The first week after a death in Georgia.

1. 1Pronouncement and the funeral home. If it happened at home or out of hospital, the coroner or a doctor pronounces. The funeral home picks up the body (often within 2–4 hours of the call) and starts the paperwork that generates the death certificate.
2. 2Tell only who needs to know first. Immediate family, the workplace if applicable, one or two close friends to help. Social media announcements can wait a few days — once it's public, distant relatives and strangers start calling.
3. 3Locate the will (if there is one). Check: safe deposit boxes, fireproof home safes, with the estate-planning attorney, filed for safekeeping at the local probate court. If you can't find one, that's OK for now — intestate probate works without it.
4. 4Secure the home. Lock doors. Forward mail. If you're not sure who else has a key, change the locks. Confirm the homeowner's insurance is paid and active — a lapsed policy on a vacant home is the most expensive mistake in this whole process.

1. 5Order death certificates. 6–10 certified copies. See our guide for the Georgia process. The funeral home often orders the first batch automatically; confirm how many they're ordering.
2. 6Call the mortgage servicer (only once you have a death certificate in hand). Federal law (Garn-St. Germain Act) protects heirs from the bank calling the loan due. See our mortgage-after-death guide for what to say. Keep payments current.
3. 7Notify Social Security. Call 1-800-772-1213. Often the funeral home does this; ask them. Important: Social Security claws back the month-of-death payment if it's already been deposited, so don't spend it.
4. 8Pause auto-pays from the deceased's personal accounts. Many will keep running and may bounce when the bank freezes the account. Note which subscriptions, utilities, and bills were running on auto-pay — you'll need to transfer them.

• Don't sign any “cash for the house” offer. Mailers and calls will start. Trash them.
• Don't list the house with a realtor. Until probate opens and Letters issue, you don't legally have the right.
• Don't move into the house and start renovations. Anything you change before probate clears complicates the estate.
• Don't withdraw money from the deceased's accounts. That's for after the court appoints an executor/administrator.
• Don't talk to the “investor” who knocked on the door at the funeral. They were waiting for the obituary.

Anytime in the first week is fine. There's no rush to file probate — Georgia gives you years — but a 15-minute call early gives you the realistic timeline and tells you what to do with the house, the mortgage, and the siblings before any of those gets ahead of you.