An undertaker or funeral director can take care of the full range of legal and practical tasks involved, including:

• transporting the body;
• checking that all the legal requirements and documents for burial or cremation are in order;
• the embalming, care and presentation of the deceased’s body;
• organising the minister or celebrant and other people you might need, like an organist;
• death and funeral notices;
• flowers and catering;
• support services for bereaved family and friends;
• registering the death.

If you’re going to use an undertaker or funeral director, it’s often best to use one who is a member of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ), although there is no legal requirement to do so. FDANZ members have to have appropriate qualifications and experience and must also follow the Association’s standards – this requires them to, for example, respect the ethnic origin and spiritual beliefs of the deceased person (These standards are available on the FDANZ website).

Many families also decide to arrange the funeral themselves. If you decide to do this, there are some legal requirements you’ll need to take care of:

• Confirmation of cause of death – The body can’t be buried, cremated or disposed of in another way unless a doctor or nurse practitioner has issued a Certificate of Cause of Death or, if the death had to be reported to a coroner, the coroner has issued an Order for Disposal of Body.
• Registering the death – you’ll need to register the death with Births, Deaths and Marriages no later than three working days after the disposal of the body.

For more details about those steps, see: “Confirming and registering the death”.

Embalming isn’t always necessary – for example, if the body is to be buried, cremated or disposed of in another way within two or three days after death. However, particularly if the body is to be kept at home, the family may want to consider embalming. The speed with which the body decomposes will depend on a number of factors, including how the body is stored and the weather at the time (for example, how hot or humid it is). It’s best to seek advice from people with appropriate knowledge and experience in these matters.

Some other tasks or decisions you may need to consider include:

• contacting other family and friends, and publishing death or funeral notices in newspapers and online;
• the form of the service – for example, whether it will be led by a minister, a non-religious funeral celebrant, or a family member;
• letting people know if the deceased wanted any donations to go to a particular charity (instead of bringing flowers for example);
• deciding on a place where people can gather after the funeral – you might want to ask friends to organise food or organise professional caterers for this.

Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act 2018, ss 34, 35; Schedule 2

The deceased may have decided to arrange and pay for a funeral in advance. They might have left instructions in their will or with family members about what they’d like to happen. These instructions aren’t legally binding on the family, but it would be unusual for a family not to follow them. The executor or person lawfully in control of the body is entitled to make the final decision.

Sometimes people decide to pay for their funeral in advance. The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand operates a pre-paid funeral scheme where in planning for your funeral you meet with a funeral director to talk about arrangements and you pay the price of the funeral into a special trust account. For more information, go the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand website.

The cost of the pre-paid funeral, up to $10,000, isn’t counted as part of your property (“assets”) when Work and Income are working out whether you qualify for a residential care subsidy for rest home care.