When someone dies, three things need to happen in the first week or two: get certified copies of the death certificate, report the death to Social Security and the three credit bureaus, and stop any automatic payments still running out of their accounts. Everything after that is a longer job, finding what they owned, paying what they owed, and moving the rest to whoever inherits it. Most families spend six months to a year on that part.

This checklist walks the whole arc in order, from the paperwork you need on day three to the last account you close. You do not have to be the named executor to start. Several of these steps happen before any court gets involved.

Step 1: Get certified copies of the death certificate

Almost nothing else on this list works without one. Banks, insurers, the DMV, retirement plan administrators, and the probate court all want a certified copy with a raised seal or colored security paper. Photocopies get rejected.

Order 10 to 15 certified copies. That sounds like a lot until you start counting: one per bank, one per brokerage, one per insurance policy, one per vehicle title, one for the court, one for the employer, one for each pension. Reordering later is cheap in dollars and expensive in weeks.

The certificate usually takes one to three weeks to be issued. If the cause of death is pending a medical examiner's ruling, it takes longer, and you may get a certificate marked "pending" that some institutions will not accept.

Where to get copies

You have two paths, and most families use both.

The funeral director. Whoever handles the funeral or cremation files the death certificate with the county and orders your first batch of certified copies. Tell them how many you want while arrangements are still open. This is the fastest route by a wide margin, since they are already filing the paperwork.

The county health department or state vital records office. Once the death is registered, certified copies come from the government. Which office depends on the state. Some states send you to the county health department, county registrar, or county clerk where the death occurred. Others centralize everything at a state vital records or vital statistics office. Fees run roughly $10 to $35 per copy, and many offices charge less for additional copies ordered in the same request.

Most states limit who can order a certified copy to a spouse, parent, child, sibling, or someone with a documented legal interest such as a named executor or an insurance beneficiary. Bring your own ID and, if you are not immediate family, whatever proves your interest. Our full walkthrough of how to order death certificates covers the county-level details and what to do if the state rejects your request.

Step 2: Report the death to Social Security

The funeral home usually reports the death to Social Security if you give them the Social Security number, but confirm it actually happened. Do not assume.

Two things follow. Any benefit paid for the month of death or later has to go back, and Social Security will pull it out of a joint account without warning you first. And a surviving spouse or minor child may be eligible for the $255 lump sum death payment plus ongoing survivor benefits, which have to be applied for by phone or in person. There is no online application for survivor benefits.

Step 3: Notify the credit bureaus

This is the step families skip, and it is the one that causes the most damage when it is missed. Until a death is flagged on a credit file, that file looks like every other open, borrowable credit history. Identity thieves read obituaries, and a deceased person's credit can stay open to new applications for months.

Send a death notice to Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion asking each to add a deceased indicator and stop issuing credit in that name. Social Security's death data eventually reaches the bureaus on its own, but "eventually" can mean months, and that gap is the entire window fraud lives in.

Sunset built a free tool that notifies all three bureaus at once. You upload the death certificate, we mail each bureau the notice, and you do not have to write three separate letters. If you want to understand the risk first, we wrote up what happens if you do not report a death to the credit bureaus.

While you are at it, freeze the accounts most exposed to fraud and forward the mail. Our guides on the three accounts to freeze first and handling mail after a death cover both.

Step 4: Notify everyone else

Beyond Social Security and the bureaus, the notification list runs long: employers and former employers, banks and credit unions, insurers, pension administrators, the DMV, Medicare or the health insurer, landlords or mortgage servicers, and any subscription still billing a card every month. See who to notify when someone dies for the full list in the order that matters.

Step 5: Find every account, debt, and piece of property

Here is where most families lose the most time. You are expected to produce a complete picture of what someone owned and owed, and you are working from a shoebox of paper, a phone you may not have the passcode for, and whatever you happen to remember.

