The information and papers you will be asked for
The facts the funeral director needs for the death certificate, where to find each one, and the papers later steps ask for: discharge papers, contracts, deeds, policies and the will.
- Start here: the essentials
- 1. Who files the certificate, and who supplies the facts
- 2. The facts the death certificate asks for
- 3. The papers later steps ask for
- 4. The will: find it, then hand it on
- 5. Keeping numbers out of the file
- 6. See it
- 7. Practice
- 8. Your arrangements
- 9. Check your work
- 10. Knowledge check and scenario
Start here Essentials
At minimum, this chapter asks you to gather the facts the funeral director needs for the death certificate and to find the few papers that later steps depend on. You record where each fact and paper is, not the numbers themselves.
- Ask for the list. Ask the funeral director, or the hospice or facility, which personal facts they need from you (who supplies the facts).
- Mark each fact. On the facts checklist, mark every item known, being found, or unknown, and write who knows it or which document it comes from (the facts).
- Find the discharge papers. If the person served in the armed forces, find the DD214 or other discharge papers (the papers).
- Find any plan or deed. Look for a prepaid funeral contract, cemetery papers and written wishes, and note where each one is (the papers).
- Hand on the will. If you find a will, give it to the person it names as executor; do not act on it yourself (the will).
Minimum time: about 45 minutes, spread over a day or two. Done when: the facts checklist shows every item as known, being found (with who), or unknown, and the documents sheet says where each paper is.
1. Who files the certificate, and who supplies the facts Understand
A death certificate is the state's permanent record of a death (see the glossary). It has two halves. One half is medical: the time, place and cause of death, signed by a doctor, or where the state allows it a physician assistant or nurse practitioner, or by the medical examiner or coroner. The other half is personal: who the person was, where they lived, their family and their work. Families are asked for the personal half.
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics publishes a model for every state's form, the US Standard Certificate of Death, and a handbook for the funeral directors who complete it (the Funeral Director's Handbook, 2019 revision). Each state adapts the model, so the boxes on your state's form may be numbered or worded differently. Varies by state The facts asked for are close to the same everywhere.
The funeral director files it
The handbook makes the funeral director responsible for filing a complete and accurate death certificate with the state's registration official, though it notes that state laws vary. In practice the funeral director usually fills in the personal items and the details of burial or cremation, and gets the medical items and the signature from the doctor, the hospice or the medical examiner. The funeral director then files the certificate within the state's deadline. Varies by state
Two practical points follow from that.
- You do not fill in the form. You give the funeral director the facts, usually on the phone or at the arrangement meeting, and often on the funeral home's own worksheet. The funeral director types them into the state's system.
- The certificate gates the next steps. In most states the funeral director needs a completed certificate before getting the permit to bury, cremate or move the body out of the state. The handbook calls this permit an authorization for disposition; many states call it a burial-transit permit. Varies by state A missing fact can hold up the cremation or burial date, which is why this chapter comes before the purchasing chapters.
If the person died in a hospital or nursing home, the facility may hand the funeral director a certificate with some of the items already filled in. If the person died at home under hospice care, the hospice nurse completes the paperwork that confirms the death, and the hospice sends it on so a certificate can be issued, according to the Hospice Foundation of America. Either way, the personal items still come from the family.
The informant
The person who supplies the personal facts is called the informant. The handbook lists an order of preference: the spouse, then a parent, then a child, then another relative, then another person who knows the facts. The informant's name, relationship and mailing address appear on the certificate. Handbook's order
Being the informant does not make someone the person with the right to decide. The informant answers questions of fact. Who decides on burial, cremation and the service is a separate question, set by state law and covered in Who decides. In many families the same person does both. In some, a spouse is the informant and an adult child signs the contract, or the reverse. Tell the funeral director who is doing which.
Ask for their list first
Funeral homes use their own intake worksheets, and some send them by email before the arrangement meeting. Ask for it. It tells you what this funeral home and this state want, in their order, and it often asks for more than the certificate does: details for an obituary, the clergy's name, the cemetery's name. The facts checklist in this manual follows the federal model, so it lines up with almost any worksheet.
