Americans spend billions of dollars yearly on funeral and burial services and products. The increasing trend toward pre-funeral planning suggests that more consumers want to make intelligent choices when comparing funeral burial products and service prices.
Buying A Burial Funeral Package – Part of Estate Planning
Americans are coming to view the planning of their funerals as an essential part of their estate planning responsibilities. Such planning may or may not involve making minimal monthly installment payments. Major insurance companies and large financial institutions provide these burial plans like any other insurance or financial product.
Preplanning Your Own Funeral
Let’s face it, no one enjoys their own end-of-life burial planning. However, if you do not plan ahead of time, someone else will, which might cost your estate a substantial amount of money.
This is not to say that leaving the funeral planning up to your spouse after you pass should not imply you won’t receive a royal send-off. To the contrary, we are saying that should you pass without preplanning your funeral, your loved ones, already in a vulnerable emotional state, will be forced into making rushed and uninformed decisions that can cost your estate thousands of dollars. All because of a lack of planning.
Consumers are Left Vulnerable and Without a Plan
More often than not, in the space between a loved one’s death and the actual burial of a loved one, it’s not uncommon for the family members to rush out and purchase the first cemetery plot they can find.
Without funeral preplanning, loved ones can get caught off guard and suddenly forced to make time-critical decisions that can be unnecessarily costly for those left behind.
Time Critical Decisions Include:
- What kind of funeral should it be?
- What funeral provider should we use?
- Should you bury or cremate the body?
- Should the remains be buried, entombed, or scattered?
- Should we donate the body to science?
- What are you legally required to buy?
- What other arrangements should you plan?
- How much is all of this going to cost?
When Should We Start Preplanning?
The earlier, the better. Your thirties or forties can be an ideal time. The costs are minimal because you have a partner and family to protect by then.
As a point of reference, life expectancies have generally been rising in the United States. According to National Vital Statistics 2020 data, men can expect to live on average for 75.1 years, while women, on average, can expect to live for roughly 81 years.
Burial Insurance plans can offer a much more expansive scope of full-cost funeral and burial coverage when compared to the coverage limits of most life insurance policies.
Most Life Insurance Policies Don’t Cover Burial Insurance
Those insurance companies that do offer a burial provision to their policy usually lack adequate coverage and scope of benefits.
While some Life insurance policies can help your family adjust to the loss of income that a death causes. If pre-need arrangements are not made, your family can be forced to spend significantly more of your life insurance proceeds on burial, funeral, and cemetery expenses.
Average Funeral Pricing
Preplanning can save substantial amounts of money for your family. The basic funeral includes burial, transport, casket, embalming, and associated cemetery service fees cost between $7,000 and $15,000. This range does not include the price of a decent headstone. You should also anticipate “extras” like flowers, obituary notices, acknowledgment cards, and limousine services can add thousands more to the price.
Headstone Prices
This price of a headstone can be extremely costly. The smaller-sized engraved headstones can range between $1,500 and $2,500. For those with deep pockets and heavy sentiments, monuments can cost between $10,000 to $25,000 or more, depending on the quality and artistic value of the monument.
The Current Cost of Cremation
The average cost of a funeral with the remains already cremation is much less expensive. It can average between $5,000 to $6,000 unless you plan for a space burial (no kidding) where one’s cremated ashes can live among the stars.
Trouble Tip
Make Intelligent Purchasing Decisions
Funerals rank among the most expensive purchases consumers will ever make.
The inside saying among funeral directors is that burial preplanning lets consumers shop before they drop.
While most consumers have no problem negotiating the price of a new car, you’re likely to feel uncomfortable negotiating over the details and costs of a funeral for your loved one.
In truth, most people tend to “overspend” on a funeral or burial because they believe how much money they spend reflects their feelings for the deceased.
Other Preplanning Benefits
- Thinking ahead can help you make informed decisions about funeral arrangements.
- Preplanning allows you to choose the specific items you want while comparing the prices of several funeral providers.
- You can make your final arrangements directly with a funeral establishment or through a funeral planning or memorial society.
- Many nonprofit organizations provide free information about funerals and dispositions but do not offer funeral services.
- If you choose to contact such an organization, remember that funeral homes may include the word “society” in their names. But this does not mean they are a nonprofit organization.
Trouble Tip
Be Mindful With Important Documents
Put your preferences in writing, give copies to family members and your attorney, and keep a copy in a handy place. Don’t designate your preferences in your will because a will often is not found or read until weeks after the funeral.
Main Types of Funerals
Traditional funerals
This “traditional” funeral usually includes a viewing or visitation and formal funeral service, a hearse to transport the body to the cemetery or other burial site, entombment, or cremation of the loved one’s remains.
The traditional funeral is usually the most expensive. It includes the funeral home’s basic services fees, typically the casket, embalming, and the final dressing of the body.
There is a rental charge for a funeral home viewing. There are limousines to transport the immediate family to the cemetery, plot, or crypt.
The Direct Burial Funeral
The direct burial happens quickly – usually shortly after death. There is no embalming or preparation of the body. There is usually no formal casket containing the body. Instead, a simple container is used.
There is no formal viewing or ceremony. Direct burial usually costs substantially less than your other options funeral. Costs include:
- The funeral home’s basic services fee.
- Transportation of the body.
- The purchase of a burial container.
- A crypt or plot
Should the family wish to be present for the burial, it is not uncommon for the funeral home to charge a fee even if there is no formal graveside service.
Direct Cremation
The direct cremation option occurs shortly after death. The cremated remains are placed in a small box or urn. The price of urns can vary significantly.
Viewing the actual cremation process is prohibited. There is usually some form of memorial service, usually in the privacy of the family home.
The cremated remains are usually kept in the family home, buried, or placed in a crypt or niche in a cemetery. They can also be buried or scattered in a special.
Direct cremation usually costs substantially less than the other options mentioned.
Trouble Tip
Cremations Don’t Require A Casket
Funeral providers offering direct cremations must also offer an inexpensive alternative container that can be used instead of a more expensive casket.
Final Thoughts About Final Thoughts
Preplanning allows you to shop for the best prices, services, and funeral home that suits you. The truth is, many people, particularly those ill who know death is imminent, may find the shopping process somewhat morbid. Still, it also gives them a sense of relief, freed from worrying about these end-of-life issues.
Another part of smart end-of-life planning is completing and signing an advanced health care directive and other end-of-life documents, which authorizes another to make medical and financial decisions should they become incapacitated.
If You Purchased a Prepaid Funeral Plan Tell Your Family
It’s not enough to make arrangements for your own funeral. You will need to inform other people that you’ve done so. If no one knows of the plans you’ve made and the services you’ve paid for, there is a risk that your family may be forced to pay for the arrangements.
It’s always a good idea to inform a few family members about the arrangements, so they know where to find this information and assist you when the time comes.
Finally, putting your funeral-burial instructions with your will is not always a good idea. One’s most recent testamentary documents can be misplaced. Sometimes, a formal reading of the will does not happen until a few weeks after the death.
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Have More Questions? Consult With A Funeral Director Near You Or Find Out More About Prepaid Funeral Plans
