What to Do With a Deceased Person's Mail

In the United States, you can open and manage the mail of someone who has died if you shared their address. To send their mail to a different address, you must go to a Post Office in person and show documented proof that you are the appointed executor or administrator; a death certificate alone is not enough. To cut advertising mail, you can register the person with the Deceased Do Not Contact List. Bills and statements keep coming either way, and they are worth keeping.

Below: what to do this week, who can ask the Post Office to forward mail, how to cut junk mail and what that will not stop, how to sort what arrives, and a printable mail log.

This is not legal advice. It is a plain-English guide built from the Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Trade Commission and a mail-preference service. Rules differ by state. For a question about whether you may open or throw out a piece of mail, or about a debt, ask a probate attorney or the probate court clerk in the county where the person lived. This page covers the United States only.

Mail is one step in a longer list. See the executor checklist for the rest, or what to do when someone dies for the first days.

This week

1. Keep collecting the mail. Each envelope tells you about an account, a bill or a benefit, and you do not know yet what exists. Put everything addressed to the person in one place. No source is needed: this is practical advice.
2. Do not throw out anything that looks like a bill, a statement, a tax form, a notice from a court or an agency, or a letter from an insurer or a bank. Junk can be thrown out later; these cannot be found again easily. No source is needed.
3. Start the mail log below. Write what came, from whom, what it is, and what you did.
4. Decide who is going to handle the mail. If you are the executor, or helping the executor, the next section says what the Post Office needs from you.
5. Ask before you open anything, if you are not sure you may. The Postal Service says a person who shared an address with the deceased "may open and manage the deceased's mail as needed." Its page says nothing about opening mail at a different address. Ask the attorney or the court clerk. Source: USPS, How to Stop or Forward Mail for the Deceased.

Who can ask the Post Office to forward the mail

The Postal Service page describes two cases. Source for this whole section: USPS, How to Stop or Forward Mail for the Deceased.

If you shared a mailing address with the person. You have three options:

• Open and manage the mail as needed.
• Forward all of the mail to a different address (the next case).
• Forward a single piece of mail, for example to an appointed executor, without going to a Post Office. Neatly cross out your address, print "Forward to" and the new address on the front of the envelope, and leave it in your mailbox for the carrier, drop it in a blue collection box or leave it at a Post Office lobby drop.

If you have a different address. To forward the person's mail to yourself or another address, you must go to a Post Office and submit a change of address request in person. You must:

• Give documented proof that you are the appointed executor or administrator authorized to manage the person's mail. "Simply having their death certificate is not enough."
• Complete the change of address request in person.

The page does not list which papers count as proof, and it does not say what happens if no executor has been appointed yet. Ask the Post Office which papers it accepts before you go. The IRS calls the court's "Letters of Testamentary or a similar document" the paper that authorizes an estate administrator to act (source: IRS, Responsibilities of an estate administrator), so it is a good first thing to ask about. What the court calls it, and how long it takes to get, is a question for the court clerk.

If you are waiting for the appointment, the single-piece forwarding above is the one option on the page that needs no visit and no papers.

How to cut junk mail

The Postal Service page says the Data & Marketing Association keeps a Deceased Do Not Contact List and that advertising mail "should decrease" within three months of registering the person's name. The ANA's own pages say that the ANA provides that list and offers the DMAchoice service. Source: USPS, same page; ANA, Deceased Do Not Contact Registration.

What the ANA's own page says on 4 October 2026:

• Friends, relatives and caregivers can register the person. There is a $6 administrative processing fee, and you are asked for an email address so a link can verify the registration.
• The person's name, address, phone number and email address go on a special file that is sent to subscribing companies each month. The ANA expects "a reduction in your promotional mail within three months."
• You can add up to four more versions of the name, such as nicknames or misspellings.
• The ANA's FAQ says to allow about 90 days for a request to take effect, because some mailings are prepared far ahead. Source: ANA, DMAchoice FAQs.

