For months after a death, the mail keeps coming. Bank statements, renewal notices, catalogs, sometimes a birthday offer from a company that does not know. Each one arrives with their name on it, and many families find it one of the hardest parts of the first few weeks.
You can stop most of it and have the rest sent to you. Before you do, it helps to know that their mail is also the most complete list you will ever get of the accounts, policies and subscriptions they had. This guide covers both: what the Postal Service allows, and how to use the mail while it is still arriving. The USPS rules here were checked on usps.com in October 2026.
In short: if you shared their address, USPS says you may open and manage their mail, and you can forward single pieces yourself. To forward all of it to a different address you have to go to a Post Office in person with proof that you are the appointed executor or administrator. A death certificate is not enough for that. Advertising mail is stopped separately, through the Deceased Do Not Contact List. Everything else stops when each sender is told.
Read it before you stop it
Every envelope names an organization that had a relationship with them, which is exactly the list the person settling the estate needs. For the first few weeks, keep all of it in one box, including what looks like junk. Then go through it for:
- Bank, credit union and credit card statements. These also show every automatic payment. Look for names like Apple, Google, Amazon, PayPal, Netflix and Spotify, which point to online accounts that never send paper.
- Renewal notices for insurance, roadside assistance, antivirus software, website domains, memberships and magazines.
- Bills from the cell phone carrier and the internet provider. Keep the cell number active for now, because many online accounts text their security codes to it. Our carrier guide explains how each one handles a death.
- Retirement, brokerage and tax documents, including accounts the family did not know about.
If someone else is the executor, agree between you who opens the mail, so nothing is missed or handled twice. Our guide to finding the accounts someone had covers the other places to look.
If you lived at the same address
USPS keeps this simple. Its page on mail for the deceased says that if you shared an address, "You may open and manage the deceased's mail as needed". Nothing has to be filed, and the mail carries on arriving as before.
You can also send a single piece on to someone else, such as the executor, without visiting a Post Office:
On the front of the envelope, neatly.
Print it clearly on the front of the envelope.
Leave it for your carrier, drop it in a blue collection box, or hand it in at a Post Office lobby.
Forwarding all of their mail to a different address
If their home will be empty, or you are handling everything from your own address, the Postal Service will forward their mail to you. It cannot be set up the way an ordinary move is.
USPS says a change of address for someone who has died has to be completed in person at a Post Office.
USPS asks for "documented proof that you are the appointed executor or administrator authorized to manage the deceased's mail", and adds: "Simply having their death certificate is not enough." In practice that means the letters testamentary or letters of administration issued by the probate court. Bring your own photo ID as well.
While you are at the counter, ask how long the forwarding will last and whether it can be extended, so it does not run out before the estate is settled.
If nobody has been appointed yet, or the estate is small enough that there will be no court appointment at all, call the Post Office before you go and ask what it will accept. In the meantime, whoever has access to the mailbox can send important pieces on one at a time, and the senders that matter can be given your address directly.
Forwarding only covers what USPS delivers. Packages sent by UPS, FedEx or Amazon's own drivers keep going to the old address until the sender is told.
Stop the advertising mail
Catalogs and offers addressed to someone who has died are the mail families tend to find hardest, and they have their own switch. USPS points families to the Deceased Do Not Contact List, run by the direct marketing industry's trade association, and you register the person's name at DMAchoice.org.
- Relatives, friends and caregivers can all register someone.
- The registration form charges a $6 administrative processing fee.
- USPS says that within 3 months of registering, advertising mail should decrease.
The list only reaches companies that use it. It does not stop bills and statements, mail addressed to "Current Resident", or local flyers.
Tell the senders that matter
USPS has no way to stop every piece of mail sent to one name. The rest ends sender by sender, as each one is told about the death.
- Social Security. The Social Security Administration says funeral homes generally report a death, so you do not typically need to. If no funeral home was involved, call 800-772-1213 with the person's name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death.
- Banks, card issuers, insurers, utilities and lenders. Call or write to each one. Most ask for a copy of the death certificate and the name of the person handling the estate.
- Everything else. Many people write "Deceased, return to sender" on an unopened envelope and put it back in the mail. USPS's page on mail for the deceased does not mention this, so treat it as a courtesy that may prompt a sender to update its list. It does not replace telling a company that matters.
The online accounts the mail points to
Paper only tells you about the organizations that still send paper. Email, social media, cloud storage and most subscriptions show up on a bank statement at best, and each has its own process after a death. Our guides walk through the main ones: Facebook, Instagram, Google and Gmail, Apple ID and iCloud, Amazon and PayPal, as well as canceling subscriptions.
Or let us handle the online side
Departed Digital closes or memorializes a loved one's online accounts for the family. Tell us the accounts you have found, from the mail or anywhere else, and send the documents once. We use each platform's official process for a death, follow up on every request, and give you a written record of everything for the family and the estate. We are based in London and take cases from families in the United States. Packages start from $199.
Found accounts in the mail? Tell us which ones and we will take it from there, with the requests, the documents and the follow up included. Start a case →