How to notify the government after a death in Quebec: RAMQ, SAAQ, QPP and Revenu Québec checklist

When someone you love has passed away, the last thing you want is a scavenger hunt through government websites. You also don't want to miss a notification and discover, three months later, that the estate owes back pension deposits or that the surviving spouse's tax credits never got updated.

Here's the good news: in Quebec, one form signed at the funeral home, the DEC-102, or "Application for the simplified forwarding of information relative to the death", notifies most government agencies for you. The not-quite-as-good news: a handful of important notifications are still the liquidator's job, and a few benefits (like the QPP death benefit) have to be applied for separately.

This is a checklist you can actually use when figuring out how to notify the government after a death in Quebec. Every agency that matters, with phone numbers, forms, deadlines, and what happens if you skip. Most of it doesn't need to happen in the first week. Take the calls in order and they'll fit around the rest of your life. (A quick note for readers from other provinces: in Quebec civil law, the person handling the estate is called the liquidator rather than the executor. The role is the same.)

Who to notify when someone dies in Quebec: quick-reference checklist

If you only have two minutes, this table is the whole article. The sections below expand on each row.

Keep this table near the binder or folder where you're gathering paperwork. You'll come back to it.

What the DEC-102 does for you, and what it doesn't

The DEC-102 is the form you (or the next-of-kin) sign at the funeral home, alongside the Declaration of Death. It authorizes the Directeur de l'état civil to share the date of death with a set of federal and provincial agencies in one shot. Your funeral director walks you through it during the arrangement meeting.

That one signature saves you from having to mail a certified death certificate to every single ministry. It is also the reason families who arrange through a funeral home rarely need to buy extra death certificates just to cancel benefits. For the canonical source, the Directeur de l'état civil publishes the full list of agencies notified via the simplified forwarding form.

Notified automatically

Once you sign the DEC-102, these agencies receive the date of death without any further effort on your part:

• Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), cancels the health insurance card and the public prescription drug plan
• Retraite Québec, flags the QPP file and public-sector pensions (RREGOP, PPMP)
• Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS), stops social assistance and solidarity payments
• Revenu Québec, flags the provincial tax file
• Canada Revenue Agency, flags the federal tax file
• Service Canada, updates the Social Insurance Register

Notified only if you tick the box

These agencies appear on the DEC-102 as optional notifications. Your funeral director should ask whether each one applies, but if you're unsure, tell them yes when in doubt, ticking a box that isn't relevant does no harm.

• Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), driver's licence and vehicle registration
• Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), open workplace injury claims
• Chief Firearms Officer, firearm licences
• Régie du bâtiment du Québec, construction licences
• Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, active parental leave file
• Indigenous Services Canada, for status registrations

Never notified by the DEC-102

These are never covered by the DEC-102 — the liquidator handles them directly:

• Curateur public du Québec, if there's a protection mandate, tutorship, or a minor inheriting more than $40,000
• Private employer pensions, most workplace plans outside the public service
• Banks, credit unions, credit card issuers
• Utilities, property taxes, the condo syndicate, the landlord
• Life insurance companies

For a broader orientation on the first days, our complete timeline of what happens after someone passes away in Quebec maps the whole first month, not just government calls.

RAMQ, cancel the health insurance card

Phone: 1 800 561-9749 · Auto via DEC-102: Yes, for deaths in Quebec

If the death happened in Quebec and you signed the DEC-102, RAMQ is taken care of. Hand the card to your funeral director, they'll destroy it with the paperwork. Once RAMQ cancels the health insurance card, the public prescription drug insurance plan is cancelled automatically at the same time.

If the death happened outside Quebec (while travelling, for example), the DEC-102 can't reach RAMQ the same way. In that case, call 1 800 561-9749 to report the death, and destroy the card yourself or give it to a funeral director in Quebec.