What it will not stop. The ANA lists mail that this kind of request does not cover: transactional mail (invoices, bills, statements and notices); prescreened offers of credit or insurance; political mailings; mail addressed to "current resident"; mail from companies or nonprofits the person bought from, subscribed to or donated to; and companies that do not subscribe to the service. For the last two, contact the company directly. For prescreened credit and insurance offers, the ANA points to OptOutPrescreen.com, run by the credit bureaus. Whether that site accepts a request for a person who has died is a question for them; the ANA's page does not say. Source: ANA, DMAchoice FAQs.

In plain words: the registration reduces advertising mail. It does not stop the bills, and a charity or a magazine the person already dealt with has to be told one by one.

Sort what arrives

Use five piles. None of this needs a source; it is a way to keep the mail from becoming a mountain.

1. Bills and statements. Keep them. They tell you which accounts exist.
2. Benefits, insurance and pensions. Keep them, and note who sent them.
3. Tax and legal. Keep them, and take them to the attorney.
4. Things to answer or cancel. Subscriptions, memberships and donation requests.
5. Junk. Throw out or shred it. If a letter has the person's Social Security number or an account number on it, shred it rather than putting it in the bin.

Do not pay a bill from your own money until you have asked. The FTC says a person's debts are owed by and paid from the estate, and that family members "usually don't have to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own money," with exceptions such as a debt you cosigned. If you are unsure, the FTC says to talk to a lawyer. Source: FTC, Debts and Deceased Relatives (page dated February 2023).

A payment that arrives after the death. USAGov says any payment for the month the person died must be returned to Social Security. Ask the agency what to do with any other payment that arrives. Source: USAGov, Agencies to notify when someone dies (updated 31 August 2026).

Collection letters. The FTC says debt collectors can discuss a deceased person's debt only with certain people, among them the executor, administrator or personal representative with power to pay debts from the estate. A letter addressed to someone else asking you to pay is worth showing to the attorney before you answer. Source: FTC, Debts and Deceased Relatives.

Watch the mail for signs of identity theft

Mail is where a stolen identity often shows up first: a card, a bill or a notice for an account the family never heard of. The IRS says, for a deceased person, to file the final tax return when due, send the credit bureaus a copy of the death certificate and ask them to put a "deceased alert" on the credit reports, and watch the reports for unusual activity. It also says to avoid putting too much information in an obituary that identity thieves could use. Source: IRS, Identity theft guide for individuals (page last reviewed 4 June 2026). If an account was opened after the death, the FTC runs IdentityTheft.gov for reports. What proof each credit bureau needs is a question to ask each one.

Printable mail log

To print this section on its own, use your browser's Print command (Ctrl+P, or Cmd+P on a Mac). The page is set up to print the log only. Keep the log with the mail, and write no passwords or full account numbers on it.

A page in the same shape, with a line for the date, who it came from, what it is and what was done, is part of The Executor's Workbook (see the box at the end).

Questions for the Post Office, the attorney or the court clerk

Take these to the Post Office, the attorney or the clerk.

• Which papers does the Post Office accept as proof that I am the executor or administrator?
• Can I forward the mail before the court has appointed me?
• May I open mail addressed to the person if I do not live at their address?
• Does OptOutPrescreen.com take a request for a person who has died?
• What should I do with a payment or a check that arrives after the death?

Sources

Each statement with a source links to the page it came from. Where this page says "ask", the answer depends on your state or the organization. Government pages change; if a detail matters, open the source.

All read on 4 October 2026.

• USPS, "How to Stop or Forward Mail for the Deceased", no date shown on the page.
• ANA, "Deceased Do Not Contact Registration", no date shown on the page.
• ANA, DMAchoice FAQs, no date shown on the page.
• IRS, "Responsibilities of an estate administrator", last reviewed 14 August 2026.
• IRS, "Identity theft guide for individuals", last reviewed 4 June 2026.
• FTC, "Debts and Deceased Relatives", dated February 2023.
• FTC, "Identity theft", no date shown on the page; used only for the pointer to IdentityTheft.gov.
• USAGov, "Agencies to notify when someone dies", updated 31 August 2026.