What needs to be arranged in the event of death?

What needs to be arranged when a loved one dies? There is a lot involved in arranging a funeral. One of the first things to check is whether funeral insurance is in place. Do you know your loved one's wishes after death? Burial or cremation? How do I arrange the financial matters? Below is an overview of what you need to arrange in the event of a death. This gives you something to hold on to during a difficult time.

What to arrange in the event of death?

Call the doctor

After a death, the first thing to do is to call the family doctor. The family doctor draws up a declaration of death. This is needed to file a declaration of death with the municipality. In the case of a death in the hospital or care center, you do not need to call the doctor. The staff will notify the doctor.

Check for funeral insurance

Check if there are records of funeral insurance. Or see if there is another financial arrangement. If you do not know if there is funeral insurance, you can check with the Association of Insurers to see if there is a policy with a funeral insurer.

Call the funeral director

Consider whether you want to arrange the funeral through a funeral director. If so, choose a funeral director who is affiliated with the Keurmerk Uitvaart. Prefer to arrange the funeral yourself? Read here what you need to arrange.

Is there a will or testament?

Perhaps the deceased already expressed some wishes. Find out if there is a will or testament. Perhaps the funeral wishes are also known to the funeral insurance company.

What needs to be arranged in the event of the death of a parent, partner or child?

In addition to a lot of arrangements that need to be made for the funeral, there are also a number of administrative matters that need to be taken care of. For example, there are banking matters that need to be taken care of. For example, make sure that you do not simply withdraw money from the bank account without arranging this with the bank first. Withdrawing money after death may be punishable by law.

If the bank account is in the name of one person then in most cases the account will be blocked immediately after death. All (automatic) banking will then be stopped immediately. However, there may be exceptions to this rule. There are some banks that do not immediately stop performing direct debits. If it concerns an and/or account, you as a joint account holder do have access to the account after the death of the other person.

Check insurances

What insurance policies are running and which ones need to be cancelled? When it comes to the death of a partner or child, some insurance policies should continue, but may need to be adjusted. When a parent dies, there may be insurance policies that need to be cancelled altogether.

Inform authorities

Are there any other important agencies that need to be notified? Such as employer, benefit agencies, school, mortgage lender, tenant and pension fund. Also consider associations and subscriptions.

No funeral insurance: who pays the cost?

What happens at the time a person does not have insurance for his or her funeral? There are some people who do not have funeral insurance, for example. Perhaps someone has saved money for this themselves or there is another pot in the death insurance policy or funeral purchase policy, for example. But if there is no funeral insurance or savings, the funeral will have to be paid for by the next of kin. The cost of a funeral or cremation quickly runs to an average of about €7,000 - €10,000. Read more about the cost of a cremation if you are not insured here .

See also:

Death checklist pdf 

Step-by-step plan for arranging funeral