The First 30 Days After a Death in the Family: What to Do, in Order

Nobody teaches this. When someone dies, the person holding the family together is handed a second, invisible job: registrations, certificates, banks, claims, and a hundred small decisions, all while grieving. This guide is the order of operations for that job. It exists so that at any moment in the first month, you can look at one list and know what actually needs doing today, and what is allowed to wait.

One thing before the list: almost nothing here is as urgent as it feels. The money is not going anywhere. The claims have no expiry this month. Anyone pressuring you to decide something quickly, in the first weeks, wants something.

Free tool. When you reach the claims, answer five questions and get a personalised plan with the letters written for you: open the Recovery Navigator.

The first week: only three things

1. Register the death. This is the one genuinely time-bound task: deaths must be registered within 21 days, after which it still works but needs extra steps and fees. In a hospital death, the hospital usually issues the medical certificate of cause of death and often starts the registration; for a death at home, the local municipal office or gram panchayat does it. If a hospital or someone else is handling it, confirm who, and confirm it is actually filed.

2. Order 10 to 15 certified copies of the death certificate. Not one, not three. Every bank, insurer and office keeps a copy, and ordering more later costs you weeks. Copies come from the municipal corporation or your state’s online portal, usually a week or two after registration.

3. Look after the phone. Keep the deceased person’s SIM active and charged. Every claim you file in the coming months may send OTPs to that number, and losing it turns simple claims into hard ones. Do not deactivate the number, and do not delete their email account. Statements, policy reminders and claim confirmations arrive there.

That is the whole first week, as far as paperwork should be concerned. Everything else on the internet’s checklists can wait.

Do not do these in the first weeks

• Do not withdraw money from the deceased’s account with their ATM card or netbanking, even for funeral costs, even as family. Legally, that money now belongs to the estate, and informal withdrawals cause real problems later, especially where there is more than one heir. Banks have a process for funeral and immediate expenses; ask.
• Do not sign anything with an agent, advisor or “claims consultant”. Every claim in the coming months can be done free. The ones who arrive uninvited in week one are the worst of the breed.
• Do not make any large financial decision: selling property, moving investments, lending to relatives. The standard advice for a bereaved family is to make no major money decisions for several months, and it is standard because it is right.
• Do not distribute belongings, gold or papers yet, however harmonious the family feels. Inventory first, division later, ideally after the Will (if any) is located and read.

Days 7 to 15: build the paper base

With the certificate copies arriving, spend this stretch gathering, not filing.

1. Find every document. Cupboards, lockers, files, drawers, the puja shelf, the suitcase on top of the almirah. You are looking for: passbooks, chequebooks, FD receipts, insurance policies, PPF and post office books, share certificates, demat and mutual fund statements, property deeds, vehicle papers, and any Will.
2. Search the digital trail. Their email inbox for statements and premium reminders, their phone for banking and investment apps, SMS history for account alerts. The email inbox is usually the single best map of a person’s financial life.
3. Make one list. Every account, policy, investment and property you have evidence of, with numbers where visible. Our documents checklist is the full version of this list.
4. Locate the Will, if one exists. Check with the family lawyer, the locker, and among the papers. Who inherits what depends on it, and several claims change shape based on it. If you find one, do not open a sealed Will dramatically at a family gathering; read it calmly, ideally with the lawyer who drafted it.
5. Inform the banks and insurers of the death, in writing, with a death certificate copy. This freezes the right things, stops wrong debits, and starts the clock on claims. Joint accounts and lockers keep working for survivors; ask the branch what applies.

Days 15 to 30: file the first claims

Now the machinery starts, in this order, easiest and most valuable first:

1. Insurance claims. Life insurance is usually the largest amount and, with a nominee, among the fastest. Inform the insurer, get the claim forms, file with the certificate and the nominee’s details. Our LIC guide covers the exact forms.
2. Bank accounts with nominees. Under the RBI’s 2025 rules, a nominee’s claim needs no court documents, whatever the amount. Take the claim form, death certificate, your ID and a cancelled cheque. The bank claims guide has the details and the letters.
3. The employer, if they were working. Terminal dues, gratuity, leave encashment, group insurance, and the EPF trio: the PF balance, family pension, and EDLI insurance up to Rs 7 lakh that most families never claim. The EPF guide walks through the single composite form.
4. Family pension, where applicable, through the employer or pension office.
5. Start the legal heir certificate if any institution has asked for it, or if there is no nominee anywhere. It takes 15 to 30 days from the tehsildar’s office and unlocks many claims. Whether you need the bigger court document is covered in our succession certificate guide; usually, you do not.

Guard against the vultures

The weeks after a death attract predators, and they specifically target the organised, responsible family member, because that is who answers the phone.

• Nobody legitimate calls asking for an OTP, ever, not the bank, not the RBI, not the insurance company. The “we need to verify before releasing the claim” call is a scam, every time.
• No government office charges to release money. Fees for forms and stamp papers exist; percentages of the claim do not.
• Recovery agents who materialise with promises of speeding things up charge 5 to 15 percent for filing the same free forms you can file. If you want help, take it from people who charge nothing and want nothing.
• Be careful within the family too, gently: money surfacing in a grief-stricken month has strained better families than yours. Inventory openly, share the list with all heirs, decide together.

What can wait until month two and beyond

• Property mutation (30 to 90 days of process whenever you start; nothing is lost by starting in month two)
• Share and mutual fund transmission (the investments stay invested meanwhile)
• The IEPF claims for old shares (a long campaign regardless; see the IEPF guide)
• Vehicle transfers, utility name changes, subscription cleanups
• Every decision about what to sell, keep or divide

The checklist to save

• Register the death within 21 days; order 10 to 15 certified copies.
• Keep their SIM and email alive; you will need both for months.
• Withdraw nothing informally; sign nothing with agents.
• Gather every paper and make one list of everything that exists.
• Locate the Will before dividing anything.
• File in order: insurance, nominee bank claims, employer and EPF, pension.
• Get the legal heir certificate early if anything needs it.
• Give every OTP call the silence it deserves.

And afterwards

Somewhere in month two, when the urgent part quiets, one thought tends to arrive: if this was this hard with me doing everything, what happens when it is me? That thought is why Parampara exists. It is a private, encrypted vault where you record everything this month made you hunt for, so that the person who one day holds your family together inherits a list instead of a search.