The 48-28-6 Method: what to do after a death in Australia

After a death in Australia, the paperwork does not arrive all at once. It arrives in three waves. The 48-28-6 Method organises what a family will face into those waves: protect in the first 48 hours, notify over the first 28 days and settle over the first 6 months. Same order in every State and Territory; the local differences live inside each step.

Window 1: the first 48 hours (Protect)

The first window is practical, not legal. It is the short stretch where a few decisions made in the right order spare weeks of chasing later.

• Engage the funeral director. They register the death with your State or Territory’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry.
• Find the original will and confirm who the executor is.
• Order several certified death certificates. Nearly every organisation will ask for one, and running short slows everything down.
• Note which bank accounts are in the deceased’s sole name and which are joint, before anyone tells the bank. A joint account generally passes to the surviving holder, while an account in a sole name is frozen once the bank is notified of the death.
• Check whether funeral wishes were written down, rather than guessing at them.

Window 2: the first 28 days (Notify)

This is where most families lose time: the death explained again on every call, in no particular order. The second window puts the notifications in sequence.

• Centrelink within 28 days. If the person was receiving a payment, Services Australia asks to be told within 28 days. An overpayment made after the death is recovered as a debt of the estate.
• The Australian Death Notification Service once the death certificate arrives. It is free and government run, and the major banks take part. Participation is voluntary, though, so everyone it misses still has to be told directly: smaller institutions, insurers, utilities and subscriptions.
• Each super fund, one claim per fund. Super sits in a separate trust, outside the will. The trustee decides who receives it unless there is a valid binding death benefit nomination, and in most large funds a binding nomination lapses after three years if it is not renewed. An old fund from a past job is easy to forget.
• Every bank, the ATO, Medicare, insurers and utilities, each recorded in one register.

Window 3: the first 6 months (Settle)

The third window closes the estate properly, without rushing the one step that can go wrong: handing assets out too early.

• Probate or letters of administration through the Supreme Court of your State or Territory. In NSW, a notice must be published online at least 14 days before the application is filed.
• The deceased’s final tax return, the debts and the home.
• Distribution, in the right order. In NSW, an executor who waits six months from the death, after giving the required notice, is protected when distributing the estate. Distributing earlier is possible but not protected. Rules on timing and family provision claims differ between States.
• No inheritance tax. Australia has no inheritance tax, so the work in this window is administrative rather than a tax bill on the estate itself.

Why prepare it while you can

A will says who inherits. It does not tell your family where the super is, which accounts are joint, who to notify first or where the original documents are kept. The information exists, but it is spread across Services Australia, the ATO, the ADNS, each super fund and the courts of eight States and Territories. Writing it down once, calmly, means your family follows a plan instead of starting from scratch.

The Aussie Estate Kit turns these three windows into a fill-in folder: the Start Here sheet, the super and nomination register, the account register, the notification map and the State by State notes on probate. Before ordering, you can read the reviews and buying guide.

Common questions

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