Account holder change to surviving spouse

Yes, the surviving spouse can take control of the account. In order to do so, you’ll need to call DIRECTV (number in my greeting below). Information needed to authenticate the account would include the account holder, billing/service address, account number/phone number associated with account, and four digit passcode (if applied to the account).

You can definitely put yourself under the list of ‘authorized’ people to access and make changes to the account. As far as equipment goes, you can deactivate and return your father’s DIRECTV receiver. To do this, get the serial number, Receiver ID, and access card that you would like to deactivate. Depending on the model number of the receiver, you may not have to return it. If you’d like to know, reply back with your father’s den receiver model number.

When returning equipment, go to a participating FedEx or UPS location with the DIRECTV account number. Only receivers and power cables are returned. Things like the video bridge, splitters, multi switches, HDMI cables, and coaxial cables do NOT need to be returned. Once the equipment is under FedEx/UPS ownership, KEEP the shipping receipt to avoid the non-equipment return fee if DIRECTV makes a mistake and thinks you never returned leased equipment.

Thanks so much for the info.  One stumbling block.  I don't know the four digit code and I don't know the answer to the security question.  86 year old mom doesn't know/can't remember/has no idea.  She got our last name wrong last week while talking to someone on the phone, which kind of encapsulates how wild things are in her post-stroke brain.  Will that be a problem?  We had to make a change to our AT&T phone account, no problem (dropped caller ID), but when I got switched over to Directv to deal with the equipment they would not talk to me even though they now know the account holder is dead.  We absolutely do not know this info and I'm worried we'll be in limbo without it.  We kind of already are.  Thanks again for help.

You can probably have the four digit passcode changed with no problem as long as the account is authenticated with the service/billing address. As stated before, some accounts don’t even have a four digit passcode so you could be lucky.

Usually, security questions aren’t asked when authenticating a DIRECTV account so you should be fine. 

Thanks again.  There is absolutely a passcode and secret question (they've asked).  I'll give them a call and see what happens!  Thanks so much!!!

AT&T systems use a 4-digit code. Make sure you are calling the DirecTV specific number. The DirecTV account will only have a password/passcode if the account owner chose to put one on (though if in the new AT&T account system it might have the required 4-digit PIN).

Be prepared your mother will probably have to take in the State Certified Death Certificate, along with government issued ID of course, into a corporate store for verification to take over the account. That should assist with getting the account security reset as well.

Though only the surviving spouse may take over the account, since you mention post-stroke and 86 I would see about having her add you as an authorized ueser so you don't have to worry about submitting a Power of Attorney later if you need to help her manage the account.

We have plenty of death certs, so no problem there.  And a POA!  But are you saying we may have to go to a corporate DirecTV store or an AT&T store?  There's an AT&T store in town, but I thought our store just did phones?  How do you even find the right place to go, or would customer service tell you on the phone?  

DirecTV doesn't have stores of their own. AT&T owns DirecTV, though the stores do not work for the DirecTV side (similar to the 3rd party retailer partner they used to be). But they can do verifications like this when physical documenation is needed.

The DC and PoA, I wouldn't expect to be kept by them but scanned/faxed as needed.

Used to be you called to take over as the surviving spouse and DirecTV's back office would do whatever verification they needed. After AT&T acquired them, they usually have the DC taken to a corporate store to verify. Though not as convinient for the consumer, this prevents someone from calling in and pretending the account owner has passed to take over the account or close it against the account owner's permission.

@805watson I would try using the last 4 numbers of the phone number,  if you're parents never put a pin on the DirecTV account (highly likely that they didn't) then ATT will use the last 4 of your phone number, it's my guess that their system automatically added a pin to the DirecTV account, and that the account is in their system (rc1) and not in the legacy DirecTV system (rio3)