The first days

Certifying the death

Before anything can be registered, a doctor has to complete a medical certificate of cause of death. In a hospital, hospice or aged care home the staff arrange this without you asking.

If the death happened at home and was expected, call their GP or the palliative care team. If you cannot reach a doctor, call 000 and say clearly that the death was expected. It changes how the call is handled.

When the coroner becomes involved

A death is reported to the coroner when it was violent or unnatural, sudden with an unknown cause, suspicious, happened during or shortly after a medical procedure where that was not a reasonably expected outcome, happened in custody or care, or where no doctor is able to certify a cause. The categories are broadly the same across Australia, though each state has its own Act.

This is routine. It is not an accusation and it does not mean anyone did anything wrong. What it does mean is a delay: the coroner decides what examination is needed and when the body can be released.

Three things worth knowing:

• You can appoint a funeral director straight away. They apply for release and deal with the coroner's office for you.
• An interim death certificate can usually be issued before the cause of death is settled, and banks and super funds generally accept it. The final certificate follows.
• Coroners' courts have family liaison staff whose job is to keep you informed. Get a name and a direct number. A full coronial investigation can take many months, but that does not stop you administering the estate.

Your state's coroner: Victoria · New South Wales · Queensland · Western Australia · South Australia · Tasmania · ACT · Northern Territory.

The funeral director registers the death

You do not register the death yourself. In every state and territory the funeral director lodges the registration with Births, Deaths and Marriages, usually within seven to fourteen days, and orders the death certificate at the same time.

What they will ask you for is biographical: full name, date and place of birth, parents' names including the mother's maiden name, marriage details, and the names and ages of children. If you do not know some of it, say so rather than guessing. An error on a death certificate is painful to correct once it has been copied twenty times.

Before you commit to a funeral

There is no legal requirement in Australia to hold a funeral. Do what is right for your family rather than what you assume is expected.

Funerals commonly cost between about $8,000 and $20,000. Before you sign anything:

• Check for a prepaid funeral or funeral bond. Look through their papers and bank statements. Many people over seventy have one and never mention it.
• Check their super. Some funds and employers pay a funeral or death benefit.
• Ask for an itemised quote and take it away to read. A reputable director will not mind.
• Do not pay from your own money if the estate can pay. All four major banks will generally settle the funeral invoice directly from the deceased's account before probate, or reimburse you if you have already paid. Under the 2025 Banking Code of Practice, subscribing banks commit to releasing funds for permissible expenses such as funeral costs and court filing fees before a grant.

Wishes about burial, cremation or the service written into a will are a guide, not a legal instruction. The executor makes the final decision.

Moneysmart: paying for a funeral

Finding the will

It matters early: until you find the will, nobody has authority to act. The will names the executor. Banks, share registries and land titles offices all want to know who that is before they will talk to you.

Where to look, in order

1. The house. A filing cabinet, a safe, a bedside drawer, a folder marked "important". Wills turn up in remarkably ordinary places, sometimes decades old.
2. Their solicitor. Law firms commonly hold the original in safe custody. If the firm has closed, your state's legal services board can usually trace where the files went. In Victoria that is free and takes a couple of weeks.
3. Their accountant or financial adviser. They may not hold it but will often know who does.
4. The bank. Safe custody or a safety deposit box.
5. The Public Trustee or the court register in your state.

Where to search officially: Supreme Court of Victoria and State Trustees · NSW Trustee & Guardian · Queensland Public Trustee · Public Trustee WA · Public Trustee SA · Public Trustee Tasmania, which holds around 23,000 Tasmanian wills · Public Trustee and Guardian ACT, which maintains the ACT Will Register · Northern Territory, where you are required to check with the Public Trustee.

When you find it

• Do not remove the staples, write on it, or clip anything to it. Probate registries ask about every mark and pinhole on a will.
• If there is more than one, the most recent valid will normally governs, but keep them all.
• Read it before you promise anyone anything.

If there is no will

The estate is "intestate" and who inherits is set by your state's legislation, not by what the family agrees. The surviving partner does not always take everything, particularly where there are children from an earlier relationship. Instead of probate, someone applies for letters of administration.

Secure things, and leave the money alone

Lock the house, collect the mail, arrange care for pets, and put every document you can find into one box.

Do not withdraw money from their accounts, even to pay their bills. Once a bank is notified, a sole account is frozen for withdrawals (deposits usually still go in) and direct debits will start bouncing. Note what was being paid before that happens so you can move the essential ones.

Two practical things people forget:

• Tell the home insurer if the house will be empty. Most policies restrict or void cover once a property has been unoccupied for a set period, often 60 days.
• Photograph anything valuable. Nothing should leave the house before the will has been read, however well-intentioned the person taking it.

What to gather into the box

You will need all of this within the month, and it is much easier to collect once:

• Bank and credit card statements, ideally a full year
• Superannuation statements, and any letters from a fund
• The most recent tax return and its schedules
• Insurance policies: life, funeral, home, car, health
• Rates notices, title documents, or a mortgage statement
• Loan contracts, especially anything secured against the house
• Dividend and share holding statements
• The trust deed and financial statements for any self-managed super fund
• Any list of accounts, logins or passwords they kept

Who to tell this week

Only a short list is urgent. Institutions can wait for the death certificate.

• Their employer, who can tell you about unpaid wages, accrued leave, any death benefit, and which super fund they paid into.
• Their aged care provider or landlord. Aged care providers have set timelines for refunding accommodation deposits; ask for it in writing. A tenancy does not end automatically on death.
• Their GP and any carers, so appointments and services stop.
• Services Australia within 28 days, if they received a Centrelink payment. This one has a deadline, and telling them early avoids an overpayment you later have to repay. A surviving partner may be entitled to a bereavement payment. See who to notify.