Payment at Funeral Homes/Cemetery

Along with all of the stress during this difficult time comes the added financial stress of paying for the services and burial or cremation.  If you are receiving life insurance proceeds, make sure to talk to the funeral home or cemetery about taking an "assignment" from the life insurance.  What this means is that the insurance will pay the funeral home first and then send you the remaining insurance amount.  The importance of this is that one does not have to come up with payment to the funeral home at this moment.  They, understandably, want to be paid for their services.  Funerals and burials become quite expensive very quickly.... not having to come up with that money is one less thing to be concerned about.  

Assignments are pretty much standard practice and should not be an issue.  In Florida, the funeral home I worked with used a third party to process the assignments.  There was an additional fee for using this company.  It was almost like a loan to cover the time between the actual service and the time the funeral home receives the money from the insurance company.  In my case this was an unusually long time (about 5 months.)  In larger cities and more urban areas this may become more of a standard practice, but in smaller communities, it does not seem to be happening as much.  

Since my insurance was coming from a well known company, I had the human resources person (through my husband's work) negotiate the additional fee for the service and did not end up having to pay it.  I do not know how successful this would be in general.  

One day at a time,

Penelope 

  

Death Certificates

At the time of this post, I have experience in Florida, Maryland, Washington, DC  and Pennsylvania.  My feeling is that this is consistent across the states, but I do not know that for sure.  Generally the funeral home helps with the death certificates.  You tell them how many you need and they get them for you initially.  If more copies are needed later on, one gets them through the Department of Health or Vital Statistics in your state.

The advice I was given, was good advice... get more than you think you will need.  Many institutions require the original certificate with a raised seal.  

I began including a self addressed stamped envelope with a note asking to return the certificate if they did not need to keep the original and got 2 back that way.  

Some of the places that will require a death certificate are listed below:

• Life insurance policy (or policies)
• Pension, IRA or other benefits
• Social Security
• Union or other benefits
• Accounts at banks or credit unions
• Stocks and bonds
• Titles and deeds to property
• Vehicle registration and title transfer
• Attorneys and CPA's
• Home mortgage
• Other insurance (home, auto)
• Credit cards and other accounts 
• Keep an original certified copy for your own records (and children may also need them at some point.)

This list is not meant to be all inclusive.  Please feel free to list additional suggestions in the comments below. 

Over time I would like to list in the comments section all 50 states and feel free to list information for other countries as well.   Please enter the STATE NAME in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS first, to make it easy to find.  Follow this with any information and links, especially to the state departments of health or vital statistics.

One day at a time,
Penelope