What to do in the first week
Seven things worth doing now — and what the people who read obituaries are hoping you will not get to. Nothing here is urgent enough to do tonight. It is here so that it is written down somewhere when you have an hour.
- 1
Social Security — by telephone, never online
1-800-772-1213. Social Security accepts a report of death by phone or in person only. It does not take them by email or through a website, so anything online offering to register a death is a scam. Your funeral director usually files this for you; it costs nothing to ask whether they have.
- 2
One credit bureau, not three
Send a copy of the death certificate with the full name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death to any one of Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. The one you tell notifies the other two. Equifax Information Services LLC, P.O. Box 105139, Atlanta, GA 30348-5139.
- 3
The bank, before the next payment arrives
Benefits for the month of the death cannot be kept and have to go back. Tell the bank directly and ask them to return anything that lands from that month onward. Doing it now is a phone call; doing it later is a letter demanding repayment.
- 4
The obituary — what to leave out
The FBI asks families to omit the date of birth, middle name, home address, birthplace and mother's maiden name. Those five fields are most of what a stranger needs to open an account in the name of someone who can no longer check their own credit report.
- 5
The call saying the funeral will be canceled
The Federal Trade Commission has a standing alert about people impersonating funeral home staff, telephoning a family and demanding money immediately or the service is off. No funeral home works this way. Hang up and call the number on the paperwork you were given — never a number the caller supplies.
- 6
Nobody legitimate is ever paid in gift cards
Nor by wire transfer, nor in cryptocurrency. A request for any of the three ends the conversation. There is no exception to this, and no emergency that creates one.
- 7
When the mail starts
dmachoice.org runs a Deceased Do Not Contact registration — a $6 fee, and about three months to take effect. It will not help this week. It does cut the stream of mail aimed at a name that can no longer object to receiving it.
Did I start this? Is it rushing me? Does it want money, codes or access?
One yes — stop. Hang up. Call the number you already had.
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