Death is never an easy subject to talk about, but it is the one inevitable thing in someone’s life. Every day millions of people pass away unexpectedly, leaving their family not knowing what to do, where to go, and wondering how they’re going to pay for it. This article is going to explore why you should consider prearranging your funeral services and how you can go about doing it.
What is Prearranging?
Prearranging is something that has been around for decades. Prearranging is when you decide on your funeral services and pre-pay for them before the death actually occurs. This means you decide on whether you would rather be buried or cremated, whether you would like a service or not, what casket or urn you want, and other things as well. The only age requirement is that you must be eighteen years or older. Most individuals that prearrange range from their 30s-80s just so they can have that peace of mind that it is taken care of if something were to happen to them naturally or unexpectedly.
Why Prearrange?
There are two main reasons to pre-arrange your funeral or cremation services:
- When you prearrange your funeral, you remove almost all of the burden from your family after you pass away. A lot of times, family members are not sure what you would want but if you decide on everything yourself, all they have to decide on is what day and time the services will be held on. Also, some family members feel as if they must buy something very expensive because it will be the last thing they will ever get to buy for you. This can cause financial instability which can create even more stress down the road. If you prearrange, you allow your family to focus on celebrating your life and spending time with other family members rather than spending the time it takes to figure out and pay for all the funeral services and arrangements.
- Pre-planning locks in the price of your funeral services. Over the past 10 years, funeral and cremation prices have almost doubled. If you lock in the price by prearranging, no matter how much inflation has occurred or how much the prices of our services have risen, the price you lock in is how much the services will be. Period.
How Does Prearranging Work?
Pre-arranging is a simple process. There are 2 forms that need to be completed:
- A goods and services form that lists which services you want, such as burial or cremation, and also what merchandise you want such as caskets, vaults, urns, memorial books, etc. All of these things would have to be decided by family members at the time of passing if you choose to not pre-arrange.
- An enrollment form that states some general information about you and also how you will be prepaying for the services. This form is in place because a while back, the government stepped in and made a law prohibiting funeral homes from taking any money up front for funeral arrangements. There were some bad apples that were spending the money in advance and when the death did occur, the money wasn’t in their account to cover the services. The government decided that a life insurance policy would make the most sense. This life insurance is not like your typical life insurance where you have term or whole life and keep paying for years and years. It is simple because you can either pay for the services in full or make payments for three, five or ten years until the funeral arrangements are paid off. There are also many benefits of using a life insurance company as well. The first benefit is if you were to move to another state you can have the policy transferred to a funeral home in that state. Also, your money will be safe because the life insurance company will be who holds your money. The funeral home will never deposit the funds so if the funeral home were to ever be purchased or go out of business, then your money will remain with the life insurance company and you will be allowed to transfer the policy to a nearby funeral home. Also, the life insurance company will cover the passing of a child or grandchild under the age of 18.
Conclusion
In conclusion, pre-arranging has many benefits. Prearranging allows you to decide and pay for your own services and also take the stress off of your loved ones during a sad and stressful time. Prearranging your services just might be the greatest gift you ever give your surviving spouse or family. Knowing they can celebrate your life and not have to worry about all the arrangements will make their life a lot easier.
At Georgia Funeral Care & Cremation Services, we want to make the arrangement and prearrangement process as simple as possible. You can use our online planning form to start the pre-planning process or, if you would prefer to work one-on-one with one of our professional and compassionate staff members, just give us a call (678-574-3016) and we’ll be happy to help. We will guide you through all the steps to complete the process.
