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Pre-planning Funeral Services
No one likes to think about death, let alone plan for it. In many families, discussing one’s mortality is an extremely uncomfortable topic. But it is a topic that should be discussed and planned for well in advance of your death.
By pre-planning your funeral, you relieve your family of having to make important financial decisions during a period of great stress and grief-a time when people aren’t thinking very clearly and may not know what to do because you never made your wishes known.
It’s easy to say, “Don’t make a fuss. I don’t want a ceremony. Just bury me and be done with it.” But it is important to realize that the ritual of a funeral and/or memorial service isn’t for the deceased but for the living. It is a time when friends and family can gather together to grieve openly and to provide support for one another.
Pre-planning your funeral can be very informal, and as simple as following our pre-planning checklist below and sharing your wishes with a family member. More formal arrangements in the form of a preneed contract can be set up with a funeral director and pre-funded through life insurance, bank trust agreement, or another method.
Pre-planning, when done properly, can give you peace of mind becaused you know that your arrangements are ready and pre-funded. Meet with your funeral director to discuss pre-planning.
By pre-planning your funeral, you can:
- make all the arrangements during a time of peace and not leave them to your family during their time of grief
- make your wishes known
- control the cost of your funeral and protect from inflation (Optional-You can pre-plan without pre-paying)
- ensure that personal records are organized and easy for your survivors to locate
- protect your insurance so that it provides for your survivors and not for funeral expenses
- provide protection in case the need arises before it is expected
To prepare your information that will be needed we have included this checklist to help assist you.
Family Information:
- Please list the names of survivors and state their relationship to you
- Their spouse’s names
- The city in which they live as you wish to have them listed in the memorial
Survivors:
- Spouse
- Sons
- Daughters
- Parents
- Brothers
- Sisters
- Grandchildren
- Great-grandchildren
- Grandparents
Example: 1 son, Steve and wife Sue of Kansas City, MO
Please contact us and request a free funeral planner. This is a guide you can fill out in the privacy of your own home. It allows you to put in writing all of your final wishes including service details.