Paperwork and formalities after a death

After the farewell comes a second task that rarely gets talked about: the paperwork. The details vary from country to country, but the overall shape is much the same almost everywhere.

The certificates

• Medical certificate of death, signed by a doctor.
• Registration of the death with the civil registry, which the funeral director often handles.
• Copies of the death certificate: ask for several from the start; banks, insurers and official bodies will all want one.

Notifications and closures

• The social security or pensions authority, to stop any payments and to claim, where applicable, a widow's, widower's or orphan's pension.
• Banks: accounts are frozen until the inheritance is proven; find out the rules before moving anything.
• Life and funeral insurance policies.
• Utilities, phone contracts, subscriptions — and digital accounts too (email, social media).

The estate

This usually requires: a certificate of wills or its local equivalent, the will if there is one, an inventory of assets, and the settlement of any inheritance taxes. A solicitor or notary saves a great many mistakes; in most countries the deadlines for settling taxes are limited.

Survival tips

• One single folder (physical or digital) with everything in it: certificates, invoices, receipts.
• Share it out: one sibling takes the banks, another the insurers.
• No rushing where none is needed. Apart from tax deadlines, almost everything can wait a few weeks. Paperwork should never steal the space that grief needs.