The funeral home usually reports the death, but confirm it yourself by calling the SSA — benefits paid after the month of death have to be repaid, and that money comes out of the estate. Survivor benefits are a separate application that nobody starts for you.
Stops benefit payments that would have to be repaid. Survivor benefits are separate — nobody starts them for you.
How: The funeral home usually reports the death — confirm by calling SSA on 1-800-772-1213. Ask about the benefit paid for the month of death, which often has to be returned. A surviving spouse, or an eligible child if there is no spouse, may claim the $255 lump-sum death payment, and survivors benefits are a separate claim — nobody starts either for you. There is a hard deadline: the lump sum must be applied for within TWO YEARS of the death. Apply online with an SSA account, or by phone.
Same in all 51 jurisdictions Settle covers.
Settle builds this checklist into a plan you can actually work
The steps above, ordered for your situation in your state, with the deadlines on a calendar, your documents attached to the step that needs them, and an expense ledger for everything the estate owes you back. The plan itself is free.
Every figure on this page links to the statute or court source it came from and shows the date we last read it. All 51 citations on this page have been read against the primary statute text.
The full registry, including everything we have not confirmed, is published at Where the state information comes from. If the court or your attorney gave you a different date, please tell us at support@vertexlabsolutions.com — it is the fastest way to get it fixed for the next executor.
This is one step out of roughly two dozen. The full sequence for your state — with the statutory deadlines, the citations behind them and the date each was last checked — is in the state executor guides.