What to do with a loved one's mail after a death

What can be done with the mail?

Mail for a deceased person can keep arriving for a while, so a family picks one place for it, opens it on a regular schedule, and sorts it into a few piles. These habits keep it from piling up unread.

The June's Help mail checklist

1. Pick one spot for all the mail: a box, a tray or a basket.
2. Set a regular time to open the mail, such as twice a week.
3. Sort it into four piles: official letters, bills and statements, personal mail, and advertising.
4. On an official letter, write the sender and the date printed on it.
5. Photograph the letters that are hard to read, or that ask for something, before they are filed.
6. Keep a list of the senders who still need to be told about the death.

See also: How to sort the letters that arrive after a death, How to organize a loved one's papers after a death

How can a letter be added to June's Help?

A letter is added by photo or file, in the Add a letter box on the "Your letters" page. The box has two choices, "Take a photo" and "Choose a file". A photo from a phone is enough. JPEG, PNG and HEIC photos and PDFs are read, one file at a time.

Send June a photo of a letter, and she tells you in plain words what it asks. That reading is for four kinds of letter: one from a bank, a life insurance company, a pension plan or Social Security. It names the sender, quotes the letter's own lines, shows the dates printed on it, says what it asks, and suggests questions that could be asked of the sender.

A letter of another kind shows the sender, the dates printed on it and a line that says who can explain it: a lawyer, an accountant, the court's self-help center or the office that sent it. A court notice, a tax notice and a claim against the estate are such kinds, and so is a letter from a utility or a phone company, which is marked "For your lawyer".

A photo reads best when the letter lies flat in good light and the whole page is in the picture. When a photo cannot be read clearly, the page says so and offers "Take another photo".

The paper mail itself stays with the family, and June's Help does not sort it. The family decides which letters to photograph and add.

See also: How to keep track of the dates on estate letters

What happens to the personal details on a letter?

Our code (not AI) hides the names you gave us, addresses, and account and ID numbers before June reads a letter. It can miss a name it doesn't know, like a sibling's, or a very short number.

Only the person who signed up, the owner of the file, can open the original letter. A family seat, which is an extra on top of the assistant plan, lets a relative read the letters as June read them, but not open the original.

Medical bills and health records are not accepted. If one is added, the page says "This looks like a medical bill or record" and the copy is deleted from the file at once. A letter from a hospital, a hospice, a nursing home, a pharmacy, Medicaid or a health plan is turned away in the same way.

"Delete my data", a link in the footer, removes everything at once, and its page lists what goes and what stays. A few payment, refund and legal records stay, and encrypted backups last 30 days.

See also: How June's Help works: your AI estate assistant

Can the mail be forwarded?

USPS's page describes how to ask for forwarding and what it asks to see. A lawyer can tell a family whether they can show those documents.

For a single piece of mail, the page describes crossing out the address, printing "Forward to" and the new address on the front of the envelope, and leaving it in the mailbox for the carrier, in a blue collection box, or at a Post Office lobby drop.

For all of the mail, the page says to go to a Post Office and submit a change of address request in person, and it lists what it asks to see. A lawyer can tell a family whether they can show it.

How can advertising mail be reduced?

USPS says registering the person's name on the Deceased Do Not Contact List should reduce advertising mail within 3 months. The FTC's page on stopping junk mail also points to the list.

The FTC's page also explains how to stop prescreened credit and insurance offers in the mail. It says the opt-out phone number and website for those offers are run by the major credit bureaus.

The list is about advertising. Letters from banks, insurers and agencies are not advertising mail, so they can keep arriving, and a family can photograph one and add it to June's Help.

What about mail at an empty home?

If no one lives at the home, agree who will pick up the mail, how often, and where it will be kept. Photograph or list anything official the same day.

A relative in another city can read the letters without holding the paper. With the assistant plan, the person who started it can invite a brother, a sister or another family member to a family seat, which is an extra on top of the plan. A seat holder reads the letters as June read them and cannot add letters.

See also: How to share the work of an estate with family

What if a letter looks odd?

Put it in the pile for letters to ask about. The article on scams after a death lists signs to look for. June's Help does not say whether a letter is real.

The reading shows the sender and the dates printed on the letter and, for the four kinds read in plain words, the letter's own lines, quoted. It does not show that the letter came from who it names, and it says to check each quote and date against the original letter.

See also: Scams after a death: how to protect your family, How to sort the letters that arrive after a death