Certifying Death–Related Documents

When dealing with official documents and identification, you will need often need to provide certified copies or present the originals.

At this stage, then, one of your primary concerns would be how to certify documents in NSW or whichever state/territory you're located in.

In Australia, the following people are authorised to certify death-related documents:

• Health Professionals: chiropractors, dentists, medical practitioners, nurses, optometrists, pharmacists, physiotherapists;
• Legal Professionals: legal practitioners, patent attorneys, trademarks attorneys;
• People in Court Positions: bailiffs, justices of the peace, judges, magistrates, registrars, or deputy registrars, clerks, masters of a court, CEOs of Commonwealth courts;
• Elected Government Representatives: Federal, State or Territory or Local;
• Public Servants: Federal, State or Territory or Local – employed for five years or more;
• Members of: Chartered Secretaries Australia, Engineers Australia, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy;
• Bank officers, building society officers, credit union officers, finance company officers – employed for five years or more, veterinary surgeons, accountants (member of ICA, ASA, IPA or CPA, ATMA, NTAA); and
• Ministers of religion, marriage celebrants, notaries public, police officers, sheriffs or sheriff's officers, teachers (full-time) at a school or tertiary education institution.

Outside Australia, the following persons are authorised to certify documents:

• Justices of the Peace;
• Notaries public;
• Australian Consular Officers or Australian Diplomatic Officers (within the meaning of the Consular Fees Act 1955); and
• Employees of the Commonwealth or the Australian Trade Commission who works outside Australia.

Note: Many companies and organisations will not return documents submitted for processing; hence, it is always best to provide a certified copy if originals are not requested. This is why it's crucial to go one step beyond the certification of death documentation by also ensuring all copies are certified.

To be safe, it is always good to check with the requesting party, if an original is required and how it will be returned to you.

If you have completed Step 8 – How To Get a Death Certificate you should have received the original Death Certificate by now.

We recommend getting more than one certified copy of the Death Certificate – around 20 copies is recommended as this is a key document and will be requested by many government departments, companies and organisations to prove the deceased person has, indeed, passed away.

Note: Make sure to keep the original, so further certified copies may be made as needed. Please refer to Step 11.2 above for a list of authorised persons who can certify a Death Certificate copy and other documents.

At this stage of the administration process, a certified copy of the Will should be enough to prove that you are the named Executor.

Where a Will is available, you will want to keep a certified copy of the Will. In fact, it is recommended that you make around 20 certified copies to be prepared for any eventuality. Make sure to keep the original so further certified copies may be made as needed.

Where the Will isn't enough, you will have to provide a certified copy of the Grant of Probate. See Step 11.5 below and Step 27 – Grant of Probate Application or Applying for Letters of Administration for further information

Where no Will is in place, the Administrator will need to make copies of the Letters of Administration. See Step 11.5 below for further information.

A Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration will be needed when dealing with large financial transfers later in the administration process.

Since these are crucial documents in the Estate Administration process, it's advisable to have more than one certified copy of the Grant of Probate. We recommend making several of these as you will most likely be asked to furnish a certified copy of Probate by different companies and organisations you may need to deal with in the course of administering the Estate.

Step 27 – Grant of Probate Application or Applying for Letters of Administration explains this in more detail.

As you initiate contact with government departments, companies and other organisations the deceased person had dealings with, you will be informed by each organisation regarding which supporting documents they will need from you to facilitate and complete their process concerning the deceased.

simplyEstate can assist you with notifying service providers of the death to initiate each process.

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In many cases, you as the Executor or Administrator, will need to provide one, two or three forms of identification. This is to give the party you are dealing with the confidence that you are the person you are claiming to be.

For financial matters such as paying out bank account funds, you will likely need Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration, which is explained in more detail in Step 27.