What is Advance Funeral Planning?
Advance funeral planning is the process of discussing, defining and recording your specific and unique funeral wishes with your funeral home provider and loved ones long before the services, ceremonies, traditions and rituals are needed. It is a gift to those who will be handling your affairs after you have departed. Your family will have the benefit of a meaningful, well thought out funeral — a process which is an important event for a grieving family.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
Learn what’s involved.
There are three general components to a funeral, understanding these will help you plan: preparing the corpse, holding the ceremony and handling the interment. There are a range of options for each. Embalming or cremation? A full service at a funeral home, a graveside ceremony or a custom ceremony? Who will be there? Will there be a viewing of the body? Burial in the ground or in a tomb, or ashes scattered in a meaningful place?
Find out what average funeral costs are.
The FCA has links on its site to itemized lists of funeral costs, by state. Check it out so you have an idea of what you can expect to pay in your area for everything from a casket to the cost of that final hearse ride to the cemetery.
Shop around.
Don’t buy a funeral without checking with more than one funeral home. You can pay thousands less just by going a few miles down the road or by spelling out your wishes ahead of time. Call several funeral homes and get quotes. The Federal Trade Commission requires them to quote prices over the phone or in person.
Buy only what you want.
You may save money in areas such as flowers or plants, an urn or grave site, a casket or cremation.
Talk it over and write it down.
Tell your loved ones what sort of funeral you’d like to have, and how much you want to spend. Be specific, but realize your loved ones may not be able to deliver on everything you want. You can make the burden of organizing your funeral lessened by talking over your wishes well in advance.
Planning ahead enables you to make big decisions ahead of time and even take the burden of financial arrangements off your loved ones. Discussing your wishes allows your family to know how you wish to be honored and celebrated. Call Lifesong to discuss, document and plan your funeral wishes today.
