Someone you love has died. You are grieving and exhausted, and somehow a list is already forming. Who do I call? What has to happen today? Is there money to protect, or paperwork to find?

Here is the reassuring part. In the first hours after a death in Michigan, almost nothing legal is a true emergency. You do not have to open probate today or settle the estate this week. You need to make a handful of phone calls in roughly the right order, secure a few things, and avoid the early mistakes that turn a manageable estate into an expensive one. This is the sequence we walk Michigan families through at Boroja, Bernier & Associates: the first 48 to 72 hours, not the first hour.

Call 1: The Funeral Home or Cremation Provider

Your first call is to a funeral home or cremation provider. They handle what cannot wait: caring for and transporting your loved one’s body and beginning arrangements. This call also sets other steps in motion. The funeral director will ask for the decedent’s Social Security number, because in most cases the funeral home reports the death to the Social Security Administration using Form SSA-721. It is also where you order certified death certificates.

One Michigan-specific point: the person with the legal right to direct funeral decisions is not always who you would assume. Under MCL 700.3206, Michigan lets a person name a funeral representative with authority over funeral arrangements, burial, cremation, and remains. If your loved one signed that designation, that person controls these decisions. If there is none, Michigan law sets a priority order among surviving family members, and that decides who has the final say when relatives disagree.

Call 2: Order More Death Certificates Than You Think You Need

This is less a separate call than a critical instruction for your first one. Order more certified copies than feels reasonable, ten to fifteen for most estates. Almost every institution will demand an original: each bank and life insurer, Social Security, pension and retirement plan administrators, the Secretary of State, title companies, and the probate court.

Call 3: The Social Security Administration

If the funeral home reported the death, Social Security already knows. If not, call the agency directly with the decedent’s name, Social Security number, and date of death.

Two things catch families off guard. First, there may be a benefit owed to you: Social Security pays a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255 to a surviving spouse who was living with the worker at death, or in some cases to eligible children, and survivors may qualify for ongoing survivor benefits. Neither is automatic; you have to apply.

Second, and this is where families slip, Social Security pays a month behind. A payment is for the prior month, so a deposit arriving in March is really the February benefit. Social Security does not pay a benefit for the month a person dies, and any payment for the month of death or later must be returned. But a deposit that lands after the death is not automatically the government’s money: if it covers a month your loved one was alive the whole time, it belongs to the estate. What matters is which month the payment is for, not the day it arrived. Do not assume a post-death deposit must go back, but do not spend it either until someone with authority sorts out what each payment covers.

A Social Security deposit that arrives after a death is not automatically the government’s money. Because benefits are paid a month behind, what matters is which month the payment covers, not the day it landed.

Call 4: The Employer, Pension, and Retirement Plan Administrators

Call the employer if your loved one was working. There may be a final paycheck, unused paid time off, employer life insurance (a commonly overlooked asset), and a retirement plan. If your loved one was retired, contact the pension administrators, since some pensions stop at death and others continue to a surviving spouse. Retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs usually pass directly to the named beneficiary outside probate, so you deal with the plan administrator, not the court.

Call 5: Life Insurance Companies

Locate any life insurance policies and contact each insurer to begin a claim. This is often the fastest source of funds, because a policy with a named beneficiary pays directly to that beneficiary and skips probate entirely. The beneficiary needs no court appointment and does not wait for the estate to settle; they submit a claim form and a death certificate, and the insurer often pays within days or weeks.

Call 6: The Banks, and What Not to Do

You will need to notify the banks, but how you handle this matters. When a bank learns of a death, it freezes the deceased owner’s sole accounts. That is not the bank being difficult; it is a legal protection. Until someone with proper authority presents the right documentation, it cannot release those funds.

Here is the mistake to avoid. Do not log in and move money, use the debit card, or write checks on a deceased person’s sole account, even for legitimate bills. Taking estate funds before you have legal authority can expose you to civil liability and family conflict and complicate your appointment later. Our companion article on whether you can empty a parent’s bank account after death covers this in depth, and the answer is the same: not without authority.

