Practical Tasks After Loss

After the funeral or memorial, a second wave hits: the administrative aftermath. Insurance claims, account closures, probate filings, utility transfers, subscription cancellations. Each task is small individually, but together they form a mountain of paperwork that arrives when your cognitive capacity is at its lowest.

🔄 Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, you learned to triage the immediate chaos — designating a point person, managing communications, and deferring non-urgent decisions. Now you’ll tackle the longer-term practical tasks, organized into a manageable sequence.

The Post-Death Task Timeline

Task Organization Prompt

Help me organize all the practical tasks after a death:

Relationship to deceased: [spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend]
State: [for legal requirements]
Known assets: [home, bank accounts, retirement, insurance, vehicles]
Known debts: [mortgage, credit cards, loans]
Will exists: [yes/no/unknown]
Executor named: [you/someone else/unknown]

Create a phased checklist:

Phase 1: First Week (urgent legal/financial)
Phase 2: First Month (notifications and claims)
Phase 3: Months 2-6 (estate settlement)
Phase 4: Months 6-12 (final steps)

For each task, include:
- Who to contact
- What documents I need
- Estimated timeline
- Whether I need an attorney for this step

Key Administrative Tasks

Death Certificates

Order more copies than you think you’ll need. Every institution wants an original certified copy.

Notification Checklist

Create a notification checklist for [deceased person's name]:

Known accounts and memberships:
- [List everything you know about]

Help me create a list of everyone who needs to be notified:
1. Government agencies (Social Security, VA, DMV, voter registration)
2. Financial institutions (banks, credit cards, investments)
3. Insurance companies (life, health, auto, home)
4. Employers/pension administrators
5. Utilities and services (electric, water, phone, internet)
6. Subscriptions (streaming, magazines, memberships)
7. Professional organizations
8. Doctors and healthcare providers

For each, include: phone number/contact method, what they'll need from me,
and any deadlines I should know about

✅ Quick Check: How many copies of the death certificate should you order? (Answer: 10-15 minimum. Nearly every institution requires a certified copy — not a photocopy — of the death certificate. Banks, insurance companies, the DMV, Social Security, investment firms, and the probate court all need their own copies. Ordering extra initially costs a few dollars per copy; ordering more later requires going back to the vital records office and waiting weeks.)

Financial Tasks

Cancel recurring charges immediately — subscriptions, autopayments, and memberships continue until cancelled. AI can help you search bank and credit card statements for recurring charges you might miss.

Do NOT:

• Pay the deceased’s debts from your personal funds (unless you co-signed)
• Close accounts that might be needed for estate settlement
• Distribute assets before probate is complete (if probate is required)
• Throw away any financial documents (keep everything for at least 7 years)

Practice Exercise

1. Use the task organization prompt to create your phased checklist — the act of writing it down often reduces the overwhelm
2. Order death certificates (10-15 copies) if you haven’t already
3. Start the notification process with the institutions you know about — each one completed removes a weight from your list

Key Takeaways

• Order 10-15 certified copies of the death certificate — nearly every institution requires an original certified copy
• You’re generally NOT responsible for a deceased person’s individual debts — don’t let collectors pressure you into paying from your own funds
• The FTC Funeral Rule protects you — funeral homes must provide itemized pricing and allow individual service selection
• Wills don’t execute themselves — probate is a court process that can take 6 months to 2+ years
• Cancel recurring charges and subscriptions promptly — check bank and credit card statements for charges you might not know about
• AI organizes the mountain of tasks into manageable phases — tackling them sequentially prevents the overwhelm of seeing everything at once

Up Next

In the next lesson, you’ll turn from practical tasks to emotional processing — using AI-supported journaling and reflection to work through the complex emotions that grief brings.