Q: Should I pre-plan my funeral?
A: Yes! Everyone should pre-plan their funeral and make their wishes known in some way so that those left behind will know what to do when the death occurs. There are two primary ways of pre-planning your funeral. The first is to pre-pay services and merchandise in full, while the second option allows funding (a regular payment paid over a specified amount of time) for selected merchandise and services. Both options guarantee that the amount for funeral costs you are given on the day you sign a pre-need contract will be guaranteed not to increase. (These two options will be discussed in a future article). A third option is to simply write your wishes on paper, with no deposit or contract. This option unfortunately does not guarantee (“lock-in”) costs but ensures that your wishes will be made known to the funeral home and more importantly, to your family. All these options can be as detailed as you want them to be. In all cases, information required to register the death would be collected, as well as any details you wish to include regarding the handling of your final arrangements such as the type of casket or urn you select, where the service and burial would take place, whether there would be visitation, as well as the possibility of listing songs or hymns, selected scripture/readings, who would be pallbearers or urn bearers, preferred charities for memorial donations, etc. We would be happy to sit down with you at our offices or in the comfort of your own home to go over all the options available to you. One family helping out another - it’s what we do, and we’ve been doing it respectfully for 140 years!
