What to Do When Someone Dies in France: 5-Step Official Checklist

1. 1

   Medical Verification of Death and Issuance of the Medical Death Certificate

   Every funeral or civil registry procedure in France must begin with a physician verifying the death and issuing the official medical death certificate (certificat médical de décès, either on a paper Cerfa form or electronically via the CertDc application), which comprises an administrative section and a confidential medical section [1][2]:

   • Death in a hospital, clinic, or care home (EHPAD): The attending or facility physician verifies the death and issues the certificat médical de décès directly [1][2]. The facility cares for the body in its mortuary (chambre mortuaire) while funeral arrangements are organized [2].
   • Natural death at home: Call the deceased person's attending physician (médecin traitant), SOS Médecins, or the SAMU (15) emergency medical service (or the European emergency number 112) so a doctor can come to the home to pronounce the death and complete the medical death certificate [1][2].
   • Sudden, accidental, or public-space death (obstacle médico-légal): In the event of a violent, sudden, or suspicious death, contact emergency services immediately (15, 17, or 112). Law enforcement (police or gendarmerie) draws up an official report and the physician checks the medico-legal hold box (obstacle médico-légal) on the certificate; the body is then transferred to a forensic institute (institut médico-légal), and burial or cremation cannot take place without formal authorization from the public prosecutor (procureur de la République) [1][2].
2. 2

   Check Funeral Wishes and Appoint a Licensed Funeral Director

   Before signing an estimate, check whether your relative held a funeral insurance policy (contrat d'assurance obsèques) or left written instructions regarding their funeral (choice between burial and cremation, place of interment) [2]:

   • Appointing a licensed funeral operator (opérateur funéraire habilité): You must use a funeral company holding official prefectoral accreditation (habilitation préfectorale); you can consult the official list of licensed operators displayed at the town hall (mairie) or hospital mortuary, or find a provider through national trade federations such as the Fédération Nationale du Funéraire (FNF) or the Fédération Française des Pompes Funèbres (FFPF) [2]. The appointed funeral operator coordinates transport of the body (to a funeral home, chambre funéraire, within 48 hours of death if transfer before coffining is requested), placement in the coffin (mise en bière), and municipal authorizations for closing the coffin and for burial (permis d'inhumer) or cremation (autorisation de crémation) [2].
   • Statutory burial or cremation deadlines: In mainland France, burial or cremation must take place no earlier than 24 hours after death and no later than 14 calendar days following the day after death (unless a prefectoral exemption is granted) [2]. Funeral expenses may be paid directly from the deceased person's bank account up to 5,910 EUR (a statutory ceiling indexed annually) upon presentation of the funeral director's invoice [2][6].
3. 3

   Register the Death at the Town Hall Within 24 Hours

   Registering the death (déclaration de décès) is mandatory and must be completed at the town hall (mairie) of the municipality where the death occurred within 24 hours of medical verification (excluding weekends and public holidays) [1][2]:

   • Who registers the death and required documents: When a death occurs in a hospital or EHPAD, the facility may submit the declaration directly; otherwise, a family member or the appointed funeral director attends the civil status office (service d'état civil) of the mairie with their own ID, the medical death certificate (certificat médical de décès), and civil status documents for the deceased (such as the livret de famille, identity card, passport, or birth certificate) [1][2].
   • Official death certificates and inter-agency notifications: The mairie draws up the official death record and issues several full copies of the death certificate (copies intégrales de l'acte de décès), as well as a multilingual extract on Form C (Formule C) under the 1976 Vienna Convention if cross-border procedures are anticipated [1]. You can consult all official rules and forms on the French administration portal Service-Public.fr (telephone 3939) [1][2]. The mairie automatically forwards the death notice to the national statistics institute (INSEE), which notifies the tax authorities and French pension funds to suspend ongoing payments, though claiming survivor benefits and closing private accounts remain the family's responsibility [4][5][7].
4. 4

   Claim the Social Security Death Grant and Survivor Pensions

   Depending on the deceased person's employment or retirement status, eligible survivors may claim lump-sum grants and survivor pensions:

   • Social Security lump-sum death grant (capital décès): If the deceased was employed, receiving unemployment benefits, or drawing an invalidity pension during the three months preceding death, priority beneficiaries (dependents who were wholly and permanently supported by the deceased at the time of death, who have one month to assert their priority) or, failing that, the surviving spouse, civil partner (partenaire de PACS), children, or ascendants can apply for the lump-sum capital décès (Form S3180) from the local health insurance fund (CPAM) via Ameli.fr (telephone 3646) within two years of the death [3].
   • Basic and supplementary survivor pensions (pensions de réversion): Although the death is reported via civil registry channels, you should notify the basic state pension fund L'Assurance Retraite (CNAV / CARSAT, telephone 3960) [4] as well as the private-sector supplementary pension scheme Agirc-Arrco (telephone 0 970 660 660) [5]. A surviving spouse or divorced ex-spouse (note that PACS civil partnerships and unmarried cohabitation do not confer entitlement to a survivor pension under these schemes) can submit a single online application for a survivor pension (pension de réversion) covering all French retirement schemes [4][5].
5. 5

   Notify Banks and Tax Authorities and Settle the Estate Through a Notary

   To close accounts, fulfill tax obligations, and settle the estate (succession) in France:

   • Engaging a notary and opening the succession: Appointing a notary (notaire) is mandatory whenever the estate includes real estate, a will (testament), or a gift between spouses (donation entre époux), or when gross estate assets reach or exceed 5,000 EUR (in order to draw up the certificate of heirship, acte de notoriété) [1][6]. You can consult the official directory on Notaires de France to instruct a notary's office, which will search the Central Register of Last Wills (Fichier central des dispositions de dernières volontés - FCDDV) and draw up the inventory of the estate [1][6]. For small estates under 5,000 EUR with no real property or will, a signed heirship declaration (attestation signée par l'ensemble des héritiers) may suffice to release bank funds [2][6].
   • Banks and insurance companies: Send a copy of the acte de décès to all banks as soon as possible (which freezes the deceased's individual accounts, apart from direct payment of funeral bills, while joint accounts remain usable by the surviving co-holder unless heirs object) and submit a search request to AGIRA if you believe your relative held a life insurance policy (assurance-vie) [2][6].
   • Tax filings (Impots.gouv.fr): The notary or the heirs must file the inheritance tax return (déclaration de succession) with the registration office of the Public Finance Directorate (DGFiP) via Impots.gouv.fr (telephone 0 809 401 401) within 6 months of the date of death if the death occurred in mainland France (12 months if the death occurred outside mainland France), and report the income received by the deceased up to the date of death during the annual income tax filing campaign [6][7].

Official Authorities & Verified Contacts

Official Sources Checked by Clarvia

1. [1]
   Death registration, medical certification, and initial steps — Conseil supérieur du notariat (Notaires de France)
2. [2]
   A relative has died: administrative steps and statutory deadlines (Fiche F16507) — Direction de l'information légale et administrative (Service-Public.fr)
3. [3]
   Death of a relative: applying for payment of the Social Security lump-sum death grant (capital décès) — L'Assurance Maladie (Ameli.fr)
4. [4]
   Widowhood and bereavement: administrative formalities and the survivor pension (réversion) — L'Assurance Retraite (CNAV)
5. [5]
   Reporting the death of a relative and applying for an Agirc-Arrco survivor pension — Agirc-Arrco
6. [6]
   Settling an estate: using a notary and proof of heirship (Fiche F909) — Direction de l'information légale et administrative (Service-Public.fr)
7. [7]
   What tax formalities must I complete when a relative dies? — Direction générale des finances publiques (Impots.gouv.fr)