There are several distinct advantages to funeral planning, and indeed planning your own funeral. We will introduce some of these benefits to you below.
Lets Your Loved Ones Know What You Want
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is adding funeral instructions in their Will only and nowhere else. This often has the unfortunate consequence that the deceased’s wishes regarding their funeral service never become known until it’s too late. One of the main advantages of funeral planning is that, by planning your own funeral and clearly documenting your wishes, you can ensure that this type of oversight is avoided. Of course, the avoidance of this problem is very much dependent on your executors and family being made aware that you have made a funeral plan and knowing where and how to locate it when the time comes.
Reliving Your Loved Ones of Difficult Decisions
Advance funeral planning will relieve your family of a huge burden and strain during an already difficult period. You can remove the necessity of having them make important decisions regarding your funeral ceremony. Consider, for example, the simple turmoil caused by your family being unsure as to whether you would prefer burial or cremation or even where you would prefer to be interred (if that was your preference). These are important considerations especially when your family is worried about making the wrong decision…..remember whatever decision they make is final and they will have to live with any resulting guilt, doubt or worry.
All of this can be avoided with some good funeral planning and a good funeral plan. You can make all the important decisions regarding your final arrangements. You can decide whether to donate organs, whether to opt for a full traditional funeral or a simple memorial service, whether to opt for cremation rather than burial, what you want done with your ashes or where you want to have your remains interred, and so on. Making these decisions yourself will greatly help your family and, of course, by getting them involved right from the start of the funeral planning process you will ensure that no difficult decisions will be required in their time of difficulty.
Reducing the Costs of Your Funeral Service
A funeral service can be quite costly, so it usually pays to shop around. Often people tend to pick the funeral home closest to them or the one that their family has always used. This does not however mean that you are getting good value for money. The services provided by different funeral homes can change dramatically from one to another. If you fail to check the prices offered by other funeral homes then you may be spending well over the odds and also putting yourself under unnecessary financial strain.
In going through the funeral planning process, you will be able to use your funeral plan to help you compare the costs of funeral service providers and identify many of the hidden costs that are often missed when costing funerals.
Removing the Financial Burden of Funeral Costs
One of the major advantages associated with funeral planning is the ability to decide to have the cost of your funeral discharged after your death or even paying for it in advance. Given the costs associated with funerals, removing the burden of your family having to discharge these funeral costs after your passing can be a blessing to them.
There are three main options when it comes to making advance preparations to pay for your funeral. The first is simply setting aside an amount of money to pay for the plan, the second is paying for the plan in advance and the third is arranging to have insurance cover put in place to cover the cost of the plan when the time comes. By ensuring that your family has the funds necessary to pay for the funeral, or by paying for it in advance, you can make it a lot easier for them to implement your funeral plan when the time comes.
How EstateBee Can Help You?
If you would like more information on funeral planning, check out some of the other articles on our website. Alternatively, if you are looking for something a little more detailed and in-depth, check out our book Funeral Planning Basics.
Funeral Planning Basics is a comprehensive funeral planning book that will take you step-by-step through the entire process of planning and arranging your funeral. It will introduce you to issues such as organ donations, purchasing caskets, cremation, burial, funeral services and much more.
You will learn about all of the key aspects of the funeral planning process, what your options are, new trends in funeral planning (including ‘green burials’ and sea burials) and much, much more.
If you have any queries about our products or services, please feel free to contact our customer service team.
Diana is a freelance writer that has written extensively in the areas of finance, financial planning and estate planning.
Freelance Writer
Diana is a freelance writer that has written extensively in the areas of finance, financial planning and estate planning.