Documents Needed for the Post Office to Transfer the Mail of a Deceased Person

Hi, I'm Paul Rabalais. I'm a board certified estate planning and estate administration attorney certified by our state bar association. I got a question from a friend last week. His father had passed away and the son was handling everything. The son wanted to divert the dad's mail from the dad's home to the son's home. They lived in separate areas and it was the son's responsibility to gather all the information on the accounts. The son wasn't exactly sure what accounts they had so the son wanted to get dad's mail. So the son went to the post office and was turned away because he didnt have all of the proper documentation to change the mailing address. What he needed was a death certificate and those are usually pretty easy to get, but he also needed the court documents showing that the son had the proper authorization. So we're in the process now of getting the son appointed as the administrator of dad's succession. Dad didn't have a will so we got all of the heirs to sign off on the paperwork. The son's going to be appointed by the administrator, the court's going to issue some documents called letters of independent administration, and the son can take the death certificate and these letters of administration to the post office and then they'll change dad's mailing address from dad's house to son's house. So be aware of that if you're trying to change someone's mailing address in a succession you have to have all of the proper documentation. If you need help with that give us a call at 866-491-3884. Have a great day!