Did you know that you can pay ahead of time for many of your funeral costs? As uncomfortable as it can be to essentially plan your death memorial and post-death location, it is necessary to at least give your family an idea of what you want them to do. It's even better if you prepay for many of the costs so that your family won't have to shoulder them once you do pass on.
Inflation
Prices are only going to go up over the decades. Even if inflation calms down and prices increase at a reasonable rate, prepaying for funeral costs now lets you avoid those increases. If you're concerned about your family's ability to pay for all the costs associated with a funeral, prepay what you can now.
Supply Shortages
Eventually, the supply chain should straighten itself out, but that may take several years as lockdowns in various countries with major ports, outbreaks of disease, and the aforementioned inflation all work their way through shipping and manufacturing. By prepaying for your funeral costs now, you lock in the headstone you want, along with the coffin or urn (or other cremains container) that you want.
There Are a Lot of Costs
When you pay for a funeral, you don't pay just one sum that covers everything. You pay for body transport from the hospital or home (if the person died at home) to the funeral home, body transport if you have the body taken to a different funeral home, body reception at that other funeral home, the coffin or urn, burial or cremation process, officiants, grave location or columbarium niche, headstone, headstone engraving, flowers, shroud or funeral dress, embalming, and more.
Some of this you can't pay for ahead of time, such as the officiant fee; your family will pay whatever the current fee is when the officiant is needed (that's basically their pay, so you're not going to pay 2022 rates if they're actually leading the funeral service decades later). But many of the other costs you can pay ahead of time to lock in prices. It will also be less of a shock to your family when they're arranging for your funeral in the future.
Contact a funeral home to discuss prepaying. Obviously, this is harder if you're not sure where you'll end up living over your lifetime. But if you know with reasonable certainty where you'll be, it makes sense to prepay what you can.
It can be a difficult time for the entire family after a loved one passes away. While some people pre-plan their funerals to make it easier for their loved ones after they pass away or create legal wills that outline how they would like their funerals performed, others leave the funeral planning process up to their loved ones.
Thankfully, this process does not have to be difficult when you learn all of the funeral planning steps ahead of time and tackle each step with confidence. The firs step to planning a funeral is choosing a funeral home. The funeral home staff can assist you with the funeral planning process every step of the way.
We created this blog to help people like you learn how to tackle the funeral planning process with ease. We hope we can make planning your loved one's funeral easier and less stressful.