Things That You’ll Need to Take Care of After the Funeral

After your loved one is cremated or buried by a Maricopa County, AZ funeral home, there will be several things that you will need to take care of to close the chapter of your loved one’s life. Although it may be difficult, from an emotional aspect, to accomplish these things, some of these things need to be done as soon as possible after death.

The first thing that you need to do is get all of your loved one’s legal paperwork. Typically, this information is located in a home safe or in a bank safety deposit box. If you’re unable to find your loved one’s legal paperwork and you know a will was made, contact the attorney who drew up the will. 

In the legal paperwork, there should be a durable power of attorney for finances and there should be a will. There should also be paperwork with life insurance information, bank account information, and your loved one’s Social Security card. 

As much as our lives are now digitally-based, you will also need computer login information, online banking account login information, credit card account information and online access to the credit card accounts, email account login information, and social media account information. This information may be typed in a document on your loved one’s computer or it may be stored on a flash drive that is stored with the legal paperwork. 

The executor of the will and the durable power of attorney for finances may be the same person or they may be two different people. The executor of the will takes care of the deceased’s instructions on the distribution of their assets. The durable power of attorney for finances handles insurance, financial matters, and may handle digital information. 

To start the process of closing the chapter of your loved one’s life, you will need a death certificate for the deceased. The funeral home will provide these to you. It’s a good idea to get 15 or 20 death certificates, because you will have to send them to insurance companies and they will be needed to handle legal and financial matters for the deceased. 

You should notify Social Security as soon as possible after the funeral that your loved one has died. You should also cancel credit cards as quickly as possible. You will need a death certificate to handle bank accounts, savings accounts, investment accounts, and other types of financial accounts. 

If the deceased left instructions about blogs, email accounts, and social media accounts that they wanted to stay active after their death, be sure to go in and change the passwords and keep a record of the new login information. If they did not leave instructions about these types of accounts, then either delete them or deactivate them. 

You can find out more information about what to do after the your loved one’s funeral by speaking with one of our knowledgeable and empathetic Maricopa County, AZ funeral home staff members Simply Cremation & Funeral Arrangements. We are located at 16952 W. Bell Rd., #303, Surprise, AZ, 85374. Call us today at (623) 975-9393 for 24/7 immediate assistance.