Benefits of Planning Your Own Funeral

Many people are uncomfortable with the prospect of planning for their own death. Admittedly, the thought of planning your own funeral is indeed a bit morbid; like you’re welcoming death with open arms. But if you look at it from a rational and economical perspective, it is actually very logical to do so.

Funeral expenses are not cheap. You have to buy a coffin, reserve space for the funeral service, purchase a lot at a memorial park, pay for the cost of the burial, and more. The cost of a traditional funeral today averages close to $10,000 and can be as much as $20,000. This is a major expense that should not be left unplanned. Planning your own funeral in advance will reduce the burden left on your family and save you money.

1. Lessen the burden on your family

By planning your own funeral you can lessen the burden you leave on your loved ones after you pass away. You make life easier for the family you leave behind because you won’t have to give them responsibilities for your funeral after you die. This means that your family will not have to make the difficult decisions of arranging the funeral and selecting funeral products. Most importantly, you will leave your family with no financial burdens.

2. Ensures your wishes are known

Another benefit of planning your own funeral is to ensure that all of your final wishes are known. No matter how well your family knows you, or what wishes you have expressed to them, it is impossible for them to plan your funeral exactly how you would like. Pre-planning your funeral will ensure that the funeral is exactly the way you want your friends and family to honor your life.

3. Provides you peace of mind

With a good funeral plan you won’t have to worry about anything right before you die; because you know everything has already been taken care of. Planning ahead will provide you and your family peace of mind knowing that whenever you pass away the final expenses and funeral arrangements are taken care of.

4. Save Money

Planning your own funeral in advance can save you and your family money. Pre-planning will ensure that no matter how much funeral prices appreciate in the future you will be covered. There are also funeral payment plans available that allow you to set aside a small amount of money every month towards your funeral. This makes the funeral easier to afford instead of having to pay the entire bill at once.

Purchasing a funeral or memorial plan is a very simple process. You simply need to find an insurance provider, or funeral home, that offers this service and buy a plan from them. You will be asked to choose the items you want to use for your funeral, which includes the funeral location, funeral products, burial site, and so on. Planning your own funeral in advance is an excellent way to ensure that your needs are met, while reducing the burden on your family and saving money.

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Walking the Funeral Planning Talk

Walking the Funeral Planning Talk

Jeff Harbeson has cheated death several times. After his latest brush with facing his mortality, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Funeral Finance LLC wrote this recent blog post about “walking the talk” when it comes to funeral planning.

Even funeral directors can suffer the “cobbler’s children have no shoes” syndrome.

Here’s what he wrote:

In the funeral industry, we serve families by walking alongside them after the loss of their loved one.  I have often experienced and heard, “it’s different serving our own family when we lose a loved one”…basically a funeral professional having to be on the “other side of the table”.

Even more poignant, and we know this is coming…what about our own personal mortality?

Have you made pre-arrangements? Not necessarily picking out your casket, vault and writing a contract for payment.  But actually conversing about the celebration of your life with your closest of family…what you want to be said about you, who should be saying something, where the ceremony(s) should take place, music, video, food, final resting place etc?  As a retired military member and funeral professional, my wife, sons and I have had many discussions about my death, of course mostly joking around.

During my life, I have “cheated death”.  There have been several instances that I should not have survived. Most recently, I had a totally unexpected and serious medical event that in many cases, the end result is death.

During the entire episode, even in the back of a wailing ambulance, all sorts of beeping equipment, inserted and attached tubes along with a grand arrival notice into the hospital…not once did I think that “this is the end”.  However, as most of us do after some of our life’s defining moments, I began to ponder “what if”.

What if my last breath was taken?  Yes, my wife knows where all the life insurance documents are located, my final disposition wishes, some discussions about the “party”, music, military honors, etc. have taken place.

But, have I chronicled my life and provided enough information in such a manner so that not only during my funeral my life could be shared, but for the generations that follow me…what will they know?  How will they remember me…my life story the way that I want it told?

Several years ago I embarked on a mission that for every birthday of my wife and sons along with each wedding anniversary, I would write a letter.  A letter expressing my love, observations, encouragement and blessing of their relationship to me.

However, after this recent event, I reflected upon even more of my thoughts beyond my immediate family and posted on my Facebook page:

To read the rest of Jeff’s reflections on walking the funeral planning talk, visit his blog at MyFuneralFinance.com.

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Times are changing when it comes to funeral planning

By Joe Casper

The more things change, the more they remain the same. However, for the American funeral these are changing times.

One of the biggest changes is the preference of cremation over burial. Cost is the main factor. All crematories in Massachusetts are located on cemetery grounds.

The average charge for the crematory is about $450. The cost for an average private cemetery, a grave opening and grave box could cost on average $5,000.

Neither the crematory nor the cemetery pay commission to the funeral home.

The tradition of the funeral home coordinating all of the cemetery arrangements, then adding it to the bill — with no profit to them — is a mystery.

Recently, a woman purchased two graves in a very prestigious cemetery.

With the grave opening and vault the cost came to more than $16,000. The cemetery salesperson said, “Make sure you bring us a check the morning of the funeral.”

The person who purchased the graves believed the funeral home received 20 percent. This is untrue, the funeral home receives nothing from the cemetery.

When a family chooses cremation over a burial, there is no reason for the funeral director to push burial over cremation. The funeral home gets nothing either way.

