Who to notify

Start with the free government service

The Australian Death Notification Service lets you tell many organisations at once instead of ringing each in turn. It is free, run with the support of the state and territory registries, and checks the death against the national death registration record. That means the death has to be registered first. Your funeral director handles the registration, so this is usually possible within a week or two.

It covers participating banks, super funds, insurers, utilities and telcos. It does not cover everyone, and each organisation still contacts you with its own requirements. Treat it as a way to open thirty conversations in one sitting rather than a way to finish them.

What it does not do: notify Services Australia, notify the ATO, or start a superannuation death benefit claim. Those are separate.

Government

Services Australia: within 28 days

If they received a Centrelink payment, or had Medicare or Child Support arrangements, Services Australia asks to be told within 28 days. Notify by phone, at a service centre, or with the Advice of Death form (SA116). One notification covers Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support.

Two things to ask about while you have them:

• The bereavement payment. A surviving partner of a pensioner couple may be entitled to a lump sum. It is not automatic in every case, so ask.
• Information about their record. If you are the executor and need to know what they were receiving, that is a separate form (SS524) and the information is only released to the executor, the administrator, the Public Trustee, or a court.

A different 14-day rule sometimes gets confused with this one. That rule is about telling Services Australia when your own income or assets change, for instance when you inherit. It is not the death notification deadline.

Services Australia: what to do when someone dies

Department of Veterans' Affairs

If they were a veteran or a war widow, DVA has its own process, its own bereavement payments, and help with funeral costs in some cases. Report the death to DVA.

The Australian Taxation Office

Notifying the ATO stops the correspondence and lets them talk to you. You can notify with the death certificate alone: online with an identity check at a participating Australia Post outlet, or by post with certified copies. Allow up to 28 days for their records to update.

The more important step is being recorded as the legal personal representative. That normally requires a grant of probate or letters of administration, and it is what unlocks full access to their tax and superannuation records. It is often how families discover accounts nobody knew about. See finding the money.

ATO: notifying us of a death

What you do not need to do

The Australian Electoral Commission needs no notification. Births, Deaths and Marriages passes the information across automatically. You can lodge a form if you want it done sooner, but it is not required. AEC enrolment FAQs

Banks and credit unions

Each bank has a bereavement team and its own forms. What happens depends on how the account was held:

• Sole accounts are frozen for withdrawals once the bank is told. Deposits generally still go in. Cards, direct debits and online access stop.
• Joint accounts usually continue to operate normally for the surviving holder and pass to them outside the estate.

The threshold question is when they will release money without probate. The major banks generally require a grant once the deceased's sole holdings reach around $100,000. Below that, a simpler process is usually available at the bank's discretion. Ask each one directly. The answer decides whether you need probate at all.

Under the 2025 Banking Code of Practice, subscribing banks commit to acting on a valid instruction from the estate's representative within 14 business days, and to releasing funds before probate for permissible expenses such as the funeral and court filing fees.

Ask every bank for a written statement of balances as at the date of death, covering accounts, term deposits, credit cards and loans. You need it for the probate application and for tax, and it is much harder to get later.

CommBank · NAB · ANZ · Westpac

Superannuation

Superannuation does not pass under the will, so telling the fund starts a claim. This is covered properly in finding the money, and if there is a self-managed fund, in the SMSF guide. In short: ask each fund whether there is a nomination, whether it is binding and still current, who it names, and whether there is insurance attached. Insurance inside super is often the largest single amount in the whole estate.

Insurers

• Life and funeral cover pays on proof of death. Check bank statements for premiums; that is how most forgotten policies are found.
• Home insurance must be told the owner has died, and told if the house will be empty. Ask what conditions apply to an unoccupied property.
• Car insurance needs to stay in force while the estate holds the vehicle.
• Private health: cancel it, or move a surviving partner onto their own policy, and ask about a refund of premiums paid in advance.

Utilities, telcos and subscriptions

Keep the essentials on if someone still lives in the house. Close the rest. The Australian Death Notification Service covers many energy retailers and telcos.

Two things worth doing deliberately:

• Redirect the mail. Australia Post offers free redirection for a deceased estate. Apply in person with proof you are the executor or next of kin. This is the single best way to find accounts nobody mentioned: six months of redirected mail turns up statements, renewal notices and dividend cheques you would never have gone looking for.
• Keep one phone number alive for a while. Verification codes for banking and email often go to it, and cancelling too early can lock you out of an account you need.

Subscriptions keep charging until cancelled: streaming services, gym memberships, software, magazines, professional bodies. They are small, but they show up on the estate accounts and someone has to explain them.

Identity documents

• Passport. Cancel it through the Australian Passport Office, taking the death certificate and the passport itself.
• Driver licence. Cancelled through your state transport agency, usually in the same process that transfers the vehicle.
• Electoral roll. Nothing to do. It happens automatically.

None of these are urgent, but cancelling both the passport and the licence closes off the main routes to identity misuse, which is a real risk in the months after a death notice appears.

Digital accounts

These hold photos, verification codes and occasionally money. Deal with the ones that matter to your family and let the rest lapse.

• Apple. If they set up a Legacy Contact, that person gets access with an access key and the death certificate. Without one, Apple normally requires a court order, though Australia is a jurisdiction where alternative documents are sometimes accepted. Apple's process
• Google. No automatic access. You can request to close the account, request funds, or request data. Ask for the data before closing the account. Closing it first forfeits any later data request. Google's process
• Facebook and Instagram can be memorialised, which freezes the profile, or removed. Meta legacy contacts
• LinkedIn requires formal court documents to close an account and will not accept a will.
• Cryptocurrency, trading and betting accounts are assets. Look for exchange emails and hardware wallets, and tell the executor before touching anything.

Keep a tracker

Thirty organisations, each with its own form, its own certified copy and its own timeline, is more than anyone holds in their head while grieving. A single sheet with four columns (organisation, date told, what they asked for, done) is enough, and it is also the evidence that you did the job properly if anyone ever asks.