When you call, a short script works:
- "Can you send me the list of what you need for the death certificate?"
- "Is there anything you need today, and what can wait until the meeting?"
- "How do you want me to give you the Social Security number?"
The last question matters for keeping numbers out of the file.
When the medical examiner is involved
If the death was sudden, unexplained, the result of an accident or violence, or happened without a doctor in attendance, the medical examiner or coroner may take the case (The first hours). The handbook notes that in some places the medical examiner then completes the medical part of the certificate, and in others the whole certificate, personal items included. Ask the authority Ask the investigator or the funeral director which items they still need from you. The family's facts are still needed in either case; only the route they take changes.
This chapter helps you gather facts and find papers. It does not interpret a will, a prepaid contract, an insurance policy or a cemetery deed, and it does not say whether any of them is binding. The person named as executor, or an attorney, reads the will. The funeral home or cemetery that issued a contract or deed explains what it covers. If a prepaid provider has closed, the state agency that regulates funeral homes or prepaid contracts is the one to ask.
2. The facts the death certificate asks for
The table lists the personal items an informant is asked for on the US Standard Certificate of Death, in the handbook's order, with the place the value usually comes from. It matches the facts checklist in your information sheet. The checklist has two columns you fill in: a status (known, being found, unknown) and who knows the fact or which document it comes from. You do not type the value.
The handbook names the documents the funeral director copies from to get names and spellings right: the birth certificate, the marriage certificate, the Social Security card and military discharge papers. For the other items, the source is what the family knows.
| Item | What it asks | Where the value usually comes from | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal name | First, middle and last name, and any other names the person used | Birth certificate; marriage certificate for a name change; Social Security card | Spelling, and the name that matches government records. A nickname or a married name can be listed as another name. |
| Sex | As the state's form asks it | The family | Ask the funeral director how your state's form words this item. |
| Social Security number | The number | Social Security card, a benefit letter, a tax return | Give it to the funeral director directly. Record only where the card or letter is. |
| Age | Age at death | Worked out from the date of birth | Nothing to look up if the birth date is known. |
| Date and place of birth | Date; city or town, and state or foreign country | Birth certificate, passport | Give the values to the funeral director, not to the sheet. |
| Residence | Street address, city, county and state; some state forms ask more, such as how long the person lived there | The family; a driver's license or mail for the exact address | Where the person lived, not where they died. For a nursing home resident, ask the funeral director which address the state wants. |
| Armed forces service | Ever in the US armed forces, yes or no | DD214 or other discharge papers | A "yes" here starts the veterans' benefit questions in Paying and benefits. |
| Marital status | Married, widowed, divorced, not married, or another status the form lists | The family; marriage certificate or divorce decree | Status at the time of death. |
| Surviving spouse's name | The spouse's name, as it was before their first marriage | Marriage certificate | The name before first marriage, which may differ from the current name. |
| Father's or parent's name | First, middle, last | The person's birth certificate | Often known only in part. Mark it "being found" and name the document. |
| Mother's or parent's name | First, middle, and last name before first marriage | The person's birth certificate | The item families most often have to look up. |
| Education | Highest grade or degree completed | The family; a diploma or résumé | The highest completed, not the last attended. |
| Hispanic origin | Whether the person was of Hispanic or Latino origin, and which group | The family | Answer as the person described themselves, where the family knows it. |
| Race | One or more races | The family | More than one can be marked on the federal model. |
| Usual occupation and kind of business | The kind of work done during most of the person's working life, and the industry | The family; a résumé or obituary draft | The usual occupation, so a retired teacher's answer is the teaching. Ask the funeral director how your state handles "retired" or "homemaker". |
The table follows the federal model, which states adapt. Varies by state Your state's form may add items (for example, the informant's relationship in its own wording, or a place of burial) or split one into two. The funeral director's worksheet is the version that counts.
