What to do first, second, third — the order nobody hands you

After a death there is a mountain of admin and no map, so people do it in a panic and in the wrong order, which creates more work. There is a sensible sequence, and most of it is slower and calmer than it feels in the first week.

First, the things that genuinely come first. The death has to be registered — in Western Australia the funeral director usually does this for you and orders the death certificate at the same time. Almost every organisation will ask for that certificate, so getting it moving is the real first step (there is a separate step on this in this section — the document the hospital hands you is not the one the bank wants).

Then, notifications. You do not have to make twenty separate calls: the free Australian Death Notification Service lets you tell many organisations at once. Services Australia has its own 28-day deadline and needs telling directly. Both are covered in the notifications step here.

Once those are moving, the estate itself. If there is a will, it names an executor, whose job is to gather what the person owned, pay debts, and distribute the rest. Whether you need a grant of probate — the Supreme Court confirming the executor's authority — depends mostly on what the assets are: banks and share registries often require it above a certain value, while small or jointly-held assets often do not. If there is no will, someone applies to administer the estate instead. This is the point where, if the estate is anything but simple, a session with a lawyer saves more than it costs.

The thing to hold onto: apart from the registration and the Services Australia deadline, most of this does not have a clock on it. You are allowed to do it in daylight, a piece at a time, once the first shock has passed. Doing it in order beats doing it fast.