Obtaining a Court Order Correcting a Death Certificate

In prior posts, I discussed establishing the fact of a birth or death where there is no birth or death certificate as well as changing a sex designation on a registered birth certificate. This post describes the process for obtaining a court order to correct a death certificate. 

UT Admin Code R 436-3-7 permits funeral home directors and family members to amend a death certificate in certain circumstances. The Utah Department of Health and Human Services website provides two different forms for amending a vital record; depending on the information needing to be correct, a court order may be required.

A petition for an order to correct a death certificate can be filed as a probate matter under the authority of the above-cited code section or, more broadly, Utah Code 78B-6-401, permitting "declaratory judgments determining rights, status, and other legal relations..." Individuals whose rights would be impacted by the change in information on the death certificate should be notified.

At the court hearing, which may be held as part of the consent calendar, if no one objects and adequate evidence of the need for the correction of the death certificate is provided, the court will issue the order. The court order should direct the Utah State Vital Records Office to allow a specific person who is related to the decedent to amend the death certificate and specify the information to be replaced and the correct information. This order is then submitted with the Affidavit to Amend a Vital Record by Court Order to the Office of Vital Records and Statistics.

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Freezing a Financial Account

Financial institutions are permitted to freeze a customer's account if they believe that the account is at risk of being misappropriated or they suspect unauthorized activity. The institution's policies and customer agreements will discuss this option; for example, Bank of America's Deposit Agreement and Disclosures states, "If at any time we believe that your account may be subject to irregular, unauthorized, fraudulent or illegal activity, we may, in our discretion, freeze some or all of the funds in the account and in other accounts you maintain with us, and/or delay transactions, without any liability to you, until such time as we are able to complete our investigation..."

Financial institutions need to balance various federal and state consumer protection laws designed to protect account holders from wrongfully being denied access to their funds with fraud-prevention laws imposing various reporting requirements and restrictions on permitting illegal activity. Both federal and state laws protect financial institutions from taking affirmative action with respect to an account under certain circumstances. For example, Utah's Financial Exploitation Prevention Act provides states, "If a qualified individual reasonably believes that executing a requested wire transfer will result in financial exploitation, the covered financial institution may (a) delay the wire transfer; and (b) contact [authorities]..." Utah Code 7-26-201(2).

These laws and policies often become relevant in the case of financial accounts owned by elderly or otherwise vulnerable adults, and various laws and policies specifically address such specific situations. See, for example, Utah Code 7-26-301(1). It is not uncommon for an elderly account holder to be in the early stages of dementia or otherwise compromised such that a question arises as to their capacity to properly manage their finances. Such situations can lead to competing claims to an account among family members. Again, quoting Bank of America's Deposit Agreement, "We are not required to make payment from an account to [any] person claiming an interest in any funds in the account [if]... there may be a bona fide dispute between the signers, beneficiaries, payees, or other persons concerning their rights to the account proceeds..."

One tool available to advocates for vulnerable adults is to put financial institutions on notice of a dispute over an account or exploitation of their client. This may be all the bank needs to freeze the account until a proper investigation, settlement agreement, or court order can be obtained.

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New Form 990 Upload Requirement for Utah Nonprofits

As I discussed in a previous post, the Utah legislature recently removed the requirement that charitable organizations register with the Division of Consumer Protection in order to legally solicit contributions. At that time, new administrative rules were to be drafted requiring certain charities "to upload their most recent Form 990 as part of the corporation's filing process."

Pursuant to new R152-22-7, charities must begin submitting a PDF of their IRS Form 990 on an annual basis "using the process established by the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code" at the time the charitable organization registers as either a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation or submits its annual report to the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code.

The new online process established by the Division of Corporations for filing a renewal for a nonprofit corporation now asks whether the corporation is a "charitable organization" as defined in Utah Code 13-22-2 and, if the question is answered affirmatively, asks if an IRS Form 990 filing requirement exists. Unless the corporation is exempt from filing a Form 990, in order to complete the renewal with the Division of Corporations, a copy of the most recent Form 990 must be uploaded.

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