The Importance of Prearranging Your Funeral

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Loose Funeral Home under funeral planning
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Making funeral arrangements in advance is one of the kindest things you can do for your family.When a loved one passes, it can be comforting to your family to know they are honoring and following your wishes during this celebration of life.

Planning a funeral after a loved one has passed is a great responsibility for a family. When these decisions are made in advance, the family can use your wishes as guidelines, to build upon your desires, allowing them the time they need to grieve their loss.

Prearranging your funeral gives your funeral home of choice the ability to gather all the pertinent information, special wishes, service desires, music selection, scripture verses, list of pallbearers, casket desires, final disposition of burial or cremation, and flowers.

There are two ways to prearrange your funeral. You can record all of your wishes and allow your funeral home of choice to keep these wishes on file, or you can take the next step and pay for your wishes in advance.

If you decide to pay for your wishes in advance, all funeral homes in Indiana will either use a life insurance company or trust company to hold your monies until the time of need, when the death occurs.

When using an insurance policy specially designed for funeral services, the three most expensive funeral items are guaranteed: the funeral home service charge, the casket, and the vault. This means that those specific items will gain interest to cover inflation from the time the funeral is paid in advance until the time of death.

The other items that are also paid for in advance gain the same amount of interest, but these items are not guaranteed because these items are controlled and paid to other entities such as certified copies of death, cemetery charges, obituaries, and honorariums. These items are often offset by the interest gained but not guaranteed to cover the current cost at the time of death.

By paying for your funeral in advance, the monies you have within your prearrangements are not considered an asset to you. This is vitally important, because if for some reason you would need to have assistance from Medicaid, they would not force you to cash it in before giving you financial aid.

SupposeĀ  you currently have insurance and want to put it into prearrangement. In that case, this can be done by working with the insurance company to change the beneficiary and ownership over to the funeral home of your choice while keeping you the insured. This process also allows you to keep the policy, Medicaid will not consider it an asset, and you will get financial assistance if you are otherwise eligible.

Prearranging your funeral can often be an emotional time but working with a compassionate and empathetic company can help to eliminate your worries and provide you with the answers you need to make the best choice.

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