Notify All

When you lose someone you love it can seem like there is a never-ending mountain of legal and social considerations and notifications that you need to make, even though you are still just trying to get through each day emotionally and mentally. The whole process can be quite daunting and emotionally exhausting.

One of the most mentally and emotionally taxing requirements is the Notification of Death process. Every organisation your loved one had dealings with must be notified to ensure their records are kept up-to-date as well as ensuring any financial and social commitment is stopped. Working out who you need to notify, how you are going to contact them, what you are going to say and how you can record each notification can be overwhelming.

With that in mind, I have compiled a Notify All checklist for you to use that just might make the process a little less daunting.

Information needed when notifying people and organisations

You need to include the following information if you’re writing to someone to let them know your loved one has passed away. Include their:

• full name, including family name and given names
• other names they went by
• date of birth
• address
• date of death
• membership number, client number or account number for bills, banking and utilities.

You should also give the person you’re writing to your name and contact details, and tell them your relationship to the person who died. That way they can contact you if they have any questions.

They may ask you to provide a death certificate. If you don’t have one, note it on the checklist. It will help you keep track of how many copies you need and who you need to give them to.

Timeframes
Most Government and Non-Government organisations require notification of a death within 28 days.

How to use this checklist

This Notify All Checklist has been deliberately created as a live document to help you keep your records in one place. This will help you to quickly identify which organisations have and have not been contacted.

This Notify All Checklist has been deliberately created as a live document to help you keep your records in one place. This will help you to quickly identify which organisations have and have not been contacted.

1. Collect all the information required about your loved one. Enter the details into the top of the
   checklist so that you have it readily available if it is requested.
2. Work your way through the checklist categories, recording as much information as possible from the documents (licence, bills etc) you have available.
3. Some account documents will have a contact phone number or email address contained in the header or footer. If so, record this information.
4. For all other organisations, you can do an internet search to find the contact details.
5. Complete the checklist as much as possible before commencing contacting the organisations. This will give you a little more time to prepare emotionally.
6. Consider writing 1 email template that you can send to organisations, that way, you will only need to change the membership or account number each time.
7. Record the date and method of notification onto the checklist.
8. Save a digital copy of the checklist. If in the future you receive a membership renewal or bill for your loved one, you can check if that organisation has been notified.
9. Save a hard copy along with all your other important documents

The checklist has been created in Excel to allow you to manipulate the cells and information as required. If multiple people are going to share this task this Excel Worksheet can also be saved to your Google Drive as a Google Sheet. All you have to do then is to share the document link with them which allows each person to update the worksheet each time they have made a notification.

I know it can be overwhelming, so please, reach out if you need any assistance or someone to talk to who is outside of your immediate circle of family and friends.