Posts Tagged ‘pre-arrangements’

Planning a Funeral in Your Twenties

Early funeral planning is considered one of the best ways to save money and ensure that your death does not cause an undue burden on those you love. By setting aside funds, specifying your wishes, and/or purchasing a burial package, you can cover all the details of your funeral and get back to the task of living. (more…)

Is Winter the Best Time to Pre-Plan a Funeral?

Like most industries, there is a busy season and a non-busy season for funeral homes. Although no one can predict their time of death, funeral homes tend to see more traffic during the summer months. More families choose this time to make pre-arrangements, purchase cemetery plots, and inter ashes they may have been holding onto since the winter. Because it can be difficult to open up the ground under piles of snow (and because gathering funeral guests around the holidays is almost impossible), people may also put off traditional burial until the warmer months. (more…)

How to Have a Funeral in Space

There is something about setting a funeral in space that makes us feel immortal. Maybe it is the vast size of it, spreading out over billions of galaxies. Maybe it is the timelessness, the idea that anything jettisoned out into space will keep moving forever. It could even be the beauty of it—the twinkling of a thousand starry nights is something humans have been admiring for centuries. (more…)

Talking to Elderly Parents about Funeral Plans

Almost any discussion about advance funeral plans with the people you love is going to be uncomfortable. Not only do you have to bring up finances and religion (two things that put a strain on many families), but you also have to confront the idea of your own mortality. (more…)

What to Do When a Funeral Home Goes out of Business

One of the biggest warnings against pre-paying for a funeral is what happens if the funeral home goes out of business. The entire point of pre-arrangement is that you can solidify your funeral plans ahead of time, leaving you worry-free and able to spend your money however you wish. So, the idea that a funeral home might someday terminate services and leave you holding a useless contract is one that may be understandably frightening. (more…)

Importance of Pre-Planning and End-of-Life Discussions with Family

Conversations about death are never easy – and conversations about your own death are even more complicated. Not only are there financial issues to bring up (a tricky subject in many families), but there is no way to talk about your end-of-life plans without emotions getting in the way. (more…)

What to Bring to a Prearrangement Meeting

We all know that one of the best ways to save money on burial costs and ensure that your wishes are carried out is to preplan a funeral. However, the act of preplanning a funeral can be pretty stressful. After all, you might be setting up huge financial payments, confronting your own feelings regarding death, and making important decisions all at the same time. (more…)

Before you sit down with a funeral director to go over all your options for a loved one’s funeral plans, it’s a good idea to figure out how much money you’re willing to spend. Although the average funeral can go as high as $10,000, you aren’t required to spend this much—nor will you have to. With the right planning, you should be able to find a budget you’re comfortable with and buy a respectful, beautiful service to go with it. (more…)

Even though over 40 percent of Americans opt for cremation over burial, there are still many different kinds of religious, cultural, and personal taboos that make cremation a difficult decision. This is especially true if your family has traditional views regarding funeral planning or has a long history of burial in a particular cemetery.

If you’ve decided on cremation but aren’t quite sure how to tell your family, we suggest you set aside a time to have this important conversation. It’s never a good idea to leave this sort of thing as a surprise, so the sooner you can open up to those you love, the more time you’ll have to enjoy what’s left of your time together.

(more…)

Burial Insurance 3 of 3

There are two primary ways to buy burial insurance. The first operates like any other kind of life insurance policy, in which you name a loved one as the beneficiary who receives the payout when you die. The second option allows you to name a funeral home as the beneficiary, in which case they receive the insurance money directly.

This second option may seem a bit strange—after all, a funeral home isn’t your family, and you haven’t worked hard your whole life so they can receive a payout. However, it’s actually a quite common occurrence, and it can work out in your favor. Here’s how. (more…)