More people are having a traditional service with a wake followed by a cremation. They have visiting hours and a priest or a minister presides over the wake service.

Another choice is direct cremation. After the person is removed from the place where they died, all the paperwork is completed and 48 hours later they are taken to the crematory. A memorial service follows at a church or some other location. The family makes its own plans and arrangements.

Should the family choose to put a death notice in the newspaper, they are responsible for writing it. The newspaper will call the funeral home to confirm that the person is deceased.

If people wish to scatter the cremated remains they do so at a location of their choice. Some people choose to have the cremated remains buried in a cemetery grave. The cemetery will charge an interment fee, which can range from $600 to around $1,200.

With fewer traditional burials, the cemetery has increased the cost for interring cremated remains to offset the loss of regular interment fees. In greater Boston, interment fees for private cemeteries begin at $1,600.

Each cemetery has its own price list of services and sets its own policy regarding what consumers are allowed to do. Prices and options vary.

View the original article here

Times are changing when it comes to funeral planning

By Joe Casper

The more things change, the more they remain the same. However, for the American funeral these are changing times.

One of the biggest changes is the preference of cremation over burial. Cost is the main factor. All crematories in Massachusetts are located on cemetery grounds.

The average charge for the crematory is about $450. The cost for an average private cemetery, a grave opening and grave box could cost on average $5,000.

Neither the crematory nor the cemetery pay commission to the funeral home.

The tradition of the funeral home coordinating all of the cemetery arrangements, then adding it to the bill — with no profit to them — is a mystery.

Recently, a woman purchased two graves in a very prestigious cemetery.

With the grave opening and vault the cost came to more than $16,000. The cemetery salesperson said, “Make sure you bring us a check the morning of the funeral.”

The person who purchased the graves believed the funeral home received 20 percent. This is untrue, the funeral home receives nothing from the cemetery.

When a family chooses cremation over a burial, there is no reason for the funeral director to push burial over cremation. The funeral home gets nothing either way.

More people are having a traditional service with a wake followed by a cremation. They have visiting hours and a priest or a minister presides over the wake service.

Another choice is direct cremation. After the person is removed from the place where they died, all the paperwork is completed and 48 hours later they are taken to the crematory. A memorial service follows at a church or some other location. The family makes its own plans and arrangements.

Should the family choose to put a death notice in the newspaper, they are responsible for writing it. The newspaper will call the funeral home to confirm that the person is deceased.

If people wish to scatter the cremated remains they do so at a location of their choice. Some people choose to have the cremated remains buried in a cemetery grave. The cemetery will charge an interment fee, which can range from $600 to around $1,200.

With fewer traditional burials, the cemetery has increased the cost for interring cremated remains to offset the loss of regular interment fees. In greater Boston, interment fees for private cemeteries begin at $1,600.

Each cemetery has its own price list of services and sets its own policy regarding what consumers are allowed to do. Prices and options vary.

View the original article here

Five Funeral Planning Tips

Five Funeral Planning Tips

Today my guest blog post for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys (http://www.aaepa.com/) is about five tips to help start the funeral planning conversation.

You can read all the details at the AAEPA blog. In a nutshell, the five tips are:

1. Shop Before You Drop

2. Watch a Funny Film

3. Watch a Serious Video

4. Lead By Example

5. Play The Newly-Dead Game™

Of course, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die also contains a wealth of information to help get the conversation started. It’s available in both paperback and ebook formats.

Anyone have other suggestions they’d like to make on how to get the funeral planning conversation going? Let’s get it started!

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View the original article here

Times are changing when it comes to funeral planning

By Joe Casper

The more things change, the more they remain the same. However, for the American funeral these are changing times.

One of the biggest changes is the preference of cremation over burial. Cost is the main factor. All crematories in Massachusetts are located on cemetery grounds.

The average charge for the crematory is about $450. The cost for an average private cemetery, a grave opening and grave box could cost on average $5,000.

Neither the crematory nor the cemetery pay commission to the funeral home.

The tradition of the funeral home coordinating all of the cemetery arrangements, then adding it to the bill — with no profit to them — is a mystery.

Recently, a woman purchased two graves in a very prestigious cemetery.

With the grave opening and vault the cost came to more than $16,000. The cemetery salesperson said, “Make sure you bring us a check the morning of the funeral.”

The person who purchased the graves believed the funeral home received 20 percent. This is untrue, the funeral home receives nothing from the cemetery.

When a family chooses cremation over a burial, there is no reason for the funeral director to push burial over cremation. The funeral home gets nothing either way.

More people are having a traditional service with a wake followed by a cremation. They have visiting hours and a priest or a minister presides over the wake service.

Another choice is direct cremation. After the person is removed from the place where they died, all the paperwork is completed and 48 hours later they are taken to the crematory. A memorial service follows at a church or some other location. The family makes its own plans and arrangements.

Should the family choose to put a death notice in the newspaper, they are responsible for writing it. The newspaper will call the funeral home to confirm that the person is deceased.

If people wish to scatter the cremated remains they do so at a location of their choice. Some people choose to have the cremated remains buried in a cemetery grave. The cemetery will charge an interment fee, which can range from $600 to around $1,200.

With fewer traditional burials, the cemetery has increased the cost for interring cremated remains to offset the loss of regular interment fees. In greater Boston, interment fees for private cemeteries begin at $1,600.

Each cemetery has its own price list of services and sets its own policy regarding what consumers are allowed to do. Prices and options vary.

View the original article here