Effective date: August 31, 2026
These Guidelines explain what may be submitted, how staff reviews an obituary, and when changes or rejection may be necessary.
Your responsibility
Submit only English-language obituary text and photographs you are authorized to publish. Check names, dates, relationships, service details, and the complete preview carefully. You are responsible for the accuracy, tone, and lawfulness of the obituary and for respecting the privacy and rights of other people.
Review and verification
Every paid submission is reviewed before publication. We verify the death with the funeral home you identify. Do not upload death certificates or verification documents. Review normally takes two business days; this is an estimate, not a guarantee.
Mechanical corrections staff may make
Staff may correct an obvious spelling or typing error; punctuation, capitalization, whitespace, or paragraph spacing; accidental duplicate text; and technical formatting that does not change a fact, wording, meaning, tone, emphasis, or important visual choice.
Staff may not silently change a name, date, residence, relationship, cause or circumstances of death, surviving or predeceased family member, service detail, allegation, photograph, meaningful wording, order, tone, emphasis, or other policy-sensitive content.
When customer changes are needed
If a meaningful or factual change may resolve an issue, staff sends one or more clear requested-change items. You normally have 30 days to respond, preview the complete revised obituary, and resubmit it without another review fee. If staff omitted a reasonably discoverable issue, another no-fee opportunity may be provided. If the deadline expires, the submission ends without publication, the review fee is retained, and no publication payment is collected.
Content that is not allowed
- Content that is unlawful, threatening, harassing, hateful, exploitative, intentionally deceptive, or defamatory.
- Impersonation, fraudulent death notices, or content submitted without appropriate authority.
- Private contact information, account credentials, payment-card information, government identifiers, medical records, or other unnecessary sensitive information.
- Copyrighted photographs, writing, trademarks, or other material you do not have permission to use.
- Malware, spam, advertising unrelated to the obituary, fundraising links not approved for the service, or attempts to interfere with site security.
- Graphic, sexual, or violent material that is not appropriate to the memorial context or creates a safety or legal concern.
Photographs
One photograph is optional. It must show only the deceased; group photographs are not accepted. Use a JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or HEIF file up to 20 MB that you have permission to publish. Removing or replacing it after publication requires an amendment or an eligible support correction.
Rejection and removal
A submission may be rejected when the death cannot be reasonably verified, the submitter lacks authority, the content presents a serious legal or safety concern, a violation cannot reasonably be corrected, or requested changes are not completed. After review begins, rejection does not refund the review fee, and no publication payment is collected.
Published content may be temporarily unpublished or permanently removed while we investigate a report or address policy, privacy, safety, fraud, legal, or operational requirements. Submitters and affected people may use the obituary report link or Contact and Support page.
Amendments and protected facts
A customer cannot directly edit a published obituary. Eligible customer-requested text or photograph changes use the paid amendment process. Changes to displayed names, birth information, date of death, or funeral-home verification information begin through support and require verification before any applicable payment. A SimpleObits.com-caused error is corrected without charge.
Public visibility
Approved obituaries are public and may be found, copied, linked, printed, cached, or shared by other people and services. Do not include information that is unsafe or inappropriate for unrestricted public access.