybody.
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Registering the death
Us, with the city
We file the death certificate with the city, electronically, once the medical part is signed. This is the step everything else waits on.
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The burial or cremation permit
Us, with the city
Nothing can be buried or cremated without it. It follows the registration, so a delay in the certification is a delay in the funeral, which is why we chase the certifying doctor rather than waiting.
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Certified copies of the death certificate
Us, ordered on your behalf
These are what banks, insurers and everybody else will ask for. How many you need is a question with a real answer, and it has its own page.
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Notifying the federal government
Us
We report the death to the Social Security Administration as a matter of course. That stops the payments, which matters, because money paid after a death has to be given back.
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Claiming what the family is entitled to
Us, with you
Veterans' entitlements, the Social Security death payment, and any insurance policy the family knows about. We fill the forms in with you; the decisions belong to those offices.
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The estate
Not us
Probate, the will, the accounts, the house, the taxes. We are not lawyers and not accountants and we will say so rather than guess. What we can do is give you enough certified copies that whoever does handle it is not held up.
What waits on what
Nothing can be buried or cremated without a permit
No permit exists until the death has been registered. No registration happens until a doctor, or the Medical Examiner, has certified the cause. Read that backwards and you have the answer to the question every family asks in the first two days, which is when the funeral can be.
It also explains the answer nobody likes. A delay at the top is a delay in the funeral, and it is not a delay anybody can shorten — not us, not the cemetery, not the family, and not by ringing anybody twice. We do not decide the cause of death, and we cannot hurry it: a doctor certifies it, or the Medical Examiner does. Neither of them works for us. That office keeps its own timetable, and a family told the case has gone to it should expect days rather than hours.
What we do instead of waiting is chase. Somebody here rings the certifying doctor rather than letting the form sit in a tray, and we tell you where it has got to on the day it moves rather than at the end of the week. What we will not do is name a day the permit cannot yet support. We cannot promise you a date until three other people have agreed to it — the certifying doctor, the cemetery or crematory, and whoever is leading the service.
Two practical things follow from all of this. The first is that the honest answer to how soon is a range and not a date, and a range you can act on is worth more than a date that gets taken away. The second is that the family has almost nothing to do during this part. The information we need from you is gathered once, at the arrangement meeting, and after that the waiting is ours to do.
No date is fixed until the certificate is registered, the permit is issued and the cemetery or crematory has agreed to the day. We give you the honest range meanwhile.
The line
Where our paperwork stops and an estate's begins
There is a line between the filings a funeral home does and the work an estate needs. It is not always obvious from the outside, so here it is drawn: the same seven steps, sorted by whose job each one is.
Ours to do
- Registering the death. Us, with the city
- The burial or cremation permit. Us, with the city
- Certified copies of the death certificate. Us, ordered on your behalf
- Notifying the federal government. Us
- Claiming what the family is entitled to. Us, with you
Not ours, and we will say so
- The medical certification. A doctor, or the Medical Examiner
- The estate. Not us
Probate, the will, the accounts, the house, the taxes, whether something was held jointly, what a pre-payment does to an assessment: none of that is ours. We are not your lawyer, your accountant or your financial adviser, and we would rather say so plainly in your kitchen than have a go and be confidently wrong.
A confident wrong answer from a funeral director in a bereaved family's kitchen is a real harm and it is easy to give. What we can do is make sure whoever does handle it has the certified copies they need on the first day rather than the tenth.
The part that outlasts the funeral
Certified copies are what the next six months run on
Almost everything a family has to settle after a funeral is settled by producing one of these, and how many you order in the first week decides how much of that is spent waiting on the post. We order them for you at the same time as we register the death, so there is one thing to decide and one place to decide it.
The short version is that ten is the number we suggest for an ordinary estate, that almost every family orders fewer than it needs, and that ordering again later is slower and dearer than ordering enough at the start. The long version, including who asks for one and how many each of them keeps, is on its own page.
- Death certificates — how many to order, who wants one, why a photocopy is refused, and what to do if a detail on it is wrong.
- Benefits and entitlements — what the family may be able to claim, who provides it, and the order to do it in.
- What we need from you — the information the certificate asks for, including the one question that catches every family out.
If you are not sure which of these has already happened
Ring and ask. We will tell you where the certificate has got to, what is waiting on it, and which part of it nobody can hurry.