What To Do Early On After Someone Dies

These are the important tasks you should do early on to make your life easier, and to prevent things from going wrong later.

Notify the Bank

You should contact your loved one’s bank and let them know of the death.

The bank will freeze the deceased person’s assets to ensure that no further money is taken out

The bank may also be able to reimburse the cost of the funeral. They will generally require an invoice from the funeral provider or other document to verify expenses.

Most banks require you to complete a form and provide a certified copy of the death certificate to them.

Secure Property

The executor or next of kin should take initial steps to make sure none of the deceased person’s property goes to waste, is stolen or is lost.

This include things like:

• Making sure insurance premiums are paid and up-to-date.
• Real estate is properly locked up.
• Moving vulnerable property to a better location to avoid it getting damaged or stolen.

This is generally a common-sense approach.

Notify Centrelink

If your loved one was receiving Centrelink payments, the executor or next of kin should notify Centrelink as soon as possible to let them know of their passing.

Centrelink payments generally stop after death, but some payments may continue a week or two after death.

If Centrelink paid more it should (e.g because of a delay in notifying them of the death), Centrelink will recover the overpayments as a debt from the estate.

Search for a Will

Even if your loved one has a Will, it is important to make sure that you have the most up-to-date version of the Will.

This should have been completed in the previous step,

Care For Pets

Make sure pets are properly taken care of until you can find them a permanent home.

Leave them with someone close, or take them to temporary pet accommodation.

If someone dies overseas

If someone dies overseas, you need to contact the nearest Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate. The Smart Traveller website can help you understand what to do if someone passes away overseas.

Apply for Death Certificate

If you hire a funeral director or use Estates Plus cremation service, they will take care of the death certificate. They will contact the relevant Births, Deaths and Marriages in your State and then forward the Death Certificate on to you.

Getting a Death Certificate is important, as most organisations will not release funds or information unless you are able to produce a valid death certificate.

Lots of organisations require a certified copy of the death certificate – so get a whole bunch certified at one go.

Applying for a death certificate yourself

NSW

• Apply at the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• This link takes you to the Service NSW site - which explains what’s needed, who’s eligible and how to apply.
• It also features a pop up “Apply’ button which takes you to the BDM site where you can start the application.

WA

• Apply at the WA Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
• In WA, you can apply if you are a family member of the deceased, or the executor/administrator of the estate.
• You can apply in person or by post.
• Cost is $50 (or $35 reduced fee).
• More information here.

QLD

• Apply at the QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• Go to this site, which has a ‘start application’ button, which takes you to the online application form.
• You must do the information online and then provide ID docs in person or via post.
• More information

VIC

• Apply at Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria.
• This link takes you to the Victorian site - which explains what’s needed, who’s eligible and how to apply.
• It also has an “apply’ button so you can start the application.

SA

• Apply at the SA Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• This link takes you to the SA site - which explains what’s needed, who’s eligible and how to apply.
• It also has an “apply’ button so you can start the application.

Get Documents Certified

Certifying a document means an appropriate person seeing the original document, and signing the copy of it to say it’s a true copy of the original.

It is a way of verifying the copy is legitimate.

You will likely need to get the death certificate certified.

Members of these professions can generally certify documents in Australia:

• Chiropractor
• Dentist
• Legal Practitioner
• Medical Practitioner
• Nurse
• Patent Attorney
• Pharmacist
• Physiotherapist
• Psychologist
• Veterinary
• Surgeon

Track Your Expenses

All expenses incurred needed to finalise your loved one’s affairs are reimbursable.

You may not have access to estate funds just yet but keep track of everything you pay.

You can be reimbursed at a later stage, when funds from the estate become available later on.

Some examples of appropriate expenses which are reimbursable are:

• legal advice on how to deal with estate matters
• court filing fees, in case you need to apply for a grant of probate or letters of administration in later steps
• funeral expenses
• government agency fees
• payment for anything that is required to be done by the executor or next of kin.

You can’t claim a reimbursement for anything you did not pay for, eg if the money came out of the estate funds.