Report a Death to the Credit Bureaus — Now Free for Everyone
Credit bureau death notification is now free for every family — closing the fraud gap that opens after a death.
A person's identity doesn't die when they do. For months after a death, a Social Security number, a date of birth, and a home address keep working exactly as they did in life — and fraudsters know it.
It's called “ghosting.” Criminals comb obituaries, estate filings, and data breaches for the recently deceased, then use their information to open credit cards, take out loans, and file fraudulent tax refunds. The deceased can't check their own statements. Their family often won't think to look for months. By the time anyone notices, the damage lands on the estate and the heirs.
Today we're making the single most effective protection against this — notifying the three credit bureaus of a death — free for everyone, whether or not they use Sunset.
Why this matters
Deceased-identity fraud is one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, and the reason is structural: the safety net that's supposed to catch it has been quietly fraying for years.
The Social Security Administration's Death Master File is the closest thing the country has to an authoritative record of who has died. Banks, lenders, and credit bureaus rely on it to flag deceased individuals and shut down fraud. But the public version of that file has been shrinking. After a 2011 policy change, the SSA stopped including deaths reported by states in the publicly available file — removing roughly a million death records a year from the version most companies can actually see.
The result is a dangerous gap. A person can be deceased for months while their credit file still reads “alive and in good standing.” That gap is exactly where ghosting fraud happens.
This isn't the banks' fault, or the bureaus'
It would be easy to blame the credit bureaus and the financial institutions for this. That would also be wrong. They spend millions of dollars every year fighting fraud, and they're remarkably good at it — when the person being impersonated is alive to dispute a charge, confirm their identity, or notice something is wrong.
Fraud committed as a deceased person is a fundamentally different problem, and it comes down to one missing piece of information: a reliable, up-to-date answer to a simple question — is this person still alive? When the authoritative record of who has died is incomplete, even the most sophisticated fraud systems are working blind.
And the situation families face is worse still. There's no fraud alert a grieving family can flip on. There's no online portal at the bureaus to report a death. The official channel is a physical letter — formatted to each bureau's requirements, with the right documentation, mailed to the right P.O. box. Most families don't know this exists, and the ones who do are asked to draft three formal letters and a death certificate package during the worst week of their lives.
So the bureaus are left in a difficult position too. When a death is reported, they have to decide — often on thin evidence — whether to flag the file, notify creditors, and freeze the account. Acting on a bad report can wrongly lock a living person out of their own credit; ignoring a real one leaves the door open to fraud. Without a stable, trustworthy source of truth to verify against, they're left to make that call largely on their own.
The problem isn't effort or intent. It's a broken source of truth.
What Sunset does about it
Sunset is a certified, approved subscriber to the Social Security Administration's Limited Access Death Master File. Verifying deaths and acting on them is core to everything we do — it's how we help families discover accounts, settle estates, and protect what's left behind.
Now we've turned that capability outward, for free:
- You provide the basics. The deceased's name, address, Social Security number, and date of death, plus a copy of the death certificate.
- Sunset prepares the letters. We generate three formal death-notification letters, each formatted to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion's specific requirements.
- We mail them for you. Letters go out to each bureau's official address. You get an email confirmation within a few business days.
Notifying the bureaus places a deceased flag on the credit file. New accounts can't be opened. The “alive and in good standing” gap closes — and the most common path for ghosting fraud closes with it.
Who this helps
Anyone who has lost someone. You don't need to be settling the estate, and you don't need a Sunset account. A surviving spouse, an adult child, an executor, or a sibling can complete the form in a few minutes and know one of the most important protective steps is handled.
Get started
Report a death to the credit bureaus, for free, at hellosunset.com/report-death-to-credit-bureaus.
We built Sunset to take the weight of estate settlement off of families. Protecting a loved one's identity after they're gone shouldn't be one more thing you have to figure out alone.
About Sunset
Sunset is the leading inheritance and estate settlement software, used by thousands of families and professionals to discover assets, generate probate documents, and move inheritances where they need to go — across all 50 states and every county. Backed by Y Combinator, Sunset is built by a team that has personally been through estate settlement and knows how heavy it can be. Our mission is simple: take the weight of settling an estate off of the people who are grieving. Tools like free credit bureau notification are part of that promise — protections every family deserves, whether or not they ever pay us a cent.
