Booklet: What to do when someone dies (Chapter 2 – What to do within days)

Booklet: What to do when someone dies

Below is Chapter 2 of our ‘What to do when someone dies’ booklet. To read the other chapters of our booklet, click the links below:

Funeral and burial arrangements

Once you have selected a funeral director, they will arrange most aspects of the funeral for you.

They can also arrange other things such as newspaper notices, flowers and religious services.

Notifying people about the death and funeral

If you elect to arrange the newspaper notices yourself, you may wish to consider publishing:

  • a notice of death, including an indication of the expected funeral date, time and place; and
  • a separate notice of the confirmed funeral arrangements closer to the time of the funeral, as well as on the particular day. 

By this time you may also wish to contact the deceased’s friends, work and professional colleges and remote family, to inform them of the death and the funeral arrangements, giving them time to make leave and travel arrangements.

Covering the funeral cost

The cost of a funeral can be thousands of dollars. If the deceased did not have a pre‑paid funeral or funeral bond, then you need to consider how you are going to cover this cost. 

In some instances, you may be able to cover this cost from the deceased’s own resources (see section below titled ’Payment of Immediate Expenses’).

Insurance cover

Sometimes private health insurance, sickness and accident insurance or life insurance policies may contribute an amount towards the cost of a funeral. If the deceased had insurance, you should enquire with their insurer as to whether there is any contribution towards the funeral expenses. 

The contribution can depend on the level of cover and certain conditions including:

  • your relationship to the person who has died;
  • the length of time he or she had the cover; and
  • whether a health condition that contributed to the death had existed before the policy was taken out.

Centrelink assistance

Some people are entitled to apply through Centrelink for financial assistance for funerals in the form of a bereavement payment or early release of their superannuation to pay for a dependant’s funeral. 

You may wish to make this enquiry early on if you do not think you will be able to meet the costs of the funeral. For more information you can contact the Bereavement Services Team at Centrelink on 132 300 or visit their website at
www.humanservices.gov.au.

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

If the deceased was an eligible Australian war veteran, you may be entitled to receive a funeral benefit from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. This amount can be used to assist with funeral costs or to assist with the costs of transporting the veteran’s body from the place of death to their usual place of residence.

Eligibility for the maximum amount will depend on whether the deceased was receiving or had received a Special Rate Disability Pension or was eligible for permanent impairment compensation at the time of death. 

In addition, the dependent spouse, partner or children of the deceased (if any) may be eligible for an additional bereavement payment. The amount of the payment is determined by reference to the financial support that the deceased was receiving from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs at the time of death.

To determine if you may be eligible for one of these payments and to obtain an application form, you can contact the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on 1800 555 254 or visit their website at www.dva.gov.au.

Death Certificate

The funeral director will also give you a copy of the official Death Certificate if it is ready. You may receive an interim Death Certificate if there is any enquiry as to the cause of death, in which case the final Death Certificate may take months. 

You will need the Death Certificate to administer the estate and apply for probate, so you must keep it in a safe spot. 

Copy of the deceased’s Will

In the days after the deceased has died you will need to establish whether or not the deceased left a Will, and who will be the executor (under the Will) or the administrator (if there was no Will). If you locate more than one Will purporting to be the Will of the deceased, then you should try and determine which is the most recent and valid Will. You may require the assistance of a solicitor to do this.

If there is no Will then the administrator will be the deceased’s next of kin – usually a spouse or partner, a parent or a sibling, (see more information about Letters of Administration below under the heading ’What to do … Within Weeks: Apply for Probate or Letters of Administration’).

It is important that you preserve the deceased’s Will in its original state, as any alteration is considered ’damage’ (which could result in the Will being invalid, or requiring further legal work to be done before probate is granted). For example, you cannot remove a staple or other binding of a Will because this is considered ’damage’. If you wish to make copies of a Will, you must do so page-by-page.

You should also avoid pinning or clipping things to the Will, as the marks left by these things may give the Probate Registry reason to make further enquires as to the nature of the thing pinned or clipped to the Will, which can delay the grant of probate and lead to more legal costs.

The Will is an important document in dealing with the deceased’s affairs, particularly the distribution of his or her assets. If there is no Will, then there is legislation to outline how the assets of the estate are to be distributed.

