If you were your parent's caregiver, the work doesn't stop when they die, and some of the authority you relied on ends that same day. Three things catch caregivers off guard: the Social Security payment for the month of death has to go back, Social Security's $255 death payment goes only to a surviving spouse or a child entitled to child's benefits, and a power of attorney stops working when the parent dies., This checklist of what to do when a parent dies takes each step in the order it comes due, so you can work through them one at a time.

In This Guide

What to Do When a Parent Dies: Checklist at a Glance

In the First Days

In the First Weeks and Months

Within Two Years

By Tax Day the Following Year

What to Do When a Parent Dies: The First Days

The first days are usually the hardest, and you don't have to do everything in them.

Reporting the death to Social Security. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), funeral homes generally report a death to Social Security, so families typically don't need to; you can give your parent's Social Security number to the funeral director so the funeral home can make the report. If no funeral home is involved, or the funeral home doesn't report the death, SSA asks the family to call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or contact a local Social Security office with the parent's name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death.

SSA's guidance on what to do when someone dies says it accepts death reports only by phone or in person, not by email or online. A family member reporting directly to SSA can start without the death certificate but will need it later to finish the report. SSA handles death reports for both Social Security and Medicare recipients.

Grief support from hospice. If your parent was in hospice, the hospice has to keep supporting you after the death. Under the federal Hospice Conditions of Participation at section 418.64, the hospice must make bereavement services available to the family and others in the bereavement plan of care for up to 1 year after the patient's death. The National Institute on Aging adds that a family can ask hospice workers for bereavement support even if hospice wasn't used before the death. Our guide to caregiver grief covers the emotional side of this loss, and our hospice coverage guide explains what hospice pays for.

What Your Caregiver Authority No Longer Covers

This part can feel strange. The day before, you could call the bank, sign for your parent and talk to the doctors. The morning after, most of that authority has passed to someone else, even if that someone is also you.

  • Power of attorney: A power of attorney does not survive the principal's death. The CFPB's guide for agents under a power of attorney says the agent's authority ends when the principal dies, that the agent no longer has authority to pay the principal's bills, even bills the agent could easily pay, and that the agent should promptly notify the bank and other businesses they dealt with as agent.
  • Something you did before you knew: State law sets the details. Virginia's Uniform Power of Attorney Act, for example, protects an agent who acts in good faith without actually knowing the principal has died, and the act, unless otherwise invalid or unenforceable, binds the principal's successors in interest. If this applies to you, check your own state's power of attorney law or ask an attorney.
  • Representative payee: If you were your parent's Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) representative payee, SSA says you must return any Social Security payment received for the month of death or later, and any SSI payment for a month after the month of death. SSA treats a payment sent to a payee after the death as an overpayment, collected with due process.
  • Money a payee saved: SSA says conserved funds a representative payee saved for the beneficiary, plus any interest, belong to the beneficiary's estate. The representative payee gives those funds to the estate's legal representative or handles them under state law, and if there is no legal representative, the payee contacts the state probate court.
  • Medical records: Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the personal representative of a person who has died is the executor, administrator or other person with authority under state law to act for the deceased person or the estate, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. Our guide to HIPAA access to a parent's medical information explains how that works.

If you're unsure which role you held, our comparison of guardianship and power of attorney sets out the difference.

The Social Security Payment That Has to Go Back

This is the step that surprises caregivers most, and it isn't your fault if it surprised you. Social Security pays each month's benefit in the following month. So the Social Security payment that arrives in the month after your parent dies is the payment for the month they died in, and Social Security doesn't pay for that month.

The Social Security Act says an old-age benefit ends "with the month preceding the month in which he dies," and SSA's operations manual (POMS GN 02408.610) states that for Social Security, "a payment for the month of death or later is not due and must be reclaimed." Social Security's month-of-death rule applies even when the death falls on the last day of the month. In SSA's own example in POMS GN 02408.650, a widow who died February 29, 2008 was not due her March 3, 2008 payment for February.

SSA recognizes one narrow exception: when the payment for the month of death was delivered early, inside that same month (because the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of the next month all fell on a weekend or federal holiday), and the beneficiary died on or after that early delivery date while otherwise entitled, that Social Security payment was due.

How the money is pulled back. Under the U.S. Treasury's reclamation rules at 31 CFR part 210, subpart B, a federal benefit payment such as Social Security that is direct-deposited after the death and not due is recovered from the bank. To limit its own liability, the bank must give the government the names and contact details of the account's co-owners, everyone authorized to withdraw from it, and everyone who withdrew money after the death. When a Social Security payment deposited after the death is reclaimed, SSA mails the last person who withdrew money from that account a notice asking for repayment of the funds withdrawn, and if that person doesn't respond within 45 days, SSA asks the Treasury to debit the bank.

So if a Social Security deposit for the month of death landed in a joint account you share with your parent, the simplest path is to leave it untouched until it is reclaimed.

