Whilst relatives will still be consulted, the burden of making the decision in the absence of any indication of the deceased person's wishes at such a difficult time will be reduced.
While it is technically an opt-out system - where consent is presumed - in practice it operates on more of an opt-in model, where consent is sought from the family of the deceasedperson.
In most states, the law requires families to follow properly-recorded written burial and funeral instructions of the person who passed, or at least allows the deceasedperson to name an agent in writing to carry out those wishes.
And a good way to get some publicity for such a viewpoint is to produce a story about how a recently deceased famous person is faring in that afterlife in order to get the donations rolling in.
If a person was married to the deceased spouse for at least 10 years and was divorced, the Survivor Benefit is available just the same as if the couple had not divorced (as long as he or she has not remarried prior to age 60, as mentioned above).
Funeral directors told Australian media that the guidelines were insensitive to the needs of grieving relatives who wanted to celebrate the life of the deceased with a service including photographs, videos and the dead person's favourite music.
Our records indicate that the person identified as the primary taxpayer or spouse on the tax return was deceased prior to the tax year shown on the tax form.