A Short Guide on What to Do When Someone Dies

What to do when someone dies. It is a sad period. However, it can provide you with an incredible sense of peace and relief if the deceased was in pain.

The processes before, during and afterwards, should go smoothly and without loss of dignity.

If your family member dies in a hospital or hospice, for instance, the doctor knows what to do. So that means the death, for the family, is peaceful.

However, families who haven’t provided for end-of-life plans will discover something. They will find that the death experience becomes far more painful when there are no plans in place.

What to Do When Someone Dies – Stay Calm

There are lots of little things you can do to make the road easier. Even having plenty of battery life and credit on your cell phone can make a family loss less stressful.

Remember, you will be making and also receiving lots of calls from family and friends requesting updates on the status of the person on the edge of death.

Before the person dies stock up your fridge and cupboards with instant, ready-made meals. You may not want to eat now, but over the traumatic times that lie ahead, you will be glad you don’t have to think about food preparation.

When a family member passes away, you need to have a legal pronouncement of death, which is mostly given by the doctor present. If however, a doctor wasn’t present, you will need to contact a doctor for instance to do this.

Remember that while there are general guidelines, circumstances and events differ. If you are in any doubt, you can always consult an attorney.

What to Do When Someone Dies – General Steps

• Notify family and friends – call the person’s employer if they were working. That is important because there may have been a life-insurance policy in place through the company
• Arrange transport of the body. If there was no foul play evident and the authorities do not need an autopsy, the mortuary staff can collect the body.
• Arrange for cremation or burial according to the person’s wishes. You will need to find out if there was a prepaid funeral plan in place
• Obtain death certificates. It is a wise decision to make a few copies for insurance purposes etc.
• Find out who the executor is – if the deceased had a will, for instance, they will no doubt have nominated someone to perform the function of the executor.  The person who finds themselves nominated as the executor, but who doesn’t understand the legal proceedings can contact an attorney to assist with administering the estate.

What to Do When Someone Dies – Understand Some of the Basic Processes

There are always going to be a lot of decisions and arrangements to make at the death of someone. You won’t be able to do everything as there will be some legalistic issues that need to be done by the administrator of the estate.

Nonetheless, there are basic guides to help you be prepared and to smooth the path ahead so that at least some of the trauma is lessened and the process becomes that much smoother.

To get a complimentary funeral cover quote, please complete and then “click to send” send the form on this page

* Watch this YouTube video on the subject.

All info was correct at time of publishing