SSI and VA work differently:

Program Payment for the month of death Who it goes to
Social Security (Title II) Not due; must be returned Returned to the government
SSI (Title XVI) Payable; not reclaimed Only SSI payments for months after the death are reclaimed
VA disability compensation or pension Payable to the surviving spouse The veteran's surviving spouse

Under the federal SSI rule at 20 CFR 416.1334, SSI eligibility "ends with the month in which the recipient dies," so SSA does not reclaim the SSI payment for the month of death, only SSI payments for later months. Under 38 U.S.C. 5310, the surviving spouse of a veteran who was receiving U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation or pension at death is entitled to the amount the veteran would have received for the month of death; the statute names no other survivor. For VA burial allowances and survivor benefits, see our guide to VA burial and memorial benefits.

Who Gets the Social Security Death Payment

You may have seen advice to apply for Social Security's death benefit. Before you apply, check whether anyone in your family is actually in line for it.

Social Security's lump-sum death payment is a one-time $255, paid in a fixed order set by the Social Security Act and described on SSA's lump-sum death payment page:

  1. A widow or widower who was living in the same household as the person who died.
  2. If there's none, a widow or widower entitled to benefits on the person's record for the month of death.
  3. If there's none, children entitled to child's benefits on that record for the month of death, in equal shares. SSA says these include children 17 or younger, children 18 to 19 in school (K-12) full time, and children of any age who developed a disability at age 21 or younger.

The Social Security Act names no one else, so an adult child who isn't entitled to child's benefits on the parent's record can't receive Social Security's $255 payment. When a widowed parent dies with no child entitled to child's benefits, no one in the family can receive Social Security's $255 lump-sum death payment. The application for the $255 lump-sum death payment must be filed with Social Security within two years of the death, unless the applicant was already entitled to spouse's benefits on the record for the month before the death.

If your other parent is still living, they may be owed monthly Social Security survivor benefits, which our guide to Social Security survivor benefits explains.

Bills, Debts and the Nursing Home

Bills keep arriving after a death, and some of them may be addressed to you. Take a breath before paying anything out of your own account.

Who pays the debts. The FTC's guidance on debts and deceased relatives and the CFPB both say a person's debts are owed by and paid from their estate, and if the estate can't pay, the debt generally goes unpaid. The FTC and CFPB name the situations where a family member may owe, so check whether one of them is yours:

  • If you co-signed: A family member who co-signed a deceased parent's loan or other obligation may owe it.
  • If you held a joint credit card: A joint account holder on a deceased parent's credit card may owe the balance, but an authorized user on the card is in a different position.
  • If your parent was married: A surviving spouse may owe a deceased spouse's debts in a community property state, or in a state that requires spouses to pay certain debts such as some healthcare expenses.
  • If you're handling the estate: The FTC says the person responsible for a deceased parent's estate may owe if they fail to follow certain state probate laws.

Debt collectors. Under the federal debt-collection rule, Regulation F at 12 CFR 1006.6, a collector may discuss a deceased person's debt with the executor or administrator of the estate, the spouse and a few others. The FTC says a collector may contact other relatives only to get the estate representative's contact information, usually only once, and can't discuss the debt with them.

Money held by the nursing home. If your parent lived in a nursing home and had chosen to deposit personal funds with the facility, the federal nursing-home rule at 42 CFR 483.10 requires the facility, after the resident's death, to convey those funds and a final accounting within 30 days to the individual or probate jurisdiction administering the estate, in accordance with state law.

A bill addressed to you as "responsible party." Under the federal nursing-home admission rule at 42 CFR 483.15, a facility may not require a third-party guarantee of payment as a condition of admission or continued stay; a representative with access to the resident's income may be asked to sign to pay from the resident's funds without taking on personal liability. Our guide on whether you're responsible for a parent's nursing home bill walks through what that signature means.

If Your Parent Was on Medicaid

If Medicaid paid for your parent's long-term care, the state may file a claim against the estate later, and that Medicaid estate recovery claim can reach what your family expected to inherit. That is a hard thing to learn while you're grieving. Federal Medicaid law also protects a surviving spouse and some children, and gives your family a hardship waiver to ask for.

Federal law requires every state to seek recovery from the estate of a Medicaid enrollee who was 55 or older for nursing-facility care, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services, and from the estate of an enrollee who was permanently institutionalized.

Under federal Medicaid estate recovery law (42 U.S.C. 1396p(b)), a state may recover only after the death of any surviving spouse, and only when there is no surviving child under 21 or who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. So if your parent's surviving husband or wife is still living, or your parent has a surviving child who is under 21 or who is blind or permanently and totally disabled, the state's Medicaid estate recovery claim has to wait. Every state Medicaid agency must also offer a way to waive recovery when it would cause undue hardship, so if repaying the claim would cause your family that kind of hardship, ask your state Medicaid agency how to request the waiver.