In the course of administering an estate, an executor or administrator will usually have to:

  • File an application for probate or letters of administration (please note that this is not required for all estates);
  • Pay any bills owing by the deceased (e.g. utility bills) for which they will be reimbursed by the estate following the grant of probate or letters of administration;
  • Determine what debts and liabilities have to be satisfied from the assets of the estate;
  • Collect and realise the value of the assets which will be used to pay any debts and liabilities;
  • Determine the order in which assets are to be used to pay any debts and liabilities – in some cases this is set out in the Will;
  • Lodge a final tax return for the deceased (personally, up to the time of death) and for the estate (for each tax year during the period of administration of the estate);
  • In some cases, arrange for documents to show that the executor or administrator is the legal owner of certain types of assets before these can be sold;
  • Pay the debts and liabilities; and
  • Distribute the remaining assets to beneficiaries according to the terms of the Will or according to law (if there is no Will, or a successful challenge to the Will is made).

In some cases the executor will also be involved in making funeral arrangements – this will usually be the case if the executor is a close family member.

If the executor is someone more removed (i.e. a lawyer or other advisor), they will need to be given a copy of the invoice for the funeral, as this is an expense of the estate.

Lost Wills

It may be the case that you know the deceased had a Will, but you cannot locate it. This is more common than you may think.

You should of course make every effort to find the Will, including looking through the deceased’s personal effects, contacting the deceased’s bank, solicitor, accountant, financial planner and any trusted friends.

You should also contact the various trustee companies and consider placing an advertisement in the local newspaper and in the journal of the local law society (this may alert a solicitor who may have made the Will).

If you are not able to find the Will, then the estate will be treated as if a Will did not exist, and the estate will be distributed according to the rules that apply to intestacy. This is the case even if you know what the deceased intended for the distribution of their estate.

It is important that you preserve the deceased’s Will in its original state to avoid further legal work.

Payment of immediate expenses

If you wish, banks will usually allow access to funds to meet immediate expenses such as the funeral.

It is likely that the deceased had a bank account they were using at the time they died. Depending on how much money is available in the account, you may wish to access some of it to meet immediate expenses, such as the funeral and the probate application. The bank will usually let you do this, even if you were not an authorised operator of the account before the deceased died.

We recommend meeting with someone from the deceased’s local bank branch to discuss how much money is available and how much you might need to cover immediate expenses.

It is likely that the bank will freeze the deceased’s account once you have taken the money you immediately require, so you will need to make alternative arrangements to pay any other bills or expenses that might come up in the time between the death and the grant of probate (such as ongoing utility bills and periodic payments, such as mortgage interest). 

You may wish to enquire as to any direct debits that are regularly made from the deceased’s accounts so that you can notify these providers to cease their services (some may require a Death Certificate in order to do this).

As a general rule, any reasonable and necessary expenses that you meet on behalf of the deceased after their death may be reimbursed from the deceased’s estate after probate is granted.

Make sure to keep a copy of all invoices paid on behalf of the deceased, and evidence of how these expenses have been met.

You should also keep a copy of all of your correspondence relating to the deceased, both in the period before their death (to the extent that you were involved), and after their death. This will help you to keep track of what you have done and what still needs to be finalised.

Notification of key organisations

Some organisations should be notified as soon as possible after the deceased has died. 

These include:

  • Centrelink – if the deceased was in receipt of a Centrelink payment, or your Centrelink payments are made by reference to the deceased;
  • The Department of Veterans’ Affairs – if the deceased was a pensioner or a borrower under any of the Defence Service Homes Schemes;
  • Any foreign pension authority (if applicable);
  • Banks and other financial institutions; and
  • Insurance providers.

Contact details for some of the above are listed at the end of this booklet.

 

To download a PDF of our booklet (including our contact checklist), enter your email below.

 

The information contained in this post is current at the date of editing – 20 March 2024.

Our Great Lawyer Guarantee

We want to be part of your team over the long term. We'll achieve this by sticking closely to the following principles:

  • We'll listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve. Then we'll thoroughly explain our advice and step you through the documents. You can be sure you'll know the full consequences.
  • Our lawyers work as a team, so someone will always be available to answer your questions, or point you in the right direction. You will also benefit from a range of perspectives and experience.
  • One of our key goals is to pass on as much knowledge as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions. We want to make you truly independent.
  • We only do what we're good at. You can be confident that we know what we're doing and won't pass on the cost of our learning.
  • For advice and documents, we provide a fixed or capped quote so you don’t take price risk. If you're in a dispute, we'll map out the process and costs so you know what to expect.
  • We're not in this game for our egos. We're in it for a front row seat to witness your success.

We measure our success on how efficiently we have facilitated your objectives, enhanced your relationships, and reduced the level of stress for all involved.

If we sound like people you can work with, call us now on 1300 654 590 and speak directly with a great lawyer.