What happens if you skip this: An uncancelled RAMQ card is a fraud risk. Most families have cancelled it within a month without realizing that's what the funeral director did for them, but if you're arranging informally or outside Quebec, it's on you.

Retraite Québec, QPP pensions, the $2,500 death benefit, and survivor pensions

This is the section where the DEC-102 alone isn't enough. Retraite Québec handles three separate things, and only one of them is covered by the form.

Stop ongoing QPP pension payments

Phone: 1 800 463-5185 · Auto via DEC-102: Technically yes, but call anyway

Here's the nuance nobody explains well: if your parent was receiving a QPP retirement pension or disability benefit, Retraite Québec will eventually be notified through the DEC-102. But "eventually" isn't the same as "before the next deposit lands." Retraite Québec's own guidance is to phone them directly as soon as possible if benefits were active.

Why? Any pension deposit that arrives after the month of death has to be repaid to the estate. A liquidator who doesn't make the call can end up writing a cheque back to the government three months later, an avoidable surprise.

Apply for the $2,500 QPP death benefit

Form: B-042, Application for a Death Benefit · Deadline: 60 days for funeral-payer priority

The $2,500 QPP death benefit is a lump-sum payment to help offset funeral costs, but it does not happen automatically. You have to apply using form B-042. For the first 60 days after the date of death, the person who paid for the funeral has priority. After that window, the benefit goes to the estate (or to the heirs, depending on the situation).

In practice, this means the liquidator should file the application quickly, keep the funeral invoice as proof of payment, and submit everything together. Our full breakdown of QPP and CPP death benefits walks through what counts as proof of payment and how the cheque arrives.

Survivor and orphan pensions

If the deceased had a surviving spouse, dependent children, or both, there may be ongoing monthly benefits available. These also require a separate application. They're not part of the DEC-102, and they don't apply to every family, but if they might apply to yours, Retraite Québec can tell you in one phone call whether it's worth filing.

Revenu Québec, register yourself as liquidator

Phone: 1 800 267-6299 · Online: My Account for liquidators

The DEC-102 flags the tax file. That's step one. But as liquidator, you also need to:

1. Tell Revenu Québec you are the liquidator. Without this, Revenu Québec can't send you the correspondence you'll need, including the information required to file the final tax return.
2. File the final provincial tax return (TP-1). This is the last tax return for your loved one, covering income from January 1 up to the date of death.
3. Request the authorization to distribute property. This is Quebec's equivalent of a tax clearance certificate. Revenu Québec confirms there are no outstanding taxes before you hand out the estate.

What happens if you skip the authorization to distribute property: If you distribute the estate to the heirs and it turns out there were unpaid taxes, the liquidator can be held personally liable for the shortfall. This is the single most expensive step to miss. Most families who hire a notary for the succession are paying, in large part, to avoid this exact scenario.

Do the same thing federally with the Canada Revenue Agency (a federal clearance certificate). Neither certificate is urgent in the first month, they come after the final tax returns, but neither is optional before final distribution.

SAAQ, cancel the driver's licence and vehicle registration

Phone: 1 800 361-7620 · Auto via DEC-102: Only if the box is ticked

SAAQ is the one most families forget. It's a tick-box on the DEC-102, so if you (or the funeral director) marked it, the cancellation is handled. If you're not sure whether the box was ticked, assume it wasn't and cancel the licence yourself, there's no harm in a duplicate notification.

To cancel the licence:

• By mail: Complete sections 1, 3, and 4 of the Driver's Licence Cancellation form. Attach a copy of the attestation from the Directeur de l'état civil or another document attesting to the death. Mail to: Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, Case postale 19600, succursale Terminus, Québec (Québec) G1K 8J6.
• In person: Bring the original proof of death and the licence to a SAAQ service outlet. You may be eligible for a partial fee refund if months remain on the licence.

For vehicle registration, the liquidator will either transfer the vehicle to a new owner (an heir, typically) or cancel the registration. SAAQ can walk you through both on the same call.

