16 Semi-Urgent Tasks - to Tackle Next Week
Meet with the Funeral Home
At this point, you’ll need to make a final decision about a visitation, burial and cremation. The Executor will communicate these decisions to the funeral home, although it’s not uncommon for families to be in the room and weigh in. At the end of the day, the Executor is the decision maker, the person who signs the paperwork, and the person who writes the checks.
You will also be asked a series of questions in order to apply for a death certificate. See the list of questions in here. They will ask you how many death certificates you want. Request 6-10 Death Certificates. We got 20, and that was way too many. Some institutions/banks need originals, but they’ll usually send them back to you when they’re done. 10 would have been plenty. It took the funeral home at least a week to get us the death certificates, but it’s not uncommon for it to take a little longer. The sooner you can order them the better - they are one of the primary pieces of paperwork the executor will need to get things done.
Be prepared to write a pretty big check at the end of this conversation. Learn about estate expenses here.
2. Funeral arrangements
-
If so, planning will be underway and the funeral home will help you coordinate all of the moving pieces. Make sure to create a Facebook invite, so people hear about it far and wide. Tag your loved one, so their friends will see it. Read more about planning an open casket funeral here.
-
If your loved one was cremated, you can wait as long as you want to plan a funeral. In this case, think about how you might like to honor your loved one. It could be something private with just your family like spreading ashes. It could be something in a church. In our case, we held an “Scottish Wake,” which meant we rented out a bar called The Englewood Grand, bought a lot of our dad's favorite scotch, played his favorite tunes, rented a food truck, and partied down! If you need ideas on how to organize this piece of the puzzle, read further here.
3. Forward mail
Forward your loved one’s mail to the Executor’s address. This will help you figure out what bills your loved one was paying, so you can cancel these services. If you go in person to the post office you can fill out a mail forwarding slip and submit it without having to jump through any legal hoops. It’s harder to do online, because they want you to prove you are literally your loved one.
4. Buy supplies
Buy a printer and a scanner if you don’t have one. Get large envelopes (so you don’t have to fold death certificates you are mailing) and stamps. I also found that having a large file folder was helpful.
We bought this scanner.
5. Pick up death certificates from the Funeral Home
5. Start a spreadsheet of any money you are spending on estate related expenses, so you can reimburse yourself later
6. Start an inventory spreadsheet of your loved ones assets
This is something your lawyer will need. It should include personal property, bank accounts, car, brokerage account, personal property, furniture, jewelry, furniture, etc. Eventually, your lawyer will file this with the court for probate.
7. Where did your loved one live?
-
If your loved one owned their home, now might be a good time to contact a realtor. They can help you decide what to do with the house. If you live in Colorado, I recommend Hope Stafford or Yvonne Faraci. They can also help refer you to realtors in other states.
Do not cancel homeowners insurance or necessary utilities until the home is no longer in your possession. Learn more about the home selling process here.
-
You may have spoken to your loved one's landlord and decided on an end date for the lease. If so, you'll need to clean out the house and get it ready for new tenants before the lease expires. If you've decided to continue to pay rent for a couple months, you can wait. Learn more about cleaning out the house here.
If the lease it about to end check the mailbox one last time. Make sure the mail is forwarding as intended. On the last day of the lease give your keys to the landlord and cancel electricity/gas, trash, and renters insurance.
9. Pay urgent bills
Technically, you, personally, are off the hook for any debt your loved one accrued before their passing, so don’t start paying off credit card bills (you may need to pay them with your loved one's money later), BUT you need to make sure their rent/mortgage/electricity/gas/trash/cell phone/homeowner or renters insurance/business accounts are paid, so none of those things lag before you’re ready to cancel them. If your loved one rented their home, you might consider paying for 1 extra month of rent, depending on how long you think it will take to clear out their space.
Legally, anyone can pay anyone’s bills, so if the executor process is taking forever, you can still take care of bills yourself. The Executor should pay these, because they can reimburse themself later from your loved one's estate account once they're officially the executor. The Executor will need to request that the bank turn your loved one's bank account into an “estate account.” This is how most people pay for estate related expenses and funeral costs. It took us a long time to complete this process, so we paid out of pocket and reimbursed ourselves later.
If you plan to continue to use the accounts mentioned above, you’ll need to move them into your name by calling the company.
Make a google doc to keep track of any estate related expenses, so you can be reimbursed. Probate court may request a copy of this list. Sometimes you can find bills your loved one was paying in their emails.
8. Start an estate account
Once you have executor paperwork and a death certificate, you can ask that your loved one’s bank accounts be frozen. After that, you can move all of their money into an estate account at a bank of your choosing. Learn more about estate accounts here.
9. Return to the house to take anything sentimental
Take anything sentimental from your loved one’s house to keep. Anything that’s a “maybe,” go ahead and take. You can always change your mind later if you save it. We'll discuss cleaning out the house, but don’t worry about that yet. You have more urgent stuff to deal with.
10. Did your loved one have life insurance?
If not, skip this step. If so, get that ball rolling, because that payout can take a long time. It took us a few months. They will need a death certificate. If they did have life insurance, ask for the full amount via check - otherwise I’ll try to give it to you in weird, inefficient ways.
11. Did your loved one have investment accounts?
If not, skip this step. If so, start gathering paperwork, so you can start making phone calls. If they listed beneficiaries on their accounts, this will be easy. The money will automatically go to the beneficiaries once the companies receive a death certificate (which the executor needs to send them). If your loved one didn’t list beneficiaries and the sum of money is large, this is where probate kicks in. Probate is a process of determining what assets belong to whom. In Colorado, it’s mostly handled independently by the executor. I never had to go to a physical courtroom.
12. Cancel accounts you don’t need
At this point, it's probably appropriate to cancel internet, cable, streaming services, Costco memberships, etc. Don’t cancel homeowner/car insurance unless you are no longer in possession of the house/cars. Learn why here.
13. What did your loved one do for a living?
Is there any unfinished business tasks you need to attend to? Our dad was still doing real estate deals when he passed, so we had to get in touch with his co-workers to wrap that up and deposit final checks into his estate account.
14. Set up a meeting with a CPA
You’ll need to do your loved one’s next round of taxes. A CPA can help guide you as to how to handle that.
15. If your loved one was your spouse, call the social security office.
You may be entitled to some of their social security benefit. If you’re loved one was your ex-husband or ex-wife, you may be entitled that benefits. If that is the case, you’ll need a death certificate and a divorce decree.
*This is not something the executor does - this is a job for the spouse or ex spouse.