For many people, talking about their own funeral wishes is often met with discomfort and discouragement by family or friends. Meeting with a funeral director to talk about your funeral wishes isn't morbid. In reality, it can provide stress relief and peace of mind to talk with a caring funeral director. When one begins to understand the financial and emotional pressure that a funeral can thrust on our loved ones, it becomes clear that planning in advance is a considerate and responsible thing to do. Here are some comments we often hear from individuals after they have made funeral prearrangements:
1) I had specific requests about my funeral and wanted to make things clear for my family.
Making funeral prearrangements helps family and friends honor your wishes about the type of services, casket, and outer receptacle you request. You can even select the type of flower arrangements, memorial cards, and newspapers for obituary and classified death notices.
2) I didn't realize that my will isn't an absolute safeguard to ensure that my funeral wishes will be followed.
In some instances, a person's last will and testament can't be located at the time immediately following a death when arrangements must be made. Informal or un-notarized documents stating a person's funeral wishes may be incomplete and are often not legally-binding.
3) If something happened to me, I felt better knowing my arrangements were taken care of.
Funeral prearrangements can range from meeting with a funeral director to provide biographical information and discussing your funeral requests to pre-paying some to all of prearranged expenses. You can establish a pre-payment account with any amount to begin and send additional payments at your convenience. You decide what is best for you.
4) I realize I can make better informed decisions when I'm not feeling emotionally stressed.
Technology and industry improvements have created numerous options in choices of caskets, outer receptacles, and funeral-related merchandise. Making prearrangements offers the additional option of "not choosing" now and having extra time to finalize a choice at your convenience.
5) I didn't know that pre-paid funeral expenses are deposited in an interest-generating account in my name to help offset any cost increases in services and merchandise.
As required by law, funeral homes must deposit pre-paid funeral expenses in the person's name in interest-generating accounts and provide on-demand and yearly updates on interest accrued. While funeral homes are not required to guarantee the cost of a pre-paid funeral, most people let the interest in the account accumulate to offset any future cost increases.