Under federal Medicaid estate recovery law, what counts as the estate starts from each state's probate law, so it varies by state. Our Medicaid estate recovery explainer covers the federal rules and links to each state's own guide.

The Final Tax Return

Your parent's last federal income tax return is due on the usual schedule, which gives you time.

  • Who files: Under 26 U.S.C. 6012 and IRS guidance on a deceased person's final return, the IRS says the final return is filed by the personal representative (the executor, administrator or person in charge of the decedent's property), reporting all income up to the date of death.
  • Who signs: The IRS says that if no personal representative has been appointed, a surviving spouse filing a joint return signs and writes "Filing as surviving spouse"; with no representative and no surviving spouse, the person in charge of the property signs as "personal representative."
  • When it's due: For a calendar-year taxpayer, the IRS says the final return is generally due April 15 of the year after the death, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend or legal holiday.
  • Claiming a refund: The IRS uses Form 1310 for a refund due a deceased taxpayer, except for a surviving spouse filing jointly or a court-appointed representative filing the original return with the court certificate attached. The IRS says a power of attorney is not acceptable evidence of appointment as personal representative.
  • Telling the IRS who's in charge: The IRS says the personal representative of an estate is a fiduciary and uses Form 56 to notify the IRS of the fiduciary relationship.

Protecting Your Parent's Identity

The U.S. Department of State lets a family member mail a deceased relative's U.S. passport to its Consular Lost and Stolen Passport Unit (CLASP) in Sterling, Virginia, with a certified copy of the death certificate and a letter asking for cancellation. The step is optional, and USA.gov says cancelling the passport helps prevent identity theft. The State Department returns the cancelled passport if you ask.

What Depends on Your State

This checklist sticks to the federal steps, but the federal sources above point back to state law each time:

For pronouncing a death at home, ordering certified death certificates, and probate or small-estate paperwork, ask your parent's hospice team, the funeral director, or your county probate court what your state requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to give back my mom's Social Security check after she died?

Yes, if it was her Social Security (Title II) payment for the month she died: SSA says that payment is not due and must be returned. If the check was SSI or a VA payment, the answer can differ, and the month-of-death table shows how.,

Can the bank take the Social Security money back out of our joint account?

Under the U.S. Treasury's federal reclamation rule (31 CFR part 210), the Treasury recovers a Social Security deposit made after the death from the bank, and SSA asks the last person who withdrew from the account to repay. The Treasury rule doesn't itself authorize the bank to debit the account, but it leaves intact any right the bank has under state law or its account agreement to do so.

Does an adult child get the $255 Social Security death benefit?

Only in narrow cases. An adult child is in line for Social Security's $255 lump-sum death payment only if entitled to child's benefits on the parent's record, such as a child who developed a disability at age 21 or younger, and only when no surviving spouse qualifies first. The full order of payment is above.

Can I still use my parent's power of attorney to pay the funeral bill?

No. The CFPB says an agent's authority under a power of attorney ends when the principal dies, even for bills the agent could easily pay. The FTC and CFPB say the executor named in the will, or a court-appointed administrator or personal representative, settles the parent's debts out of the estate.

Am I responsible for my deceased parent's debts?

Usually not. The FTC and the CFPB say a deceased parent's debts are paid from the estate, unless an exception such as co-signing applies; the four exceptions are listed above.

Who files my parent's last tax return if there's no executor?

With no personal representative appointed, the IRS lets a surviving spouse filing jointly sign the final federal return, and with no spouse either, the person in charge of the parent's property signs it. Holding your parent's power of attorney doesn't make you the personal representative: the IRS says a power of attorney is not acceptable evidence of appointment as personal representative.

Learn More

CaregiverCaregiver Grief: Grieving a Living Parent and Coping After LossCaregiver grief is real, including anticipatory grief for a parent who is still here. What it is, why guilt and relief are normal, and where to find support. FinancialSocial Security Survivor Benefits and the Widow's SwitchSocial Security survivor benefits pay 71.5% to 100% of a late spouse's benefit. See how to sequence it with your own benefit to collect the larger check. VA BenefitsVA Burial and Memorial Benefits: A Family's GuideVA burial benefits for veterans and spouses in 2026: who can be buried in a national cemetery at no cost, the allowance amounts, and survivor support. MedicaidWill Medicaid Take Your House? Medicaid Estate Recovery ExplainedMedicaid estate recovery explained: federal law, 51-state matrix, categorical protections, hardship waivers, and 2025-2026 reform updates. Verify before acting. FinancialAm I Responsible for My Parent's Nursing Home Bill?Whether you owe the bill depends on three things: the filial-support law in your parent's state, what you signed at admission, and Medicaid estate recovery. FinancialHow to Manage an Aging Parent's FinancesHow to manage an aging parent's finances: the four fiduciary roles, durable power of attorney, the Social Security payee trap, and the practical first steps.

Find personalized help sorting out what comes next after a parent's death at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.