Five questions to ask a funeral director about preplanning

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Preplanning your funeral is a true symbol of love to your family. If someone dies without a plan in place, their family can be overwhelmed by the decisions that need to be made.

We have found that many people don’t know that they can plan ahead of time for this kind of thing. When we start the conversation, several common questions tend to come up.

1. Why should I preplan? I’m going to be gone; I don’t care what you do.

While it is true that you won’t be around to worry about your arrangements, at the time of your death, your family members are going to be going through a lot. Shock, grief and confusion are very common at this time, even when a death is expected.

When you sit down with our staff ahead of time and make a written plan of your wishes, you can greatly reduce the amount of decisions that need to be made by your family members. You will work with our staff to design a personalized plan and tribute that reflect your interests and wishes about merchandise, types of services or gatherings, and any personal touches that you would like such as an officiant, music and flowers. Your plan will be ready for your family to carry out when the time comes.

2. Can I prepay for my services? Where does the money go?

Even though it is not required, you can choose to pay for your funeral ahead of time. This is very helpful to your surviving family members who will not have to worry about financial concerns related to your services at a time when they are handling many other financial matters.

Advance payment can take several forms. Some families assign a pre-existing life insurance policy to our funeral home. Any funds from the policy that are not spent on the funeral expenses would be returned to your survivors. Many choose to purchase a funeral insurance policy which can include a growth benefit over time. Other families also choose to set up a trust fund for these expenses. All funds are held within the financial instrument and not by our funeral home.

3. What if I have already arranged a funeral somewhere else?

You can always transfer your funeral plans from another funeral home to ours. We can help you with this process.

4. I have life insurance already, so why would I need to preplan?

The purpose of life insurance is to ease the financial burden to family members when someone passes away, and it is a wonderful gift to your family. However, it is still important to make advance funeral arrangements so all of the details are taken care of.

Pre-paid funeral plans are designated to pay for funeral expenses. By prepaying for your funeral, your family doesn’t have to worry about the financial responsibility. And they will still have life insurance policy to take care of your affairs.

5. What if I want to make changes to my plan later?

You may make changes to your preplanned funeral arrangements any time as the need arises. We will be in touch periodically to make sure that we have your current information, and whether you want to change service details like music selections or pallbearers, or go an entirely different direction with your arrangements, we will be here to help.

We take pride in taking care of every family that walks through our doors, and make sure to provide the highest quality of customer service. Give us a call today to get started on your plan.

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