Here is the problem. Every bank, super fund, share registry, insurer and government agency needs proof that the person has died and that you are entitled to act. None of them will accept a plain photocopy. Most will not accept the original, because they will not risk posting it back. And almost none of them return what you send.
So each one needs its own certified copy: a photocopy that an authorised person has compared against the original and signed. If there are fifteen institutions, that is potentially forty-five certified pages, and the natural approach (getting two done, running out, finding a Justice of the Peace, getting two more) turns a two-hour job into a year of small errands.
Do this once, properly
Book one session with a certifier. Take the original death certificate, the original will, and your own photo ID. Get eight to ten certified copies of each. Later, when the grant of probate arrives, do the same again with that. One afternoon now saves a dozen trips later.
Who can certify
Each state sets its own list, but the following are accepted almost everywhere in Australia:
- A Justice of the Peace, the most common and free
- A legal practitioner or notary public
- A police officer
- A pharmacist
- A medical practitioner
- A bank officer with five or more years of continuous service
- An accountant who is a member of a recognised professional body
- In Queensland, a Commissioner for Declarations as well as a JP
Where to find the authoritative list and a JP near you: Victoria · New South Wales · Queensland · Western Australia · South Australia · Tasmania · ACT · Northern Territory.
In practice, most public libraries, courthouses and many pharmacies have a JP available on set days. Ring first. Some will happily do forty pages; some will baulk at ten, so say on the phone how many you have.
How to do it so it is accepted
- Photocopy everything first. The certifier compares copies to the original; they do not do the copying.
- Bring the original. Without it they cannot certify anything.
- Every page gets signed, not just the first. A five-page will means five signatures per copy.
- Check the wording. It should say something like "I certify this is a true copy of the original document I have sighted", with the certifier's name, their qualification and registration number where they have one, and the date.
- Keep the original safe and never post it. The one exception is the probate application, which needs the original will filed with the court.
Watch the date
Some institutions will not accept a copy certified more than three or six months ago. If your estate is going to run long, do a first batch now and expect to redo a few later, rather than certifying forty copies on day one and finding half are stale by the time you need them.
What to get certified, and roughly how many
| Document | How many | Who wants it |
|---|---|---|
| Death certificate | 8–10 | Every bank, every super fund, share registries, insurers, the ATO, Services Australia, utilities, land titles |
| The will | 5–8 | Banks, super funds where the benefit goes to the estate, share registries, the ATO |
| Your photo ID | 8–10 | Nearly everyone, to prove you are the executor named in the will |
| Grant of probate | 5–8 | Later. Banks above their threshold, land titles, share registries |
| Marriage or birth certificate | 2–3 | Sometimes needed to prove a relationship for a super death benefit claim |
If that sounds excessive, it is calibrated to a fairly ordinary estate: two banks, two super funds, an insurer, a share registry, the ATO, Services Australia, a land titles office, three utilities. It adds up faster than anyone expects.
Two things that cut the work down
Order extra death certificates up front
A certified copy is a copy of one original. Some organisations, particularly overseas ones, want a second original certificate rather than a certified copy. Ordering extra originals when the funeral director registers the death is cheaper and faster than applying to the registry months later.
Use the Australian Death Notification Service
The Australian Death Notification Service is a free government service that tells participating banks, super funds, insurers, utilities and telcos at once, checking the death against the national registration record. It does not cover everyone and each organisation will still come back to you with its own requirements, but it removes a chunk of the repetition. It only works once the death has been registered.
A note on why this is so tedious
It is not incompetence. Deceased estates are a well-known target for fraud, and the certification requirement is what stands between an estate and someone who has found a death notice in the paper. It is a reasonable rule that has never been designed as a whole, so each institution applies its own version.
Knowing that does not make it less annoying. It does mean the answer is to batch the work rather than to fight it.