About Sunset
The estate settlement platform
Sunset finds what the deceased owned and owed, then handles the paperwork and transfers that settle the estate. More than 15,000 families have used it, and attorneys and fiduciaries use Sunset Pro for their clients' estates.
Find every account
One search across 2,500+ financial institutions surfaces bank accounts, retirement plans, life insurance, and debts in the deceased's name.
Prepare the paperwork
Court-ready probate documents for every state and county, plus an FDIC-insured estate account to hold the funds.
Close and transfer
Sunset contacts each institution, closes the accounts, and moves the money to the beneficiaries and heirs.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sunset?
Sunset is an estate settlement platform that helps families discover and close the financial accounts, assets, and debts of a person who has died.
Sunset is designed for family members, executors, and personal representatives who are settling an estate themselves. It includes the full Sunset closure suite: financial account discovery, bank notifications, assisted phone calls and emails, estate bank account setup, probate document generation, and asset transfers, for $50 per estate.
Sunset Pro is designed for probate attorneys, licensed fiduciaries, trustees, and aftercare specialists who settle estates on behalf of their clients. Sunset Pro starts at $500 per asset search, with monthly subscription plans available for solo practitioners, small firms, and large firms.
Both Sunset and Sunset Pro are available in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
How does Sunset help settle an estate?
Sunset handles the most time-consuming parts of estate settlement.
We search 2,500+ financial institutions like banks and retirement funds, the credit bureaus, and state unclaimed-property databases to find accounts and assets the family may not know about. We prepare probate documents specific to your county in all 50 states and help establish an estate bank account where recovered funds can be deposited.
Then Sunset helps close the deceased person’s accounts and move the funds into the estate account, ready for distribution to the heirs.
With Sunset, about 90% of account closures can be completed without you having to call or visit a branch.
Who can use Sunset?
Sunset can be used by family members, executors, administrators, and personal representatives responsible for settling a deceased person's estate.
Sunset supports asset discovery and probate across all 50 states and every U.S. county, helping you manage the estate regardless of where the deceased lived or where the estate is being settled.
What is required to settle an estate?
Most estates require a core set of documents and accounts, including a certified death certificate, legal authority to act for the estate, a federal EIN, an estate bank account, and an inventory of the estate’s assets and debts.
Sunset can help with all of these except the death certificate.
Depending on the circumstances, legal authority may come in the form of letters testamentary, letters of administration, or a small-estate affidavit.
Once that authority is established, the estate can begin notifying financial institutions, paying valid debts and final taxes, and distributing the remaining assets to the heirs or beneficiaries.
Sunset prepares the paperwork required for these steps and submits what we can on your behalf.
How long does it take to find the deceased's accounts?
Most accounts turn up within a day of starting a search. Some bank account confirmations take up to two weeks.
Closing accounts and moving funds take longer, because each institution works on its own schedule. The full estate settlement timeline also depends on whether the estate needs probate in your state.
Do I have to call the banks myself?
Usually not. About 90% of account closures through Sunset are completed without you calling or visiting a branch.
Sunset prepares and sends the closure and transfer requests for you, and the funds move into the estate bank account.
How much does Sunset cost?
Sunset costs $50 per estate, paid once when you sign up. It covers asset discovery, probate document generation, account closure, asset transfers, and estate bank account setup. Full details are on our pricing page. The credit bureau notification tool and the estate bank account have no charge.
Sunset Pro is for probate attorneys, licensed fiduciaries, trustees, and aftercare specialists. It starts at $500 per asset search, with subscription plans available for solo practitioners, small firms, and large firms.
The fee counts as an estate administration expense, so you can reimburse yourself from the estate. Sunset never takes a percentage of the estate, and all assets go to the beneficiaries and heirs.
What security measures does Sunset have?
Sunset is SOC 2 Type II certified and built with security and privacy at the center of how we handle sensitive estate information.
We use identity and fraud-prevention measures to verify deceased individuals and beneficiaries, and we conduct background checks on our employees. We continuously monitor and improve our security practices to protect the financial information, documents, and personal data entrusted to us.
