What to do when someone dies: the first thirty days

The first week

• Get several certified copies of the death certificate. Banks, insurers and the county recorder will each want one.
• Secure the house: lock it, collect the mail, keep the insurance in force, and don’t let anyone remove belongings yet.
• Find the papers. Look for a will, a living trust and any amendments, deeds, recent bank and brokerage statements, life insurance and retirement account statements.
• Find out who the parent named. The will names an executor; the trust names a successor trustee.
• Don’t sign anything you don’t understand, including a “just sign here so we can get started” from a sibling or their lawyer.

The first month

• Deadline If there’s an original will, California law requires whoever has it to deliver it to the Superior Court within 30 days of learning of the death.
• Ask the successor trustee, in writing, for a copy of the trust and every amendment.
• Deadline Watch your mail for a trustee’s notice. Write down the date it arrives. It can start a short deadline to contest the trust.
• Keep a list of every conversation about the estate: who said what, and when.
• Save texts, emails and voicemails from your parent’s last years, especially anything about their wishes.
• Don’t move money in or out of your parent’s accounts, even to pay a bill, without understanding whose authority you’re using.