The death of a loved one is always a hard process; there’s a lot you need to consider and take care of, and it can be overwhelming to deal with while you begin the mourning process. This article will focus on the steps you need to take after a loved one passes away and will also explain why these steps are so important.
While it can be hard enough when a loved one dies from old age or a well-known health condition, it can be even more difficult when their death directly results from someone else’s actions. Also, don’t forget to contact a wrongful death lawyer as soon as possible if this is the scenario you find yourself in to help you get the compensation you deserve.
Obtain the Death Certificate
Once your loved one has passed on, if you can obtain the death certificate, you need to do so as soon as possible.
You can do this by learning where the person passed and contacting that state’s vital records office. They’ll be able to tell you how and where to order copies and how much they will cost, which is vital as you may need to send this certificate to different institutions to gain access to that person’s accounts.
Credit card companies, banks, insurance providers, and more will all require this vital information before giving the proper people access to the accounts and allowing for withdrawal, closures, and whatever else may be necessary.
Inform The Proper People
You won’t be the only person impacted by this loss. While it may be gut-wrenching, you’ll need to contact their family members, the person’s place of work, their military unit if they have one, their community, their place of worship if they have one, their friends, and more.
Anyone who was important in this person’s life needs to be informed of their death as quickly as possible. If you don’t think you can handle making all of these calls on your own, then the first people you should contact would be the ones who can help you with this process. This is also a good time to see who will take care of any dependents the deceased had charge of.
Everything from pets to plants will at least need a temporary home while all of the final arrangements are made, and the will is examined and handled. This is especially important if children are involved and/or you can’t take on the dependents yourself for whatever reason.
Make the Final Arrangements
The final arrangements include everything from transporting the body to contacting funeral homes or crematoriums, setting the funeral date, and even making the required preparations. This process will be extremely time-consuming, expensive, and painful, so don’t hesitate to contact other family members and friends for help with planning and payments.
You’ll also want to speak with the executor of the will to see what arrangements the deceased had wanted, and they may be able to help throughout the process as well. You’ll need to find a funeral home to conduct the funeral with, shop for an urn to hold the ashes or a casket to bury the body in, and so much more.
The deceased may have also asked for their ashes to be spread in a specific location if they wanted to be cremated. If this is the case, you may need to locate contact information and ask permission before doing so.
Don’t Forget to Take Care of Yourself
While everything mentioned above are all important steps in what to do with the deceased and their possessions, this last section is about you. Everyone handles grief differently in life, and that’s okay. The steps listed above may have been relatively easy for you to do if you kept a clear head and weren’t very emotional, but they could have also been extremely difficult to navigate around.
You may become grief stricken immediately or become suddenly struck at some point down the line. There’s a lot to do already, but you’ll need to add some time for yourself to that long list, which may mean lengthy conversations with family, taking some quiet time before bed to process, or finding a therapist and starting therapy.
The biggest thing to remember is that you’re not alone in this; this death will have affected many people, and they’ll be grieving as well. Make sure to check on them every once in a while, especially if they were close to the deceased. After all, you never know who needs help until you ask.
Read More:
Preparing to tell your kids about a death in the family: our top tips
