For estates in Texas
What do I do when someone dies at home?
This page is one part of What June's Help does.
The short answer
When someone dies at home, a family phones the hospice if there was one, or looks up and calls the person's doctor, the medical examiner or the funeral home, as the National Institute on Aging's page describes. June's Help (juneshelp.com), an AI estate assistant for families in Texas, keeps the later steps in a plan.
The family can take these one at a time. This page gives no medical or legal advice.
What can a family do first when someone dies at home?
A family can take a few small steps, one after another. The steps below are written as things to look up and ask, and each one is short enough to read on a phone.
The June's Help first calls checklist
- Let one person hold the phone and a pen. Everyone else can stay with the person who died.
- If the death is sudden or unexpected, call the emergency number first. The people who answer say what happens next.
- If hospice was caring for the person, find its number on its papers and call it. The NIA says hospice usually has a plan for what comes after a death.
- If there was no hospice, look up whom to call. The NIA lists a doctor, the medical examiner or coroner, the local health department and a funeral home. Call the first and ask which of the others to call next.
- Ask whoever comes who will make the death official and who will fill in the papers behind the death certificate. Write down the name and the time.
- Phone one relative or friend to come, and agree who will call whom, so each person hears once.
- Choose a funeral home, or ask the hospice or the doctor for names. Ask what the home needs from the family and what it will take care of, and write the answers down.
- Write down the names, numbers and times of everyone who helped. A note on a phone is enough.
- Leave the rest for the first-week checklist. Banks, Social Security and the mail come after these calls.
See also: Checklist after someone dies: the first week (2026)
Who is phoned first?
If the death is sudden or unexpected, the emergency number comes first, and the people who answer say what happens next. Otherwise it depends on whether hospice was involved, and the NIA's page sets out the choices. With hospice, the hospice's own papers have the number and the plan. Without it, the page lists a doctor, the medical examiner or coroner, the local health department and a funeral home.
For anything about the person's medical care, the doctor or the hospice is the one to ask.
What happens after someone dies at home?
The NIA page on what to do after someone dies describes what happens after a death at home. The people who come can say who does what in this case.
What happens in a particular home differs from one case to the next. The people who come are the ones to ask, and this page is not a substitute for what they say.
See also: How do I order certified death certificates in Texas?
What comes after the first calls?
The first week brings a longer list: the funeral home, the death certificate, Social Security, the bank and the mail. The first-week checklist puts them in order, and the guides below take the common ones one at a time.
A family usually decides about the funeral with the funeral home. The guide on timing says what families ask, and the guide on announcing a death has short messages a family can copy into a text or a post.
See also: How long after someone dies is the funeral?, How do I announce a death? Templates to copy, How do I order certified death certificates in Texas?
Where can the family find support for itself?
A friend or a relative beside the family is the first help. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline answers calls and texts at any hour for anyone who needs to talk.
The NIA also has pages on grief and mourning. The calls after these first ones can wait for another day.
How does June's Help fit in later?
June's Help can wait until the family is ready. It asks three Yes, No or Not sure questions, shows a plan of Texas steps, and puts what is next on a Today page, where the person who signed up ticks a step done with Mark done.
When letters begin to arrive, a photo of one can be added. June reads your letters in plain words. For a letter from a bank, a life insurance company, a pension plan or Social Security, she quotes the letter's own lines and shows the dates printed on it. With the assistant plan, a reminder email arrives before a due date that a letter prints, and a relative who lives in Texas can read the letters through a family seat, an extra on top of the assistant plan. June's Help sends nothing to any office and makes no calls.
What else do people ask?
Who do I call first if hospice was not involved?
If the death is sudden or unexpected, the emergency number comes first, and the people who answer say what happens next. Otherwise the NIA lists a doctor, the medical examiner or coroner, the local health department and a funeral home. Call the first and ask which of the others to call next.
Who makes a death official when someone dies at home?
The people who come to the home can say. The family asks them, writes down the name, and reads the NIA page that is linked on this page.
What should be written down in the first hours?
The names, numbers and times of everyone who helped: the hospice or doctor, the funeral home and the relatives who were called. A note on a phone is enough. The notes are useful later, when banks and offices ask who was told and when.
Where is the checklist for the days after?
The first-week checklist puts the calls in order: the funeral home, the death certificate, Social Security, the bank and the mail. It is the next page to open once the first calls are made, and each step can be done on a phone.
Does June's Help give advice at the time of a death?
No. June's Help gives no medical or legal advice and makes no calls. It is an AI estate assistant for the weeks after, with a plan of Texas steps and letters read in plain words. The first calls go to the hospice, the doctor or the funeral home.
What questions could I ask?
These can be asked by phone or in writing. They are only suggestions, and the answers come from whoever is asked.
- Who will make the death official, and who will complete the papers for the death certificate?
- What does the funeral home need from the family, and what will it take care of?
- Who should the family call next, and at what number?
- Is there anything the family should write down now?
How can June help?
June is an AI estate assistant. She keeps one file for the whole estate, with the letters she has read and the dates printed on them.
June's Help can wait until the family is ready. It then shows a plan of Texas steps and a Today page with what is next, and it reads a letter from a bank, a life insurer, a pension or Social Security in plain words, with the dates printed on it.
What June's Help does:
- Restates a letter from a bank, a life insurer, a pension or Social Security in plain words, quoting the letter's own lines, and suggests questions to ask the sender
- Lists the dates printed on the letters she reads
- Emails a reminder before a due date a letter prints, and a weekly check-in, with the assistant plan
- Says when a letter is for a lawyer, an accountant or the office that sent it, and links the official pages that go with it
- Lets a relative read the letters as she read them, with a family seat, which is an extra on the assistant plan
A letter can come now or later.
Where do the facts on this page come from?
These are the official pages the facts on this page come from. If an official page says something different, go with the official page.