Status, not values
The checklist's three statuses keep the work moving when facts are missing.
- Known. You or the informant can give it now. Write who knows it, or the document you checked it against.
- Being found. Someone is looking. Write their name and where they are looking: "Sam, birth certificate in the fire box."
- Unknown. No one in reach knows it. Write that, and tell the funeral director, who knows how the state wants an item no one can supply handled. Ask the funeral director
An unknown item does not stop the rest of the work. Tell the funeral director early. The handbook notes that the state registrar can amend a registered certificate, but a correction takes time and paperwork, and copies issued before it carry the old entry. Varies by state Getting spellings right the first time avoids that.
Why the spelling matters later
Banks, insurers, Social Security and the motor vehicle office match the certificate against their own records (After the service). A name spelled differently from the Social Security record, or a middle initial where the bank has a full middle name, can mean a claim is questioned or held. Copying from the documents the handbook names (the birth certificate, the marriage certificate, the Social Security card and the discharge papers) is the simplest protection. When the funeral director reads the facts back to you, check every name letter by letter before the certificate is filed.
Why the certificate asks about education, race and occupation
Some items have nothing to do with the funeral or the estate. Education, race, Hispanic origin and usual occupation feed the national vital statistics that the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics compiles from every state's death records. Researchers and health departments use them to see which groups die of which causes and at what ages, and which kinds of work carry which risks. The statistics are only as good as the answers, so give the funeral director what the family knows and say when you are unsure.
The federal model numbers the items. The handbook says the funeral director usually completes items 1 to 23 and 51 to 55, the personal and disposition items, and the medical certifier completes the rest. If a state form uses the same numbering, that is a quick way to see which boxes are yours.
The handbook is a PDF on cdc.gov: search for "Funeral Director's Handbook 2019 revision" on the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics site. We could not check the link automatically on the day this page was written, so we name it rather than link it.
3. The papers later steps ask for
The certificate needs facts. The steps after it need papers: to schedule a burial, claim a benefit, use a plot that was already bought or honor a prepaid contract. Most of these are in the same places: a desk, a file box, a fire safe, a safe deposit box, or with a lawyer or a relative. Kansas State University's after-death checklist and AARP's checklist both put finding documents among the first tasks, and both list the same kinds of paper. The National Institute on Aging's records checklist is the planning-ahead version of the same list (Your arrangements file uses it).
Search once, for everything. The table lists what to look for, what it is for, and who reads it. Write each paper you find on the documents sheet with where it is and who has it.
| Paper | Needed for | Timing | Who reads or acts on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written funeral wishes, a letter of instruction | Decisions about the body and the service | Now | The person with the right to decide (Who decides) |
| Prepaid funeral contract | Choosing the provider; what is already paid for | Now | The funeral home named on it |
| Cemetery deed, plot or niche papers | Burial or placement of ashes in a plot already bought | This week | The cemetery |
| DD214 or other discharge papers | National cemetery scheduling, military honors, VA allowances | This week | The funeral director, the VA, the honors team |
| Birth and marriage certificates, Social Security card | Spellings and facts for the death certificate | Now | The funeral director |
| Life insurance policies or statements | Claims | Later | The beneficiary and the insurer (Paying and benefits) |
| The will | The estate | This week | The executor named in it (the will) |
Discharge papers
The DD214 is the Department of Defense's certificate of release or discharge from active duty. It shows the dates of service and the character of discharge, which is what the VA and the military look at first. Older discharges may be on other forms; the VA's pages say "DD214 or other discharge documents."
Three later steps ask for it.
- Burial in a VA national cemetery. The VA's scheduling page tells the family or the funeral director to gather the DD214 or other discharge papers before calling the National Cemetery Scheduling Office (800-535-1117, weekdays). It says that checking eligibility without discharge papers can take several days, and that the papers usually are not needed if a veteran or dependent is already buried in a national cemetery. VA's rule
- Military funeral honors. Military OneSource says a DD214 or other document showing an honorable discharge is required. DoD's rule Honors are requested through the funeral director (The service or gathering).
