Three Things I Learned Settling My Father’s Estate
I’ve taught estate planning classes for years, but I’ve never claimed to be an expert. My purpose was to show my audience that they could handle many estate issues themselves. If they did need to go to a lawyer, my class would make help them know what questions to ask.
My father passed away after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. Even I have to admit I’ve learned a few things while settling his estate.
Those folks at Social Security are on the ball.
The funeral home reported my dad’s death to Social Security. I called Social Security about a week after his death only to find out they had already adjusted my mother’s benefit and notified Medicare on her behalf. All we had to do was drop off a special death certificate marked for Social Security. Wow, that was easy.
We ordered way too many death certificates.
In the past the rule of thumb was to order 20 death certificates. We decided to be on the safe side and order 25. I think to date I have only used 3 of them. My father’s mortgage and pension providers accepted faxed death certificates. I uploaded a picture of the death certificate to his investment company. Even the bank told us that they could only keep a copy of the copy. Huh? His credit card companies just took our word for it.
I almost forgot about my father’s credit report.
I had made a list of all the issues I needed to address, but this one almost slipped my mind. Social Security does report deaths to credit bureaus but it may take a while. So it is a good idea for the spouse or executor to notify Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion directly. You only have to notify one credit agency and they will notify the other two. Instructions on how to do this can be found at
They don’t close the credit file. They flag it as a deceased person so no credit is issued.
I always told my father I would take care of everything. About three weeks after he died, his name and email just appeared as my name badge on my cell phone. Perhaps it was his way of telling me thanks.