Paying for the funeral

Options to pay for the funeral include:

- From the deceased’s bank account: The cost up to a limit of €5,000 can be taken from the bank account of the deceased if there are sufficient funds – you need to present the invoice for the funeral for this.  

- Insurance: The deceased may have had policies that will help, such as life assurance (assurance vie), death/or funeral insurance (assurance décès/obsèques) or a mutuelle health policy.

If the deceased was working or registered unemployed, some help may be available from the social security system.

If there was specific funeral insurance this will have been designed to pay out in a couple of days to avoid the family having to pay upfront. However, for a basic assurance vie contract the payout may take several weeks.

- If you are not sure if the deceased had a funeral policy or a life assurance (AV) policy you can check with an association called Agira. The quickest way to do this is online. Agira forwards requests on funeral policies immediately to firms in the industry, who should supply information in three days.

In the case of AV, the process can take a month or more but you should be notified if you are among named beneficiaries to a policy.

If you are due a payment contact the insurance company to ask for it.

- If necessary any children and a spouse must finance the funeral. This constitutes a maintenance debt, proportional to their resources, if the assets of the deceased are insufficient. 

- In the case of a funeral of a person with no assets the mairie of the place of death is responsible for the financing.

The mairie, calling upon a court, may, if appropriate, recover the cost from one of the children or from a spouse, if they have sufficient means.