Notify Social Security — and 13 other institutions — in 5 minutes
Upload one death certificate. Sedare extracts every field and pre-fills letters for the Social Security Administration, IRS, Medicare, banks, insurers, and the rest. $49 flat — no subscription.
98.7% extraction accuracy · 30-day money-back · No subscription
The answer
1-800-772-1213
TTY: 1-800-325-0778
- Hours
- Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.
- Have ready
- The death certificate, the deceased's Social Security number, and your photo ID.
- You cannot report a death online
- Phone or in-person at a local SSA office only. Find your nearest office at ssa.gov/locator.
Most funeral homes file this report electronically when you give them the deceased's SSN. Confirm with the funeral director that it was filed before calling yourself.
SSA is one of 14+ institutions you'll need to notify
It's the most-known one because it's also the simplest — a 10-minute phone call. The hard part is everything that comes after.
200+ hours
Average time families spend on post-death paperwork over six months.
30+ institutions
Banks, IRS, Medicare, insurers, utilities, credit cards, brokerages, pensions, the DMV.
Different rules each
Every institution wants a different form, different documents, different deadlines. Miss one and you risk frozen accounts or executor liability.
If you've come this far, you already know SSA isn't the only call. Here's how to get every other letter written without spending the next six months on it.
Free guide
Get the free 14-institution notification checklist
The full list of who you'll need to notify after a death — and the order to do it in. Email it to yourself for later. No subscription, no follow-up sales pitch.
One email with the checklist, that's it. No spam, ever.
Generate every notification letter in 5 minutes — from one death certificate
Upload once. Sedare extracts every field, validates it, and pre-fills letters for SSA and the institutions you actually need.
01
Upload the death certificate
Photo or PDF, any U.S. state. Sedare extracts 31 fields — name, Social Security number, date of birth, date of death, cause, place of death, informant — using a model trained specifically on U.S. death certificates.
02
Review what we extracted
High-confidence fields are auto-approved. Lower-confidence fields are flagged for a quick check. The whole review takes about two minutes.
03
Download or send the letters
You get pre-filled, formatted letters for Social Security and the rest of the institutions on your list — banks, IRS, Medicare, insurers, credit cards. Print and mail, or have us dispatch them for you.
One $49 estate, every letter you need
30+ institution letters, generated from a single death certificate.
Federal & state
- ✓Social Security Administration
- ✓Medicare
- ✓IRS (Form 56 and Form 1310)
- ✓Veterans Affairs
- ✓State DMV
- ✓Voter registration
Financial
- ✓Banks (any U.S. bank)
- ✓Credit card issuers
- ✓Brokerage and retirement accounts
- ✓Life insurance carriers
- ✓Mortgage servicers
- ✓Pension plans
- ✓Utilities (electric, gas, water, internet)
Don't see one you need? Sedare generates a custom letter for any institution — at no extra charge.
What you're paying for
Built for U.S. death certificates
Not a generic form-filler. Sedare reads layout, handwriting, and state-specific formats from any of the 50 U.S. states.
98.7% extraction accuracy
Validated across 108 certificates from 14 states. Every field gets a confidence score; low-confidence fields are flagged for your review.
Bank-grade encryption
The same standard used by your bank to protect your accounts. HIPAA-aligned infrastructure. We don't share or sell anything you upload.
30-day money-back guarantee
If Sedare doesn't generate the letters you need, we refund the $49. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no fine print.
Pricing
$49per estate
Every letter for every institution. One payment. No subscription.
30-day money-back guarantee.
Get startedCommon questions
Do I have to notify SSA myself, or does the funeral home do it?
In most cases the funeral home reports the death electronically when you give them the deceased's Social Security number. Confirm with the funeral director that the notification was filed. If it wasn't, call SSA at 1-800-772-1213.
What if my loved one's death was already reported by the funeral home?
Then SSA is handled. Confirm the notification was filed by calling 1-800-772-1213 with the deceased's Social Security number — the agent will tell you whether a record of death is on file. Sedare picks up from there: we generate the letters for the other 13+ institutions (banks, IRS, Medicare, insurers, brokerages, utilities, credit cards) that the funeral home does not contact for you.
What is the $255 lump-sum death benefit and who gets it?
Social Security pays a one-time $255 benefit to the surviving spouse who was living with the deceased at the time of death, or to a child eligible for benefits on the deceased's record. You must apply within 2 years.
What happens to the deceased's last Social Security payment?
Benefits are not payable for the month of death. If a payment was deposited after the date of death, it must be returned. Banks return direct deposits to SSA automatically once the death is reported.
Who qualifies for survivor benefits?
Surviving spouses age 60+ (or 50+ if disabled), spouses at any age caring for the deceased's child under 16, unmarried children under 18 (or 19 if in school), disabled adult children whose disability began before age 22, and dependent parents 62+. You apply by phone or in person — survivor benefits are not automatic.
Can I notify SSA online?
No. The Social Security Administration does not accept death notifications through its website. You can only report a death by phone (1-800-772-1213) or in person at a local SSA office.
Want a longer read on every nuance — survivor benefits, the lump-sum, returning payments? Read our complete SSA notification guide.