Order fifteen, not five

Sometime in the first day or two, the funeral director will ask you a quiet, practical question: how many copies of the death certificate would you like ordered. Most people, caught off guard, say five. A few say ten. The honest answer is fifteen, and the reason is more boring, and more aggravating, than you would expect.

Why one is never enough

A death certificate is a state-issued vital record. Banks, insurers, brokerages, retirement custodians, and government agencies all require an original: embossed, raised seal, ordered through the county or state. Not a photocopy. Not a scan. Many institutions keep the certificate they receive. Some promise to return it after recording. The ones that promise often do not.

Each one costs between fifteen and twenty-five dollars depending on the state. Reordering takes four to six weeks. If you run out at week three of settling things and have eight more institutions to notify, that is two months of standing still while accounts you needed to close keep moving.

A working list of where each one goes

In the rough order most survivors hit them:

1. Life insurance. One per policy.
2. Each retirement account: 401(k), IRA, pension.
3. Social Security Administration.
4. The employer, for benefits and the final paycheck.
5. Every joint bank account.
6. The mortgage company, if there is a mortgage.
7. Each brokerage or investment account.
8. The vehicle title, one per vehicle.
9. The deed to the house, if it needs to be retitled.
10. The IRS, for the final tax return.
11. Sometimes the utility company, sometimes not. Pension survivors’ benefits, if any. The veterans’ administration, if applicable.

A typical household of two cars, one mortgage, one life policy, two retirement accounts, and a couple of bank accounts is already at ten. That is before anything unusual.

The math

Fifteen certificates upfront is roughly three hundred dollars. The alternative is months of waiting between rounds. During those months, accounts go into limbo, automatic payments fail, and you find yourself making the same call to the same county clerk you already called.

Order more than you think you’ll need. The small expense is the cheapest thing about this entire process.

What survivors wish they’d known

Three things almost no one says out loud until you are in the middle of needing to know them:

• The funeral home can usually order them for you at the time of the first arrangement, and bill them with the rest of the services. You do not have to figure out the county vital records office in the first week.
• Some institutions will accept a certified copy from a different state if the person travelled or moved. Some will not. Ask before you send.
• Keep two certificates aside, in a folder, in a place you will remember. The one you hand to the IRS is the one you wish you still had three months later.

What the binder does with this

Inside the binder, the very first item under Documents is exactly this: order fifteen, not five. Every other Documents task depends on it. The reader then walks through which institution gets which certificate, in what order, and what to bring along with it.

This is not interesting writing. It is just true, and almost no one says it out loud until you are in the middle of needing to know.