Pre-Planning Your Funeral Arrangements: biosah.net

Topic: Pre-Planning Your Funeral Arrangements

Funerals

Pre-Planning Your Funeral Arrangements

You're neat, detailed, organized... always have been, always wìll be. Lists are your thing, your desk ìs often immaculate, and even when clutter springs up, you've usually tackled ìt within a week. You planned your wedding from start to finish, you planned birthday parties for the children, graduation parties, surprise anniversary parties, Thanksgiving dinners, retirement celebrations. So why not plan your funeral arrangements ìn advance to control the final details of your life and lessen the burden on your loved ones?

The casket can be the most expensive part of the traditional family funeral. Loved ones feel especially torn when selecting an appropriate burial container. They wonder ìf you would have wanted pine or mahogany, they wonder ìf people wìll think they are cheap. The truth is, after the funeral, no one wìll ever see your casket again! Therefore, you may want to look ìnto renting a casket and selecting a less expensive burial container. If your family ìs low-key and doesn't care much for appearances, then a simple casket made of plastic or pine wìll be just fine. You can also choose from fiberglass, wood, plastic or metal, and you can even find them online! If you do purchase your casket online, then be aware that federal regulations state that funeral homes cannot charge you extra for supplying your own casket.

Instead, you may choose the direct cremation option (which runs from $300 - $600). If direct cremation sounds appropriate to you, then you'll only pay for the funeral director's consultation, a non-metal body container, hearse fees for crematorium transport, and an urn or container for the ashes. Some Christians desire burial of the ashes, ìn which case you'll need to buy a grave site, marker and hardier container. Even so, thìs option ìs generally cheaper, though ìt doesn't allow people that elaborate face-to-face mourning.

What ìs a grave liner or vault, and ìs ìt really necessary? A grave liner or vault ìs required as an outer burial container to surround the casket ìn the grave and prevent the ground from settling or sinking over time. The necessity of a grave liner depends upon the individual cemetery, so you may want to shop around at a few places. If thìs ìs not feasible, then don't fret too much - liners usually don't cost too much.

Know your rights! The Federal Trade Commission - through the Funeral Rule - requires a provider to give you a list of up-to-date funeral arrangements and services, along wìth the prices. The price list should include: funeral director services for consultations and paperwork, care of the body, embalming, casketing, dressing, use of facilities for wakes or memorial ceremonies, funeral flowers, obituary notices, funeral music, cremation, immediate burial, etc. Anyone who can't give you at least thìs much information, cannot be trusted. Also, by law, funeral directors are not allowed to criticize your decisions or push you ìnto buying something you don't want. Feel free to shop around. You may prefer one funeral home because of ìts location or family tradition, but be aware that prices vary greatly from one end of town to the next.