Family Checklist
We offer this helpful list as a guide to personal and financial issues that may need to be addressed by family members. For a printable PDF version, click here.
1. Send acknowledgement cards for flowers, memorial donations, food, spiritual remembrances
2. Transfer of real estate
- Apply for Widowed Person Exemption
- Apply for Homestead and Disabilities
3. Notify insurance companies and file claims
- Life insurance
- Medical, health, disability, travel, and accident insurance
- Retirement benefits and annuities
- Homeowners insurance
- Car insurance
- Change survivor's beneficiary
4. Apply for appropriate benefits
- Social Security survivors benefits
- Veterans burial and survivors benefits
- Pension benefits (contact spouse's place of employment)
- Workmen's compensation benefits
- Civil service benefits
- Railroad retirement benefits
5. Notify Stockbroker
- Change ownership of joint or solely-owned stock
- IRA and retirement accounts
- Transfer bonds
- Mutual or other funds
6. Notify bank
- Change all jointly held accounts
- Cancel direct deposit benefits payment
- Re-establish safe deposit box
- Re-establish all outstanding mortgages, personal notes, etc.
- Apply for credit life insurance which may exist on loans, credit cards and mortgages
- Certificate of Deposit (CD)
- Individual Retirement Account (IRA)
7. Notify credit bureaus
- TransUnion: P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022 / transunion.com
- Equifax: P.O. Box 105069, Atlanta, GA 30348 / equifax.com
- Experian: P.O. Box 9530, Allen, TX 75013 / experian.com
8. Notify Department of Motor Vehicles
- Transfer titles of all registered vehicles
- Cancel driver's license
- Cancel voter registration
9. Notify all credit card companies
- Apply for credit life insurance
- Cancel all individually held credit cards
- Change all jointly held accounts
10. Notify attorney, accountant, tax consultant
- If a will must be probated
- If your will needs to be revised
- For income tax purposes
11. Advanced planning
You may want to consider pre-arranging your funeral. It's a sensible, caring way to relieve your loved ones from the burden of having to make decisions during an emotionally difficult time.