- VA burial allowances. The VA recommends including the DD214 with a claim (Paying and benefits).
If the person served and you cannot find the papers, tell the funeral director now. Look in the places people keep important paper: a file box, a fire safe, a safe deposit box, a framed copy on a wall. The funeral director may know other places to ask. Ask the funeral director
If the papers are lost, the record can be requested from the government. Military OneSource names two routes, online or on Standard Form 180 (SF-180). A request takes time, so start it as soon as you know the papers are missing.
Replacing lost discharge papers
Military OneSource's honors eligibility page names the two routes for a missing DD214: order it online, or send a Standard Form 180, the request for military records. The scheduling office can still check eligibility without the papers; the VA's page says that check can take several days. If the funeral or burial date is close, ask the funeral director to call the National Cemetery Scheduling Office about what it can accept in the meantime. Ask the authority
A prepaid funeral contract
A prepaid funeral contract (often called a preneed contract) is an agreement the person signed with a funeral home, and sometimes paid into, before the death. If one exists, the funeral home named on it is usually the first call about arrangements, and the contract shapes what you are asked to buy. Who decides covers how to look for one; Funeral homes and your rights and Goods, prices and the statement cover reading what it includes against the price list and the statement.
For now, find it and note three things on the documents sheet: the funeral home's name, the date, and where the paper is. Do not try to work out what it covers. The funeral home explains that, and a cemetery's charges are often separate even when a contract mentions burial. If the funeral home on the contract has closed or been sold, ask the state agency that licenses funeral homes or regulates prepaid contracts where the money went. Varies by state
Cemetery deed or plot papers
A cemetery deed is the paper that shows someone bought the right to be buried in a particular plot, or to place ashes in a particular niche. Cemeteries call it different things: a deed, a certificate of interment rights, a plot certificate. If the person owned a plot, the cemetery needs to know who holds the right before it will open the grave, and its rules decide what is allowed there. Write the cemetery's name, the section or plot if it is on the paper, and where the paper is. The cemetery reads the deed; this manual does not.
Insurance and a letter of instruction
Life insurance policies, a burial or final expense policy, and statements from an employer's group plan all belong on the documents sheet with where they are. AARP notes that insurers ask for an original death certificate and the policy number. Record where the policy is, not its number. Paying and benefits covers claims and the search for policies no one knew about.
A letter of instruction is an informal note, not a legal document, in which a person lists their wishes and where their papers are. Kansas State University's checklist and AARP's both name it. If you find one, it may answer half the questions in this chapter at once. Treat its funeral wishes as wishes, and take them to the person who decides (Who decides).
4. The will: find it, then hand it on
A will is about the estate: who receives the person's property and who is in charge of passing it on. That person is the executor, named in the will. If there is no will, a court usually appoints an administrator to do the same job. AARP's checklist describes both roles.
A will is often found too late to guide the funeral, and it is a poor place for funeral wishes for that reason (Who decides). If you find funeral wishes in it, take them to the person who decides. Everything else in it belongs to the executor.
What to do when you find it
- Do not mark it. Leave the original as you found it: no notes, no staples removed, no pages separated.
- Note it. Write on the documents sheet where it was, its date if visible, and who now has it.
- Give it to the executor. Hand it, or tell them where it is, to the person it names as executor. If you are that person, keep it safe and read After the service on where the estate begins.
- Ask about the original. Courts have rules about original wills. In California, for example, whoever has the original must deliver it to the court after the death, which the state's court self-help guide calls lodging the will, and give a copy to the named executor. Varies by state Ask the probate court in the county where the person lived, or an attorney, what your state requires.
This manual does not interpret a will, say whether it is valid, or say whether the estate needs probate. Those questions go to the executor, the probate court or an attorney.
