PlainlyKept Free · Six pages

What to do when someone dies

The first
48 hours.

The cover of The First 48 Hours, a six page checklist from PlainlyKept

Most of what you are being asked to decide right now can wait. A few things cannot, and two of them cost real money if they are handled wrong.

Arrives straight away. Nothing to pay, nothing to buy, and nothing on it needs a lawyer.

“If somebody is pressing you for a decision in the first forty-eight hours, that pressure is information about them, not about how urgent the decision is.”

Page three

Photograph by Marc Pell on Unsplash

Reproduced in full from page three

What is not urgent, no matter who says otherwise

In the first two days you will be asked to decide things that do not have to be decided. Some of the people asking are being kind and some are selling. Either way, the answer is that it can wait.

  • Reading the will. It changes nothing this week, and it is not a ceremony that has to happen.
  • Closing accounts. Freezing and closing are different things, and closing early creates work rather than saving it.
  • Paying bills that are not urgent. The mortgage and the insurance matter. A magazine subscription does not.
  • Deciding who gets what. Nothing about this improves for being settled at speed.
  • Anyone calling to ask for payment over the phone. Legitimate organizations write to you. Nobody who is owed money needs a card number this week.

Two of the six pages

Page two of the checklist, headed The first forty-eight hours, showing seven numbered steps
Page two. Seven steps, in the order to do them.
Page four of the checklist, headed The two things people get wrong, and what they cost
Page four. Both of these cost money, and both are avoidable in one phone call.

The rest of what is on it

  1. Seven things that actually have to happen, in the order to do them, starting with who to call and who not to call.
  2. Ten certified copies of the death certificate, not one. Every bank, insurer, and government office wants an original, and reordering later is slower and costs more.
  3. The call that stops identity theft. Obituaries are public documents listing a full name, an age, an address, and the names of relatives.
  4. Do not cancel the phone line. Two-factor codes go there. Cancel it and the accounts lock, sometimes permanently.
  5. Who to notify over the following weeks, including the ones that quietly keep charging a card.

Questions

What does it cost?

Nothing. There is no card, no trial, and no upsell on the download.

What do you do with my email address?

Send you the checklist, and occasionally something else useful about settling an estate. Unsubscribe on any of them and that is the end of it.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is a list of practical steps, and the rules on some of them differ by state. Anything involving a will, a trust, or probate needs an attorney licensed where you live.

Do I need to print it?

No. It reads on a phone, and it prints cleanly on US Letter if you would rather have it on paper, which many people would in that week.

Who is it for?

Whoever is holding the phone. Usually a spouse or an adult child in the first day or two, before the funeral is arranged.

Send it to me

Six pages. It arrives straight away.

Nothing to pay, nothing to buy.