Most people find this page in the first hour, and most of what they have been told is wrong. There is no deadline to choose a funeral home. There is no requirement to decide burial or cremation on the phone. There is no penalty for taking the night to call family before you call anyone else. What follows is what genuinely has to happen, in the order it happens, in Texas — and specifically in Dallas County, where the medical examiner's office runs its own clock.
Step 1: who to call first, by where the death happened
This is the only decision that changes based on circumstance. Everything after it is the same.
| Where the death happened | Call first | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| At home, on hospice | The hospice line — not 911 | A hospice nurse comes and pronounces the death, notifies the physician, and disposes of medications. Calling 911 instead triggers a resuscitation attempt and, often, a medical examiner referral nobody wanted. |
| At home, expected but not on hospice | 911 | Paramedics attend. If a physician is willing to certify the cause of death, the death can be released directly to a funeral home. If not, the case goes to the medical examiner. |
| At home, unexpected or sudden | 911 | Law enforcement and the medical examiner take jurisdiction. Do not move anything. The family is not in trouble; this is routine for any unattended death. |
| In hospital or a care facility | Nobody — the staff pronounce | Staff notify the attending physician and ask you which funeral home to release to. That is the only decision they need from you, and you may take hours to answer it. |
| Away from home, in another state or country | A funeral home in the place of death, then us | Two firms coordinate: one takes your loved one into care locally, we receive them here. See international transfers if the destination is outside the United States. |
Once a death has been pronounced, one call to a funeral home sets the whole administrative machine running: the transfer into care, the death certificate filing, the county permits, and the certified copies you will need for every institution afterwards. Ours is (214) 550-7369 and a person answers it at any hour, in English or Spanish.
Step 2: the first 24 hours
Short list. Everything on it is either a legal requirement on someone else, or something that makes the next week easier.
| When | What happens | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Hour 0 | Pronouncement of death | Hospice nurse, physician, paramedics, or the medical examiner |
| Hour 0–2 | You call a funeral home and give four details: where your loved one is, who you are, whether a doctor or hospice has been notified, and a number to reach you | You, once |
| Hour 1–3 | Transfer into the funeral home's care, normally 60 to 90 minutes from the call | Licensed transfer team |
| Within 24 hours | Texas requires that a body be embalmed or refrigerated within 24 hours of death (22 Tex. Admin. Code § 203.45) | The funeral home, automatically |
| Same day, if you can | Find any pre-arrangement paperwork, insurance policies, or written funeral instructions; check whether your loved one was a veteran | Family |
| Same day | Secure the home if it is now empty — pets, medication, mail, valuables | Family |
Notice what is not on that list: choosing a casket, choosing a service date, paying anything, or notifying banks and government agencies. None of those belong in day one, and a provider pressing you to settle them on the first call is telling you something about the provider. The deep version of this day is our first 24 hours guide, and there are city-specific walkthroughs for Dallas, Plano and Richardson.
Step 3: when the medical examiner is involved
In Dallas County, deaths that are sudden, unattended, violent, or otherwise unexplained fall to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences — the county medical examiner. Families find this frightening. In practice it is procedural.
- You still choose the funeral home. The legal next of kin — spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings, in that order — signs a release naming the funeral home, and your loved one is released to us.
- The usual wait is 24 to 48 hours after identification and examination are complete.
- You can check the status yourself on the county's medical examiner public information page rather than calling repeatedly, and the investigations line is (214) 920-5900, option 1.
- The county asks families to make arrangements within about three days of the death notification, and to call if more time is needed. Calling is enough; nobody is penalised for needing longer.
- An autopsy does not prevent a viewing in most cases, and does not prevent cremation — it only moves the timeline.
Our full walkthrough of that process is in the Texas medical examiners guide.
Step 4: days 2 to 7 — the decisions that actually matter
There are only four real decisions, and they are separable. You do not have to make them at once.
- Burial or cremation. If your loved one left written instructions, those control. If not, the same next-of-kin order that governs the release governs this choice.
- A service, or not, and when. A memorial can be held weeks or months later, at any location. Separating the disposition from the gathering is normal and costs nothing.
- Where. Cemetery, columbarium, scattering, or keeping the urn at home — all lawful in Texas, with the one restriction that scattering on land you do not own needs the owner's permission.
