For independent funeral homes
Know where every death certificate stands, without a morning of calls
Lunan sets up a simple tracker alongside your case software. It counts each certificate against its deadline, drafts a courteous follow-up for your staff to send, and gives you a short list of stuck cases each morning.
Since 1 January 2026, Utah law gives the treating health care professional three business days from the day of death to complete, sign and return the medical section of a death certificate, except where a medical examiner inquiry is required. Source: Utah Legislature, HB 493, effective Jan 2026
What gets in the way
Certificates wait on someone else
The medical section sits with a doctor's office, and the family keeps asking. You want a clear answer, and today you have to make a call to get one.
One person carries the chasing
Calls, voicemails, faxes and portal messages fill the office manager's morning, and the record of who was contacted when often lives in that person's head.
Paperwork crowds out families
Every half hour spent on status calls is time not spent with a family making arrangements. When certificates are slow, payment on insurance-assigned cases can wait too.
What we set up
Death certificate clock and morning list
Each open case gets two dates: when the certifier's signature is due and when filing is due, set to your state's rules (in Utah, three business days and five days). Each morning you get a short list, most overdue first, with the last contact on each. When a certificate nears its deadline, a short, polite follow-up to the certifier's office is drafted in your words for your staff to approve and send.
Before: phone tag and a mental list. After: one sorted list each morning, drafts ready, and every contact logged.
Family status notes, written for a director to send
When a case reaches a milestone, such as the certificate being signed or certified copies being ordered, a short, warm note to the family is drafted. A funeral director reads every word and sends it, or decides a phone call is better.
Before: families call to ask where things stand. After: families hear from you first.
Obituary drafts checked against the family's own words
Most case software now writes obituary drafts. We add a fact check: any name, date, place or claim in the draft that does not appear in the arrangement notes is flagged before a director or the family sees it.
Before: a fluent draft that may contain details nobody gave you. After: a draft with anything unsupported marked for the director.
How it works
- 1
Free conversation
We talk through how certificates and family updates move in your home today, which case software you use, and your state's deadlines. You leave knowing whether anything is worth building, or whether the features you already pay for are enough.
- 2
Measure, then build
We start with two weeks on a shared sheet to measure chasing time and overdue certificates. If the numbers justify it, we connect the tracker to your case software or keep the sheet, set your deadlines and contacts, and write follow-up templates in your tone.
- 3
Run it with you
Your staff approve every message. We check the tracker weekly at first, adjust timing and wording, and keep it running as your contacts and software change.
Ways to work together
Each is scoped and quoted after the conversation.
Learn
Homes that want staff using the AI they already have, carefully and kindly
- Session for directors and office staff on the AI features in your case software
- A one-page AI-use policy: approved tools, what family information may go where, who approves
- An obituary fact-check list for every AI draft
- A certificate follow-up playbook and message templates
Build
Homes where certificates regularly pass their deadline
- Certificate clock set to your state's deadlines
- Follow-up drafts to certifier offices for staff to approve
- Morning list of stuck cases with last contact
- Family status note drafts for director review
- Before-and-after measurement of chasing time
Run
Homes that want it kept working without thinking about it
- Monitoring and fixes
- Contact list and template updates
- Changes when your case software or state rules change
- Monthly review with the owner
Guardrails
No message leaves your home without a person approving it, and a funeral director reads every word a family will see. Drafts never add facts about the deceased that the family did not give you. The tracker reports status; your licensed funeral director remains responsible for signing and filing every certificate (in Utah, under Utah Code 26B-8-114 as amended by HB 493), and AI is never used on your General Price List or anything else governed by the FTC Funeral Rule. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Questions
Will this replace my office staff?
No. It keeps the list and writes the first draft of each follow-up. Your staff still decide when to call, what to send and how to speak with families.
What happens to family and case information?
Case records stay in your case software. The tracker uses only the details it needs, such as date of death, certifier and status. We use AI services whose business terms say your data is not used to train their models, and we log who approved each message.
We already use Passare, Afterword or Tukios, and they have AI. Why add anything?
You may not need to. Between them, those systems already draft obituaries, summarize meetings and send reminders, and we will help your staff use those features first. In the published descriptions we reviewed, none of them sends follow-ups to certifier offices or tracks your state's certifier deadline; that is the gap we fill, alongside the software you already have.
Will doctors' offices find the follow-ups pushy?
Each follow-up is short, written in your words and sent by your staff. You set the timing. In Utah, a friendly mention of the three-business-day rule may help offices that have not heard of it yet.
We are not in Utah. Does this still work?
Yes. Certifier deadlines and electronic systems differ by state, so in the free read we look up your state's rule with you and set the tracker to it. If your state has no deadline, you choose the wait times. We are not lawyers; confirm your state's rule with your registrar or counsel.
Reading list
- AI for funeral homes: where it helps the office, and where it should stay out
Sorts funeral home office work into tasks that suit AI drafting, tasks a director must read, and tasks AI should stay out of.
- Utah's new death certificate deadlines: what changed in 2026 and how to track them
Explains Utah HB 493's three-business-day certifier rule and five-day filing deadline, with a worked table and a tracking-sheet layout.
- How to follow up on an unsigned death certificate: a playbook for the office
A practical cadence, checklist and three templates for following up with certifier offices, plus a script for families.
- An AI-use policy for a family-owned funeral home, with an obituary fact-check list
Gives the sections of a one-page staff AI policy and an eight-point fact-check list for AI-drafted obituaries.
- Before you buy more AI: what your case software already does, and the numbers to check
Compares the AI already in funeral case software with published prices and gives a measured decision rule for buying more.
See where your certificates stand
Start a free conversation. We will look at how certificates move in your home today and tell you plainly whether anything is worth building.