First steps after a death
You don't have to do everything at once. A funeral director can handle most funeral arrangements. Family members will still need to make decisions, provide documents and deal with the estate afterwards.
If the person has collapsed or might still be alive, call 995 for an ambulance first.
1. Get the death certified
In hospital: the hospital doctor certifies the death. Staff will tell you when the body can be collected.
At home, if the death was expected, meaning it followed a known illness and the person's doctor or palliative care team had said death was likely: call that doctor or team, or a home-visit doctor, to certify the death. Age alone doesn't make a death expected.
If the death was sudden or unexplained: call the police on 999. The body will go to the mortuary and a coroner may need to review the death before the funeral can go ahead.
The certifying doctor registers the death online. The next of kin can then download the digital death certificate from the My Legacy portal. Download and save it within 30 days: after that you have to buy an extract from ICA. You will need it for the funeral, banks and insurers.
2. Choose a funeral director
The director collects and cares for the deceased, sets up the wake and applies for the permits. Whether embalming is needed depends on the arrangements, such as the length of the wake, so ask the director to advise. It is fine to call two or three and compare what their packages include before you decide.
3. Cremation or burial permit
A permit from NEA is needed before a cremation or burial. Your funeral director normally applies for it and books the cremation or burial slot, though next of kin can also apply on NEA's ePortal.
4. Decide on the wake
Wakes are commonly held at an HDB void deck, in a funeral parlour hall, at home or at a place of worship. Your director arranges the space. If the family prefers no wake, ask about a direct cremation, which is simpler and usually costs less.
5. After the funeral
Ashes can be placed in a columbarium niche, scattered at sea, or scattered at an NEA ash-scattering garden. Your director can explain the options and costs.
6. Settle the estate
To deal with most of what the person owned, someone usually needs the court's authority first. There are exceptions:
- Some assets pass outside the estate, such as CPF savings with a nomination and jointly owned property held as joint tenants.
- The Public Trustee may handle estates worth up to S$50,000 (conditions apply), and next of kin may approach the bank directly for accounts with less than S$5,000.
Where a grant is needed:
If there is a will: the executor named in it applies for a Grant of Probate. A sole executor of an estate worth up to S$2 million may be able to apply online through the courts' Probate eService.
If there is no will: a family member applies for Letters of Administration, and the estate is shared out under the intestacy rules.
CPF savings are not covered by the will. They go to the people named in the CPF nomination.