By Andrew Hoffman
When I meet with a family that has lost a loved one there are many questions that the family has that I help them with such as what type of service, when we can have the services, coordination with other professionals for the service such as clergy, florists, restaurants, honor guards/military, cemeteries/crematories, etc. But one of the issues that I help with is very important and has a huge impact on the family long after the services for their loved one have been completed. This would be in regards to the certified copy of the death certificate and specifically how many death certificates do you need?
First of all, let’s define what a death certificate is- a death certificate is an official document issued by the government which declares cause of death, location of death, time of death and some other personal information about the deceased. Simply put, a death certificate is a legal record of someone’s death. When someone passes away their death needs to be formally registered with the state vital records division. This is the same place where the birth certificates are registered as well. The official document is signed by the physician certifying the death, the funeral director completing the information and the registrar authorized to receive the death record.
So what information is on a certified copy of a death certificate? This information varies from state to state but for the most part its standard vital statistical information of the deceased like date of birth, date of death, social security number, parent’s names (including the mother’s maiden name), place of residence, place of death, level of education, occupation, race, city and state of birth, cause of death, name of pronouncer, name of certifying doctor, name of funeral director and name and address of the informant/next of kin or person in charge.
Ok, so now we know what a death certificate is and what is on it, but what do I need them for? Well, the list can be quite numerous and varies based on the individual needs and situation of the deceased and his/her survivors. I am going to list quite a number of reasons you would need a certified death certificate which range from simple record keeping to handling financial affairs.
The first and most common reason you will need a certified copy of the death certificate is requesting payouts from insurance companies. If the deceased had burial or funeral insurance those companies will require a certified copy of the death certificate when you file for life insurance benefits. You will also need certified copies for other kinds of insurance, such as when you confirm someone’s death with their health insurance company. Final expenses for an individual (and I am not just talking about the funeral, but that is another article) can come as a surprise and can be quite high, so if you have an opportunity to confirm with your loved one about their current insurance plans, please do so! Knowing the number of policies they have and what kind of polices they are can help ensure you get enough copies of the death certificate.
Andrew B. Hoffman is a funeral director at Jeffries and Keates and Keates-Plum Funeral Homes. He is a twenty-two year veteran of the funeral industry.
