Requires the state office for the aging to publish a "Guide to Actions When Someone Close Dies"

New guide helps families after a death

The law takes effect immediately and requires New York’s Office for the Aging to publish a guide for handling a death. The “Guide to Actions When Someone Close Dies” must be publicly available on the office’s official website. The office may also produce a paper version within one year of the law’s effective date. The guide must explain pensions, Social Security, life and health insurance, death benefits, and tax issues after a death. It must cover death certificates, wills, trusts, and other legal information for future planning. Grief guidance must cover symptoms, triggers, coping strategies, effects on family relationships, and related mental health concerns. Funeral and burial guidance must include arrangements, average costs by region, and resources from the health department’s Bureau of Funeral Directing. The director must create a temporary advisory committee to help develop the guide and identify other useful information. Members must represent funeral directors, cemeteries, grief counseling professionals, estate planning attorneys—including the New York State Bar Association—and clergy. The director may add representatives from other state agencies as needed. The committee ends 30 days after the guide is posted and distributed. Members are unpaid; reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses is limited to appropriated funds.