Yeah - when my mother died, the funeral home suggested we get 25 copies. It’s easier to get them right then, than to get additional official copies later if you need them.
Wow. That must depend hugely on the state / county involved.
Based on my experience with my parents’ deaths years ago, when my wife died 3 years ago here in urban FL I got 10 of her DCs. I ended up using exactly 2, one of which was court-filed with her will as part of the probate process. Everybody else was happy to be emailed a color scan of an original.
It took 2 days to get the first set and the people at the funeral home assured me it would take no more than 2 business days to get more if I ever needed them.
YMMV of course, but if I ever work another death-of-kin, I’ll probably get 3 DCs to start. They make lousy souvenirs.
Probably depends more on specifics - when I go , there may need to be one copy filed with a court, one (or two ) to change the car titles ,one to change the deed on the house, at least 2 for banks, one for my pension , and one for the health insurance. That’s 7 - and maybe a few more will be needed to transfer utility and cell phone accounts.
I don’t think 25 will be needed - but I would definitely order 10.
“They will be notifying Social Security?” Maybe. SSA seems to get wind of this pretty dog-gone quickly. My father died one day before his SS was deposited. Withing 48 hours, it was gone!
nobody told me it’s harder to get more later! I only ordered 10 copies and suppose I will regret that. they told me 8 to 12 weeks to receive them and I hope they come a lot earlier.
well, that’s what they told me.
Today I got the ashes in the mail. the $50 “urn” is a cardboard box.
seriously?
We got 10 when my dad died in Sept 2020, that was the default amount. Given that it was the depths of Covid, much of the the estate was handled with scanned copies so I think I still have 7 of them.
Sorry if that came off as rude. I just meant you were referring to SS getting notified in the future tense for something that apparently happened a week or more earlier. I suspect that by that time they already knew. They’re watching. . . .
That will probably be enough. Since it sounds like there isn’t too much to the estate, there may not even be ten entities that need a certificate. Many are fine with a copy, or even just seeing a certificate and then handing it back to you.
Mortuaries/Crematoriums usually notify SSA if they know the SSN of the deceased.
I got five and I think I personally used exactly zero. Everybody advised getting multiple copies up front and I thought of getting ten, but the funeral home talked me out of it - they didn’t think I’d need more than three. As it was the funeral home notified SS, no probate because of the small size of the estate, banks and medical billers were happy with scans. shrug
Corrugated!
“Harder” just means you need to interact with the court to get one. When my mom died, it turned out we needed a death certificate for my dad, because she’d never had their jointly owned house re-deeded to just her. I couldn’t find one, and the lawyer who sold the house ended up picking one up at the county court house because he was going there anyway. (And i was making confused noises at the instructions he gave me for me to get one.) He didn’t even charge for that.
And i expect 10 will be plenty. I think post-covid, lots of organizations are more willing to accept a digital scan. I got 10 because that’s what the lawyer (different, much more expensive lawyer) recommended, and i think i used two or maybe three. Two of them were just so my sister and i, who were joint executors, each had one. Some places wanted to see an original and make their own scan, most places accepted the scan i made. I’m not sure i ever had to surrender an original death certificate, although i did have to show one from time to time.
I definitely needed at least one legit original death certificate. In addition to scanning it, i showed it to all her banks and to various other parties.
Even if you don’t have to interact with a court, it’s still going to be an extra step/wait to get them later. I can order birth and death certificates on-line or by phone from the bureau of vital records - but they say to allow 4-6 weeks to receive the certificate. I might be able to get one in person the same day I apply - but I need an appointment to make the request in-person.
Oh, yes that was unclear on my part - I did need one. I meant in the sense of permanently giving up a copy. But you’re right in context one was necessary to make scans and show people.
I’m not doubting your personal experience. But good god what an unresponsive bureaucracy you live under.
Around here the first batch might take a few days post-death because the original info and physical paperwork has to get from funeral home and whichever doctor approved the DC and set out the cause(s) of death over to the government agency then into their database, etc. After that is done then at any moment in the future, it’s point, click, print and they can make a hundred original DCs for [whoever] in 3 minutes flat.
What I found here is that the mortuary / funeral home has a runner to / from the county records bureaus every single day. I happen to live on a county border and the mortuary services customers from both counties. I call the mortuary, they use their county login to request X more DCs for deceased person Y, their runner to that county records bureau picks them up later that day, and I can get them by close of business or first thing tomorrow by stopping by the funeral home.
I had the original batch in hand 6 days after the date of death.
It taking 4 to 6 weeks is frankly embarrassing in 2024.
It might not take that long - but that’s what they say to allow, in part because I have to order through Vital Chek , a private company rather than directly from the government agency. The certificate gets mailed from the government agency , so that will add some time.
And it actually says right on the website that ordering through the funeral home (up until a year after the death) is the fastest way - I know from experience that that takes only a couple of days.
My lawyer literally showed up at the right desk in the county court office and was given a new certified death certificate on the spot. Maybe that incumbent for register of deeds is doing an okay job.
When my mother died earlier this year we ordered ten and my brother and I kept one each and gave the others to the lawyer. So far I’ve not had to send an original to anyone, they have all been OK with scans.
Luckily we still had my father’s death certificate from 1989, if not, we would have had to buy a copy of that.