5. Keeping numbers out of the file
Several of the facts above are the same facts identity thieves look for: the Social Security number, the date and place of birth, the mother's name before marriage. AARP's fraud pages describe criminals collecting these from obituaries and other public traces to open accounts in a dead person's name. A shared spreadsheet, a group text or a photo of a card on a phone is the same risk.
This manual's sheets are built around that.
- The sheets record where, not what. The facts checklist and documents sheet ask for a status and a source. "Social Security card: Ellen's wallet, with Sam" is enough for anyone who needs it. Our convention
- The number goes to the funeral director directly. Social Security's own guide for families says to give the funeral director the person's Social Security number, and that the funeral director usually reports the death to Social Security. Read it to them in person or on the phone, or ask how they want it sent.
- Not in a group message. When relatives ask for a fact, send them where the document is, or ask the person who has it to call the funeral director.
- Not in the share link. This manual's share link and the arrangements file export carry everything you typed. If a number is not typed in, it cannot leave the browser.
The same applies to your own numbers. The VA's scheduling office and some benefit offices ask for the next of kin's details as well. Give them on the call or the form, not in the file. Notices and telling people applies the same idea to the obituary.
6. See it See it
Sam Okoro is one of this manual's fictional cases; names, times and results are invented. Sam's mother, Ellen Okoro, 71, a retired school librarian and widowed, died at her home in Spokane, Washington, early on a Tuesday under home hospice care. Sam is her only child. Sam decides, and has chosen direct cremation.
The list. On Tuesday Sam works from this manual's facts checklist while calling providers (Funeral homes and your rights). The provider Sam chooses emails a one-page worksheet and says the Social Security number can be given at the arrangement meeting on Wednesday (times and meeting day fictional).
Known. Ellen's legal name and the spelling of her middle name, from her driver's license. Sex. Age. Residence: her house in Spokane, Spokane County, from her mail. Armed forces: no. Marital status: widowed. Education: a master's degree in library science, which Sam remembers from the diploma on her study wall. Race and Hispanic origin, as Ellen described herself. Usual occupation: school librarian, public schools. The informant: with Ellen widowed, Sam as her child is the person the handbook's order points to; the funeral director confirms it.
Assumed. Sam assumes the birth certificate in the fire box in the hall closet gives Ellen's place of birth and her parents' full names. The Social Security card is in Ellen's wallet, which Sam now has. Sam assumes Ellen lived at the house about thirty years; Carol Peck, the neighbor, may know.
Open. Ellen's mother's name before her first marriage: Sam knows only the first name. Settled by the birth certificate, which Sam opens on Tuesday afternoon. Years at the address: Carol Peck confirms it. Whether Ellen left a will: none found yet in the desk or the fire box; Sam keeps looking, and if one turns up it goes to the executor it names. If there is none, the estate questions go to the probate court or an attorney (After the service). Whether Ellen's handwritten note was signed before a witness is a question covered in Who decides; Sam records where the note is and leaves it there.
Papers found. The handwritten wishes note (desk, top drawer); the birth certificate and the marriage certificate (fire box, hall closet); the Social Security card (wallet, with Sam); the hospice folder (kitchen counter). No discharge papers, since Ellen did not serve. No prepaid contract; no cemetery papers, since Ellen chose cremation.
Result. By Wednesday's meeting every fact on the checklist is "known" and each names its source. Sam reads the values to the funeral director from the documents, and checks the spellings when the director reads them back. Nothing on the sheet holds a number.
The Marsh family is a second fictional case. Teo Marsh, 66, an Army veteran with an honorable discharge, lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and died suddenly while visiting his brother in Phoenix, Arizona. The county medical examiner took the case. His wife June and adult children Lena and Carlos disagree about burial or cremation.
Known. The DD214 exists and is in a file box in the garage in Albuquerque. Lena wants burial at Santa Fe National Cemetery, which needs the discharge papers for scheduling.
Assumed. The family assumes June, as his wife, is the informant; the handbook's order puts the spouse first.
