Although it is not a legal obligation to suppress the details of deceased individuals from customer and prospect databases, every responsible marketer should ensure that their contact records are regularly screened against one or more of the available mortality files.

In addition to reducing marketing costs, screening against a mortality file will help avoid causing unnecessary distress or potentially offending bereaved families with continued attempts to send marketing messages to the deceased.

Incorporating information from a variety of sources, there are a number of deceased suppression files available, however, there is not, at present, a definitive service.

For advice on the most cost-effective means of identifying and removing deceased records from campaign databases, contact a member of the Account Management Team on 01926 626300.