One related surprise: if you served as your loved one’s agent under a power of attorney, that authority ended the instant they died. Under Michigan’s Uniform Power of Attorney Act, MCL 556.210, a power of attorney terminates at the principal’s death, and any transaction made with it afterward is unauthorized.

A power of attorney is one of the most useful documents in life and one of the most useless the moment after death. The authority it grants ends with the principal’s last breath.

Secure the Home, the Property, and the Mail

Not every step is a phone call. In the first days, take practical control of the home, especially if your loved one lived alone: lock up, secure vehicles, safeguard valuables and documents, and make sure pets are cared for. Have the mail collected or forwarded to keep sensitive information out of an unattended mailbox and to surface accounts you did not know existed. And notify the homeowners insurer that the house is vacant, because coverage can lapse on an unoccupied home, and an uninsured empty house is a disaster waiting to happen.

Stop the Automatic Payments, Carefully

Once you can see the accounts, cancel recurring charges such as subscriptions and memberships, but do not shut off what still needs to run, such as the mortgage, property insurance, and essential utilities on a home that must be maintained. This is also the moment to guard against identity theft: notify the three major credit bureaus of the death so the credit file can be flagged.

Find the Will, and Understand Your Legal Duty

Locate the original will if there is one. Check the obvious places: a home safe, a desk, a fireproof or safe deposit box, or the drafting attorney’s office. The original matters; a photocopy is far harder to work with in probate.

Michigan law does not leave the will in a drawer. Under MCL 700.2516, anyone who has custody of a will must forward it to the probate court with reasonable promptness after the death, whether or not the family intends to open probate. Neglecting this duty without reasonable cause can create personal liability for the resulting damages, and willfully refusing to deliver a will after a court order can result in contempt. You cannot hold the will, hide it, or decide it does not matter.

The First Few Days, in Order

In short, here is the sequence:

1. Call a funeral home or cremation provider, and order ten to fifteen certified death certificates.
2. Notify Social Security, the employer, pension and retirement plan administrators, and any life insurers to start benefit and beneficiary claims.
3. Notify the banks, but do not move money from sole accounts.
4. Secure the home, vehicles, valuables, and mail; keep essential bills and insurance running and flag the credit file against identity theft.
5. Find the original will and deliver it to the probate court as the law requires.

Before You Do Anything Else, Call a Probate Attorney

Here is the advice we wish every family heard on day one: before you work through the list above, call a probate attorney. The families who avoid the expensive mistakes, the frozen account, the money moved without authority, the Social Security deposit spent and then clawed back, the will left sitting in a drawer, are almost always the ones who got guidance early. One conversation at the start can save weeks of delay and thousands of dollars, because the most useful thing an attorney does in these first days is tell you what to do, what to leave alone, and what your situation actually requires, which is frequently far less than you fear.

You also do not have to guess at which process applies. Not every estate requires full probate; if everything was held in a funded revocable living trust, a successor trustee can administer it with no probate at all. If the estate is small, under MCL 700.3982 and MCL 700.3983, estates with limited assets (currently a $50,000 threshold adjusted annually for inflation) may qualify for small estate handling instead, and when probate is required, most Michigan estates proceed informally under MCL 700.3301. A brief call to Boroja, Bernier & Associates at (586) 991-7611 can tell you which path is yours in minutes, and from there we guide you through the rest.

Frequently Asked Questions About First Calls After A Loved One Dies In Michigan

Speak With a Michigan Probate Attorney

At Boroja, Bernier & Associates, we guide Michigan families through probate and trust administration, and through the planning that prevents this scramble in the first place. Our probate and trust administration attorneys help families in Macomb County, Oakland County, Wayne County, and across Southeast Michigan, Central Michigan, and Mid-Michigan settle a loved one’s estate without the costly first-week mistakes.

To talk through your situation and your next step, schedule a consultation or call (586) 991-7611.

About the Author

This article was written by Daniel Boroja, Esq., a partner at Boroja, Bernier & Associates PLLC, admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 2013 (Bar No. P77079). Daniel focuses his practice on estate planning, probate and trust administration, and elder law and Medicaid planning for Michigan families.