Are there any tricks to importing contact data if you include a column for 'is_deceased'
If you import contacts with an 'is_deceased' column, then as well as having a 1 for everyone who is deceased, i recommend you use 0 instead of blank/empty for everyone else.

The reason is that some civi code checks whether someone is deceased or not, and a value of NULL creates problems.

This hit us with Scheduled Reminders. Seemed they were not going out to most folks, and jitendra tracked it down to the fact that Scheduled reminders only load contact with "is_deceased" is set to 0 - and therefore ignores NULL ones.

I expect we will get this patched for this scenario but chances are that other functions might do the same - so best to ensure you have a 0 in your living contacts when you import.