Estate Insights

Analysis and practical guides on estate.

4 articles, checklists, and guides on estate law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

EstateDeath Care

Final Arrangements Toolkit: Disposition Directives, Price Comparisons, and Benefit Claims

This toolkit provides the documents that make final arrangements manageable, ordered from the preparation that prevents problems to the responses that fix them. It opens with a disposition directive, a funeral wishes letter, and the one-page kitchen drawer sheet that families actually find in the first hour. It includes a telephone price worksheet built around the two questions that expose a fivefold price spread, a general price list comparison, a script for the arrangement conference with the exact phrases that assert each right, an itemized statement review, and a Funeral Rule complaint letter. It then covers the cemetery fee inquiry, preneed contract questions, veterans benefits claims and a DD-214 request, a death certificate order worksheet, a notification tracker, a credit bureau deceased notice, and an outline for a disposition dispute petition.

Casey Scott McKayJune 24, 202619 min read

EstateDeath Care

Funeral Planning and Final Arrangements Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist covers the days after a death in the order the work must be done, and the afternoon of preparation that prevents nearly all of it. It leads with the four documents to find before making any arrangement, because families routinely pay for a funeral twice. It sets out the twenty-minute phone comparison that the federal price disclosure requirement makes possible, the things a funeral provider may never require you to buy, and the exact phrases that assert each right. It covers who holds the legal authority to decide and what to do when a family disagrees, the death certificates and notifications that follow, and the benefits that go unclaimed — with a separate sequence for when there is no money to pay.

Casey Scott McKayJune 15, 20269 min read

EstateDeath Care

Arranging a Funeral and Handling Final Affairs: A Practical Guide

This guide walks through the days after a death in the order the work actually has to be done, beginning with the first twenty-four hours and the four things to find before making any arrangements. It explains how to get comparable prices in twenty minutes using the telephone disclosure requirement, what a general price list contains, and the specific things a funeral provider may never require you to buy. It covers who holds the legal right to decide, what to do when a family disagrees, and the authorization requirements for cremation. It then moves to the administrative work: how many death certificates to order and who needs them, the benefits that go unclaimed including veterans burial benefits and employer coverage, and what to do when there is no money. It ends with the afternoon of preparation that prevents nearly all of it.

Casey Scott McKayJune 7, 202627 min read

EstateDeath Care

Funeral, Burial, and Death Care Law: The Funeral Rule, Remains, and Final Arrangements

Death care is a consumer transaction conducted by people who are grieving, on a short timeline, with a seller whose product is impossible to compare. This article explains the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule — the general price list, the itemized statement, the right to buy only what you want, and the prohibition on requiring embalming or refusing an outside casket — and then the state law that determines who actually has the legal right to decide what happens to a body. It covers preneed contracts and the trust and insurance arrangements behind them, cemetery contracts and their perpetual care obligations, veterans burial benefits including national cemetery eligibility and the burial allowance, and the anatomical gift framework. It closes on death certificates, home funerals and green burial, disputes among family members, and what happens when nobody claims a body.

Casey Scott McKayMay 30, 202627 min read