One of the benefits to preplanning your funeral is that you can take time to shop around. Ask for an itemized list of the funeral home charges and compare them from one location to another. Make sure that your family knows where to find that preplanning information when the time to do the final planning arrives. The funeral directors can always say that they have increased their prices since the time you did your preplanning but at least your family can probably tell if the increases are consistent with the cost of living increases. If you plan to supply your own casket from an online supplier, which I strongly recommend, you can see just how much the funeral home is planning to mark up the price. Usually you will be able to save thousands of dollars by supplying your own casket.
While preplanning your funeral is generally a good idea, it is not always a good idea to prepay your funeral expenses. When a funeral is paid for in advance, it is sometimes difficult to make changes when the time arrives for the funeral. I have spoken with couples who have prepaid their funeral expenses so that their children would not have that financial burden when the time comes for their funerals. When they found out how much they could have saved by buying their caskets online, they regretted being locked into the funeral home prices. By preplanning your funeral but not prepaying you can make your family aware of your final wishes but they are not locked into any specific goods and services.
So when preplanning your funeral, feel free to shop around, get itemized lists of the funeral home charges, and make sure your family is aware of your final wishes.
While preplanning your funeral is generally a good idea, it is not always a good idea to prepay your funeral expenses. When a funeral is paid for in advance, it is sometimes difficult to make changes when the time arrives for the funeral. I have spoken with couples who have prepaid their funeral expenses so that their children would not have that financial burden when the time comes for their funerals. When they found out how much they could have saved by buying their caskets online, they regretted being locked into the funeral home prices. By preplanning your funeral but not prepaying you can make your family aware of your final wishes but they are not locked into any specific goods and services.
So when preplanning your funeral, feel free to shop around, get itemized lists of the funeral home charges, and make sure your family is aware of your final wishes.
Carol Fishback
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