What you are looking for splits into three piles:

• Assets. Checking and savings accounts, CDs, brokerage accounts, 401(k)s and IRAs, pensions, life insurance policies, savings bonds, crypto, business interests, real estate, and vehicles. Small or old accounts are the ones that go missing, along with policies bought decades ago through an employer that no longer exists.
• Debts. Credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, medical bills, personal loans, and taxes. Heirs do not inherit these. The estate pays what it can from estate assets, and anything left over generally goes unpaid. Read can debts be inherited before you pay a single collector out of your own pocket.
• Property. The house, land in other states, vehicles, and the contents of the home. Real estate in a second state can pull you into a second court, which we cover in ancillary probate.

This is the work Sunset was built for. We search for accounts, policies, retirement plans, and unclaimed property in the deceased person's name across thousands of institutions, then keep everything in one place so you can see the estate as a single balance sheet instead of a pile of envelopes. More than 10,000 families have used it, and it is free for families. Our guide on finding all assets of a deceased person explains the search methods, and 9 hidden assets families miss covers what usually gets left behind.

Step 6: Figure out whether you need probate

Probate is the court process that gives someone legal authority to act for the estate. Whether you need it depends on the state, the size of the estate, and how each asset was titled.

Some assets skip probate entirely. Anything with a named beneficiary, such as life insurance, a 401(k), an IRA, or a payable-on-death bank account, goes straight to that person. Property held jointly with right of survivorship passes to the surviving owner. What is left in the deceased person's sole name is usually what determines the answer.

Many estates qualify for a simplified path. Every state has some version of a small estate affidavit, a short sworn form that lets you collect assets without a full court case, with limits ranging from a few thousand dollars to well over $100,000 depending on the state. Start with when probate is required to see which category you are in.

Step 7: Open an estate account and settle up

Once you have legal authority, get an EIN for the estate from the IRS and open an estate bank account. Every dollar that comes in and goes out should move through that one account. Never run estate money through your personal checking. Sunset's estate account is FDIC insured and opens without a branch visit.

From there the work is mechanical: close accounts, file insurance claims, pay valid debts, retitle or sell the house and any vehicles, file a final income tax return, and distribute what is left. Keep receipts, because beneficiaries and the court can both ask for an accounting.

What can wait

Not everything is urgent, and treating it all as urgent is how people burn out in month two. These can sit for a few weeks:

• Sorting and distributing personal belongings
• Canceling club memberships and non-billing subscriptions
• Closing social media and email accounts
• Any decision about selling the house
• Reading the will line by line with an attorney

The clock only really runs on a few things: benefit applications with deadlines, insurance claims, tax filings, and creditor claim windows that open once probate starts.

FAQ

What is the very first thing to do when someone dies?

Get a legal pronouncement of death, then contact a funeral home or cremation provider. Order certified death certificates through them. If the death happened at home without hospice, call 911 first.

How many death certificates do I need?

Plan on 10 to 15 certified copies. Count one for each bank, insurance policy, retirement account, vehicle title, employer, and the probate court. Ordering extras in the original request is cheaper than reordering.

Can I get a death certificate from the county health department?

In many states, yes. Certified copies come from either the county health department, county registrar, or clerk where the death occurred, or from a central state vital records office. Which one depends on the state, and most limit copies to immediate family or someone with a documented legal interest.

Do I have to pay a deceased person's debts?

Not out of your own money. Debts are paid by the estate from estate assets, in an order set by state law, and unpaid balances generally die with the estate. The exceptions are debts you cosigned, jointly held accounts, and community property obligations in some states.

How long does it take to settle an estate?

Most estates take six months to a year. Simple estates handled with a small estate affidavit can wrap in a few weeks. A contested will, a business interest, or real estate in more than one state can push it past two years.

Start with what you can see

The hardest part of this list is not any single step. It is that you cannot check the boxes until you know what the estate holds, and that information is scattered across institutions that will not talk to you until you prove who you are.

Sunset handles both halves. We search for the accounts, policies, and property in the deceased person's name, then give you one place to manage the paperwork, the estate account, and the closures. It is free for families. Get started with Sunset and see what turns up.