What happens if you skip this: Like the RAMQ card, an active driver's licence is a fraud exposure. The refund window on unused licence fees also closes over time, not a huge sum, but worth claiming if it's available.

Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada

The federal side is simpler because the DEC-102 reaches both agencies automatically. Here's what's still worth doing.

Canada Revenue Agency

Phone: 1-800-959-8281 · Form: RC4111 (if not auto-notified)

The CRA receives the date of death from Quebec's Directeur de l'état civil, so you don't usually need to file RC4111 yourself. What you do need to do, as the legal representative, is authorize yourself on CRA's My Account so you can access tax information, file the final federal return (T1), and request the federal clearance certificate.

If the surviving spouse was getting benefits like the Canada Child Benefit or the GST/HST credit, their benefits will be recalculated once CRA processes the date of death. That recalculation often means a larger credit, so the sooner it happens, the sooner the surviving spouse sees a larger benefit.

Service Canada, CPP, OAS, SIN, and EI

Phone: 1-800-277-9914

The Social Insurance Register is updated automatically, so you don't need to cancel the SIN. What you should check is whether the deceased was receiving CPP or Old Age Security. Federal pensions follow the same month-of-death rule as QPP: anything deposited after the month of death has to be repaid.

If the deceased contributed only to QPP (never worked outside Quebec), the CPP side usually doesn't apply. If they worked in another province at some point in their career, there may be CPP benefits to stop, and potentially a federal CPP death benefit to claim, which is separate from the provincial QPP one.

For a complete view of the federal side, Canada.ca's notify of a death hub is the canonical reference.

Other Quebec notifications that might apply

Not every family will need these, but scan the list in case one is yours.

• Curateur public du Québec, required if the deceased had a protection mandate, a tutorship, or if more than $40,000 is being left to someone under 18
• CNESST, if there was an open workplace injury claim, the claim may continue for the benefit of survivors
• Chief Firearms Officer (Sûreté du Québec), if the deceased owned registered firearms, the licence needs to be surrendered or transferred
• Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur, active student-loan files are cleared with proof of death, not inherited by the estate
• Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, social assistance is stopped via the DEC-102, but survivor-specific programs (like the Special Benefits program for funeral costs, if the deceased was low-income) have their own intake

What happens if you miss a notification

Most of these are fixable. A few are not cheap to fix. The short version of the risks:

• Pension overpayments: QPP, CPP, and OAS deposits received after the month of death have to be repaid. Delay the notification and the clawback gets bigger.
• Unclaimed benefits: The $2,500 QPP death benefit goes unclaimed if the funeral-payer misses the 60-day priority window. Survivor pensions start from the application date, not the date of death, every month you wait is a month of benefits lost.
• Fraud exposure: An active RAMQ card or driver's licence in the deceased's name can be misused. It's rare, but it happens.
• Personal liquidator liability: Distributing the estate before the Revenu Québec and CRA clearance certificates come through is the one that can actually cost the liquidator money out of pocket. Don't rush this step.

Two phone calls in the first week (Retraite Québec, SAAQ if needed) and a few in the first month (Revenu Québec liquidator registration, CRA authorization) covers most of this. The rest follows from there.

If you're handling this from out of province

Roughly one Quebec succession in five is coordinated by an adult child who lives somewhere else, Ontario, BC, the US. Every agency on this list takes phone calls from outside Quebec, and every form accepts a mailed signature.

A few out-of-province specifics:

• RAMQ: If the death happened outside Quebec, you'll need to call directly. Otherwise, the funeral director handles it.
• SAAQ: The mail-in form works from anywhere in Canada. Keep a copy of the proof-of-death attestation; you'll reuse it.
• Revenu Québec and CRA: Both run online portals (My Account) that let you register as liquidator and manage the tax files from another province.
• The funeral director: A Quebec cremation provider can sign the DEC-102 on your behalf during the arrangement meeting, even if you haven't flown in yet. If you're arranging remotely with Cleo, our team walks you through the form by phone and handles the funeral-home-side paperwork before you arrive. Our complete guide to arranging cremation remotely covers how that first call works end to end.

