Funeral and Memorial Service Pre-Planning

Many people are pre-planning their own funeral and memorial services. Funeral pre-planning can help ease the burden of making funeral arrangements for family and loved ones. Pre-planning funerals may seem uncomfortable, however, it can ensure that your wishes for your funeral or memorial service are honored.

Decide if funeral pre-planning is right for you:

By pre-planning funerals, people keep their families from having to make both difficult and simple decisions. What casket would my father like? Which flowers would mom have picked out? Where did mom want to be buried? Any decisions, big or small, that you can make about your funeral will be helpful to your family.
Some funeral homes use sales tactics with families such as, "The more you love this person who has died, the more money you should spend on his/her funeral." This type of conversation puts families in a very tough spot. By pre-planning, you completely alleviate this situation.
Pre-planning your funeral typically also involves trying to lessen some of the financial pressure on your family. However, be sure to choose the appropriate financial plan. There are pros and cons to prepaying for your funeral. Prepaying will help with some of the cost; however, there are concerns such as inflation and new, random charges that may occur that the pre-planned funeral agreement does not cover. Consequently, the family is left paying these costs. As another option, consider funeral insurance. With this option, you can choose how much money you want to have available for funeral arrangements and since most insurance policies accrue interest, you are protected against inflation. Be aware that funeral costs double every 10-12 years.
Once deciding to pre-plan, research all of your options and "shop" for your funeral arrangements. Prices and options for insurance, caskets, cemetery plots, etc. vary among businesses. Just think, if making all these decisions is difficult and confusing for you, imagine how difficult it could be for your family if they had to make the decisions during their time of grief?
Once you have made all the funeral decisions, contact a lawyer to have the information added to your legal will. This process guarantees that your wishes will be granted. Recently, online wills have gained popularity and they are typically cheaper.

Overall, people who pre-plan their funerals save their family members a great deal of stress and rushed decision-making. Go ahead and contact a couple funeral homes and save your family both time and money by taking care of as many details as possible. If nothing else, speak with your family about your preferences so that they'll be aware of some of your desires.