The real problems
After someone dies, four things hit you at once.
Most people don’t know this until they’re in it. Here’s what we’ve learned from families who’ve been through it.
I don’t know what they had.
Hidden accounts, surprise debts, forgotten subscriptions. Most families have no complete picture of what needs handling. You find things for months.
Tip:Pull a free credit report on the deceased. Check mail for 6+ months. Search the NAIC life insurance locator and NAUPA unclaimed property database.
Everything is trapped behind a lock screen.
The phone is locked. Email needs two-factor. Passwords are gone. Apple requires a court order. Every account leads to another locked door.
Tip:Port the phone number to Google Voice immediately, before the carrier cancels the line. That number is the skeleton key to their entire digital life.
The bank froze the account. Bills are bouncing.
Banks freeze accounts the moment they learn of a death. Auto-pay fails. Mortgage bounces. Late fees pile up. And nobody warned you.
Tip:Move auto-pay to a different account before you notify the bank. If the account is already frozen, call estate services to request emergency releases.
I have to call 15 companies and say ‘my mother died’ each time.
Every institution wants something different. Different address, different format, different department. It takes days of phone calls and letters. This is what the checklist is for.
Problems 1–3 are harder. They take time, legal knowledge, and sometimes a court order. Problem 4 — the notification burden — is where the checklist starts: who to call, in what order, and what to have in hand when you do. The rest of the list covers the other three as far as a checklist can.
How it works
Three steps. No friction.
The First 30 Days checklist is free to use. Here’s what happens when you open it.
Open the checklist
Forty-six tasks in seven groups, ordered by urgency: what to do in the first three days, this week, and over the next few months. Every item is small enough to do in one phone call or one trip.
No signup, no account. It opens in your browser and saves your progress on this device.
Work through it at your own pace
Check things off. Log who you talked to and what they said. Snooze what can wait. Hide what doesn’t apply — no spouse, no home, no employer — and pick your state for the official probate, DMV, and death-certificate pages.
Most families work through the first group in the first week, then come back to the rest. There’s no rush.
Print it, share it, or keep a copy
Download the PDF, print your list, send a link so family sees the same view, or email a snapshot to yourself. If you’d rather have the PDF in your inbox, the form at the bottom of this page will send it.
The checklist is yours to keep and share. Nothing here is a trial.
Why Afterward Guide
We did the reading so you don’t have to.
Most people don’t have a friend who’s been through this before. Afterward Guide is that friend — the one who sits down at the kitchen table and says: “Here’s what you do next.”
Sourced, with a public ledger
Every phone number, fee, deadline, and legal rule in the checklist is logged in a claims ledger with its source and the date it was last checked. When something hasn’t been checked yet, the ledger says so, and the changelog records every correction.
See the changelog and ledgerDrafted with AI, checked by a person
AI helps write the prose. Facts are checked against official sources by a person before they are marked verified, and the ledger shows which ones have been. If you find an error, the feedback link in the footer goes straight to us.
Free to use
No subscription, no account, no login. The checklist and the PDF are free to use and share.
We know things nobody tells you
Credit bureaus share death records — notify one and the others update automatically. Banks freeze accounts the moment you call — move auto-pay first. Credit card companies often forgive balances — if you know to ask.
What the checklist covers
What’s here
Start wherever is easiest. All of it is free to use.
The same content, three ways: on screen, on paper, or in your inbox. No strings.
The interactive checklist
Check things off, log your calls, snooze what can wait, and hide what doesn’t apply. Saves on your device; share a link so family sees the same view.
Open the checklistThe First 30 Days PDF
The same checklist as a printable PDF, organized by urgency, with the five things nobody tells you and a state quick reference. No email required.
Download the PDFArticles
Institution-specific guides: how to notify a bank, how to freeze credit for a deceased person, what to do about joint accounts.
Read articles