15 Dec Should I report a death to the credit bureaus?

Q. When a person dies, do all credit agencies automatically get the Social Security numbers to avoid thieves from using them? What do we have to do?
— Survivor

A. It’s a smart question.

Even after someone dies, you don’t want to see a scammer using their information for identity theft purposes.

When someone in your family passes away, you should notify Social Security as soon as possible, said Jody D’Agostini, a certified financial planner with The Falcon Financial Group in Morristown.

She said generally, the funeral director will report the death to Social Security.

“Social Security does not reassign the number to another individual,” she said. “There are currently over 453.7 million different numbers that have been issued with no duplications.”

D’Agostini said Social Security sends out the list of deceased to the three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

“The deceased would then have their credit reports sealed and a death notice would be placed on them,” she said.
But if you want to be sure, there’s no harm in reporting it to the credit bureaus yourself.

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This story was originally published on Dec. 15, 2023.

NJMoneyHelp.com presents certain general financial planning principles and advice, but should never be viewed as a substitute for obtaining advice from a personal professional advisor who understands your unique individual circumstances.