Our practical guide to managing the succession from another province covers the broader coordination piece, including banking, real estate, and multi-province tax filings.

Notifications that feel like government but aren't

Once the agencies above are cleared, you're still on the hook for a handful of private-sector notifications. A short list, not a deep dive:

• Banks, credit unions, credit card issuers (each one requires its own death certificate or attestation)
• Utilities, property tax at the municipality, condo syndicate or landlord
• Private employer pensions (anything outside the public-sector plans Retraite Québec manages)
• Life insurance companies, this is where survivors usually want to start, since a policy payout can help cover funeral costs and estate expenses
• Subscriptions, memberships, and anything on autopay that would otherwise keep charging

Every one of these typically asks for the same document: the attestation of death issued by the funeral director, or an official death certificate from the Directeur de l'état civil. Order a handful of attestations through your funeral director, usually three to five is enough for most families, and you'll avoid the second-round paperwork run. Our Quebec cremation paperwork checklist covers which documents the funeral director produces and what each one is used for.

Printable checklist summary

Frequently asked questions

Who do I need to notify when someone passes away in Quebec?

The DEC-102 form signed at the funeral home automatically notifies RAMQ, Retraite Québec, Revenu Québec, MESS, CRA, and Service Canada. SAAQ, CNESST, the Curateur public (if applicable), private pensions, banks, and the landlord remain the liquidator's responsibility.

How do I cancel a RAMQ card after someone passes away?

If the death happened in Quebec, the DEC-102 cancels the card automatically, give it to the funeral director to destroy. If the death happened outside Quebec, call RAMQ directly at 1 800 561-9749.

Does the funeral home notify Retraite Québec for me?

The DEC-102 sends the date of death to Retraite Québec, but if the deceased was actively receiving a QPP pension, Retraite Québec recommends calling 1 800 463-5185 directly to stop payments immediately and avoid overpayment clawbacks.

How do I apply for the $2,500 QPP death benefit?

This is a separate application using form B-042, filed with Retraite Québec. The person who paid for the funeral has priority for 60 days after the date of death.

Do I have to tell Revenu Québec separately even if the DEC-102 flags the file?

Yes. The DEC-102 flags the tax file, but the liquidator still has to register themselves so Revenu Québec can share tax information and send correspondence. The liquidator also has to request the authorization to distribute property before closing the estate.

How do I cancel a deceased person's driver's licence in Quebec?

If the SAAQ box was ticked on the DEC-102, the cancellation is automatic. Otherwise, mail the Driver's Licence Cancellation form (sections 1, 3, and 4) with proof of death to SAAQ, Case postale 19600, succursale Terminus, Québec (Québec) G1K 8J6. A partial fee refund may be available.

What happens if I don't cancel benefits after someone passes away?

QPP, CPP, and OAS deposits received after the month of death have to be repaid. An uncancelled health insurance card or driver's licence exposes the estate to fraud. And if the liquidator distributes the estate without Revenu Québec's authorization to distribute property, they can be held personally liable for unpaid taxes.

When the list is still too much

There's nothing about any of this that makes grief easier. The paperwork is just the layer on top of it. If you're staring at this list wondering how you'll get to it before Monday, you don't have to; most of it is a first-month job, not a first-week one.

What Cleo can help with is the part that happens at the funeral home. When families arrange direct cremation with us, we sign the DEC-102 together during the arrangement meeting, which is what takes care of most of the provincial and federal notifications in one pass. Our team is on the phone 24/7 at (438) 817-1770, including for families calling from outside Quebec. Cleo's all-inclusive cremation service is one fixed price with no hidden fees.

Call any time, day or night.

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