- How many certified death certificates. Order more than you think: $21 for the first and $4 for each additional copy, and almost every institution wants its own. Most families use three to six. See death certificates.
Prices for each path are published on our pricing page — direct cremation $1,750, memorial cremation $4,995, traditional funeral from $6,350 — and the wider market context is in funeral costs in Texas. If money is the constraint, read burial and funeral assistance in Dallas County before you agree to anything: it sets out exactly which programs exist, which do not, and what the county will and will not do.
Step 5: who to notify, and in what order
None of this is urgent in week one. It is the month-one list, and it goes faster with certified copies in hand.
| Notify | Why it matters | When |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | Benefits must stop; a surviving spouse living in the same household may claim the $255 lump-sum death payment, and survivor benefits may follow. The funeral home usually reports the death, but the family files the claim. See Social Security benefits. | First weeks |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | Burial allowances and a national cemetery plot may be available. See veteran benefits. | Before the service if a national cemetery is wanted |
| Employer or former employer | Final pay, life insurance through work, pension, 401(k) beneficiary | First weeks |
| Life insurance companies | Claims need a certified death certificate; payouts commonly follow within weeks | When certificates arrive |
| Banks, pensions, brokerages | Joint accounts, payable-on-death designations, and beneficiaries all behave differently | Month one |
| Credit bureaus, DPS, voter registration | Closes the door on identity theft, which spikes after a published obituary | Month one |
What can wait — and should
Texas gives estates years, not days. Probate, retitling a house, selling a car, closing accounts that are not accruing charges, and clearing out a home are month-three problems, and doing them in week one produces mistakes that are expensive to unwind. Our estate settlement guide covers the sequence. Grief has no schedule either; grief and support lists what is available locally, most of it free.
Printable checklist
Families ask for something they can put on the kitchen table and tick off, especially when several relatives are dividing up the calls. Our free downloads include a printable checklist you can hand around, and the timing guide answers the question everyone asks next — how long after a death the funeral usually is.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first thing to do when someone dies at home in Texas?
If the death was expected and your loved one was on hospice, call the hospice line — they will send a nurse to pronounce the death. If it was unexpected, call 911. Once the death has been pronounced, call a funeral home; that single call starts the transfer, the permits, and the death certificate.
How long do I have to choose a funeral home in Texas?
There is no legal deadline. Texas requires only that the body be embalmed or refrigerated within 24 hours of death, which is the funeral home's duty once your loved one is in its care. Where the Dallas County medical examiner is involved, the county asks families to arrange within about three days and to call if they need longer.
Do I have to pay a funeral home before they collect my loved one?
No. The transfer into care happens first; arrangements and payment follow. Under the FTC Funeral Rule you are entitled to an itemised General Price List before you agree to anything, and you may buy only the goods and services you want.
Who has the legal right to decide burial or cremation?
Written instructions left by the deceased control. Failing that, Texas sets an order of priority: the surviving spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. The same person signs the release from the medical examiner and the cremation authorisation.
How many death certificates will I need?
Most families use three to six. Each bank, insurer, pension and title transfer usually wants its own certified copy. Texas charges $21 for the first copy and $4 for each additional one, so ordering a few extra at the start is far cheaper than reordering later.
What if we cannot afford a funeral?
Say so on the first call — options narrow fast once goods are selected. Dallas County does not pay toward funeral costs; what it offers is a county disposition process in which the county cremates and the ashes are not returned to the family. Our assistance guide sets out every program that does exist, including the $255 Social Security payment, VA allowances, crime victims' compensation and workers' compensation burial benefits.
Does the funeral home notify Social Security?
The funeral home normally reports the death to Social Security, which stops benefit payments. It does not file your claim: a surviving spouse or eligible child must claim the $255 lump-sum death payment and any survivor benefits directly.
If the Medical Examiner takes the case
Some deaths are investigated by the Dallas County Medical Examiner — a death within 24 hours of hospital admission, a death at home with no attending physician, an accident, a suicide. It does not mean anyone suspects the family of anything, and it does not change what a funeral costs. It does change the timeline, and it puts one decision ahead of every other: you choose the funeral home, and the county is not permitted to recommend one. The whole sequence is set out in what happens when the Medical Examiner has your loved one.
If it just happened
Call (214) 550-7369. A licensed funeral director answers, day or night, and the first call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If you would rather write, start arrangements online or read the full resource library. Esta guía también está disponible en español.