Open. Which certificate items the medical examiner completes, and which the family supplies: settled by the medical examiner's office and the funeral director. Who holds the right to decide between burial and cremation, and which state's law applies: settled by the funeral director or an attorney (Who decides); being the informant does not settle it. Getting the DD214 to Phoenix: the VA's scheduling page accepts discharge papers by fax or email, so a neighbor in Albuquerque could send a copy, and the original stays in the box until the family is home. The documents sheet records "DD214: file box, garage, Albuquerque; June knows which box."
Free pages that show the same work:
- VA: Schedule a burial for a Veteran or family member: the papers and facts the national cemetery scheduling office asks for, and what a family decides on the call.
- Kansas State University: Checklist for After a Death (MF3699): an extension checklist that lists the documents to find, including the DD214.
- AARP: what to do when someone dies: a consumer checklist covering the letter of instruction, the prepaid plan and the will.
- National Institute on Aging: Getting Your Affairs in Order Checklist: the records a person can gather ahead of time, which is the same list read from the other side.
7. Practice Practice
Minimum: every item on the facts checklist marked known, being found or unknown with a source, and one row on the documents sheet for each paper found or still being looked for. Time: about 45 minutes, plus the time it takes to open a file box or two. Materials: a phone, the funeral home's worksheet if they sent one, the person's papers, and the information sheet. If you are planning ahead, use your own facts and papers.
- Get the worksheet. Ask the funeral home, hospice or facility for their list. If you have not chosen a funeral home yet, work from the facts checklist; it follows the federal model.
- Mark what you know. Go down the checklist and mark each item you can answer now as known, with its source: "Sam", "driver's license", "birth certificate".
- Assign what you do not. For every other item, write who will find it and where they will look. Use "unknown" only when no one in reach knows.
- Search once for the papers. Open the places important paper is kept and look for everything in the papers table at once: wishes, a prepaid contract, cemetery papers, discharge papers, birth and marriage certificates, insurance, the will.
- Write each paper down. On the documents sheet, add a row for each: what it is, where it is, who has it, what it is needed for. Add a row for each paper you are still looking for, with "not found yet" in the where column.
- Hand on the will. If you found a will, note it and give it to the named executor.
- Read the facts back. When you give the funeral director the facts, ask them to read the names back, and check each spelling against the document.
8. Your arrangements Your arrangements
The box below reads your setup and says which of these papers your situation is likely to need.
9. Check your work Check your work
Criteria
- Does every item on the facts checklist have a status?
- Does every item marked "being found" name a person and a place to look?
- Does the funeral director know about every item marked "unknown"?
- If the person served, do you know where the discharge papers are, or has a replacement request been started?
- Does the documents sheet say where each paper is and who has it?
- Is the will, if found, with the person named as executor?
- Is the sheet free of Social Security, account and policy numbers and of the birth date?
Worked example
Sam's checklist meets each criterion by Wednesday. Every item is known and names its source. The mother's name before marriage moved from "being found" to "known" once Sam opened the birth certificate. There are no discharge papers to find. The documents sheet lists five papers, each with a place and a holder, and a row for "will: not found yet; Sam searching desk and fire box." No number appears anywhere; the Social Security card row says "wallet, with Sam."
Common mistakes
- Typing the number "just for now". A number typed into a sheet travels with every export and share link. Check the sheet before you share it.
- A married name where the legal name belongs. Check the legal name against the Social Security card or the birth and marriage certificates.
- The current name of the mother or spouse. The certificate asks for the name before first marriage.
- Treating the informant as the decider. The informant answers questions of fact. Who decides is Who decides.
- Reading the will for instructions. Funeral wishes in a will go to the person who decides; the rest goes to the executor.
- Searching paper by paper. Three trips to the file box take longer than one search for the whole list.
What is still unresolved
This chapter does not settle what a prepaid contract covers (the funeral home, Funeral homes and your rights and Goods, prices and the statement), whether the person qualifies for a veterans' benefit (the VA, Paying and benefits), what the will means or whether the estate needs probate (the executor, the probate court or an attorney, After the service), or how many certified copies to order (After the service).