and I answered yes, she immediately said "oh, that's good." I did ask about how bad the consequences would have been otherwise.

The funeral home is required to notify the social security administration. I've heard that in some cases, there are problems getting the final payment--I had not problems with that.

If your MIL was receiving a pension, you should notify her pension administrator. (You can do that before qualification as executor.) If there is life insurance, you can notify the companies so that they can begin sending out beneficiary paperwork. I've learned that they differ greatly in how fast they work. (MetLife sent beneficiary paperwork to me before I contacted them and issued payment two days after they received all paperwork. I assume they follow the master death record.)

Once you have the death certificates, you should call the clerk's office. They can help you through the process.

The biggest snag I've run into is that my father had paper U.S. savings bonds. No local bank will redeem them now, so I had to send them to the treasury department. We'll see how that goes.