What to do When an Individual Becomes Deceased

What to do When an Individual Becomes Deceased

QUESTIONS THAT APPLY TO THIS TOPIC

  • An individual in my database recently passed away, what should I do?
  • What are the steps to ensure that a deceased individual no longer receives anything from us?

ANSWER


Whenever an individual becomes deceased, there a few things you need to do in order to ensure they no longer are included in any mailings.

 

  1. Mark the individual as “Deceased” and remove them from Address Bundles. 
    1. Open your finder and right-click on the “Contact Group”.
    2. Choose “Maintain Contact Group Section”, then choose “Individual”.
    3. Select the appropriate individual and check the “Deceased” box.
    4. Click Next until you get the “Primary Home Address Bundle”.
    5. Clear their name from the “Addressee” section by clicking in the drop down twice so that it is highlighted, but not expanded, then press your Space bar.
    6. Be sure to also update the Address, Phone Number, Fax Number and Email Address if necessary.
    7. Click Next and do the same for the “Primary Business Address Bundle” if necessary.
    8. Click close on that screen.
  2. Mark their “Birthday Procedure” as “Done”. 
    1. Once are you back to the finder, right-click on the “Contact Group” and choose “Info Sheet”.
    2. Locate the individuals “Birthday Procedure” from the “History” tab.
    3. Right-click on the procedure and choose “Action Status”, then choose “Mark Done”.
  3. Mark their “Anniversary Reminder” as “Done”
    1. This will be the same steps as the “Birthday Office Procedure”, but instead, you will look for “Anniversary Toast” and “Anniversary Reminder” and mark each of those as done.

      Note : Some clients may still appreciate getting the reminder; if that is the case with your client, you can skip this step.
  4. Remove the Contact Group from any Campaigns and Perm Off the Contact Group. (Only use if the deceased individual was the only person within the Contact Group.)
    1. Click on Tools>Contact Group Downline/Delete.
    2. Choose the option for Single Contact Group and click the three dot box, then choose the Contact Group to downline and click Next.
    3. Choose the Downline option from the left. On the right you will need to set the following options.
      • Change Status: Choose Perm Off from the drop down.
      • Remove from All Campaigns.
    4. If anything else is checked, uncheck those boxes, then click Next.
    5. You will get a message recommending that you print a hard copy of the history records. You can do so here, otherwise just click Finish.