Ensuring your grieving loved ones are well taken care of after you pass away includes a comprehensive estate plan as well as a preplanned funeral service and burial arrangements. Making these arrangements in advance provides tremendous peace of mind for those left behind.
Step 1: Research all the options available for funeral services as well as cremation and burial. There are many new options such as having your remains converted to wearable jewelry or used to plant a new tree or even shipped to outer space. As for services, those have evolved in recent years as well. The pandemic opened up the virtual realm for services which many are continuing to use in a hybrid format. The live services are streamed (or recorded) for those who cannot attend. Some services remain in the more traditional funeral format while others take on a more ‘celebration of life’ approach. Read our other blog posts about all the different options for burials, cremations and types of services.
Step 2:Consider the financials. Understand your budget and research the costs involved in the choices you have made. Review your will with your estate planning attorney to determine how to incorporate your wishes for the funeral and burial costs. Most burial plots need to be purchased in advance. Some of the other services can also be pre-purchased. Paying in advance may be advantageous because you are locking in the current rates. Make sure to leave receipts and details on who to contact with a trusted loved one.
Step 3:Document your wishes. Once you have completed the research and decided the type of service and burial/cremation, type up a document that explains to your loved ones all of these choices. This document can be as detailed as you want. Discuss these plans with family members so that when the time comes, a loved one knows how to find this information and carry out your plans.
Some other noteworthy tips about preplanning your funeral and burial/cremation services:
- Do not rely on life insurance to cover all the costs. Unfortunately, life insurance policies can have fine print that contradicts the policy holder’s expectations. For example, a policy that is less than two years old at the time of death is often easy for the insurance company to deny the claims without any type of recourse. Make sure your estate liquidity is sufficient to cover the plans you made in respect to your funeral and disposition.
- A prepaid, irrevocable funeral or cremation contract may be treated as an exempt asset for Medicaid qualification purposes, often without any maximum limits. This allows you to prearrange your service while maintaining your Medicaid eligibility.
- While some government benefits such as social security and veterans’ benefits may be applied to these costs, they are rarely in amounts sufficient to cover the entire costs.
For assistance in creating a comprehensive estate plan that includes prearranged funeral and burial/cremation services, contact the experienced estate planning attorneys at Stouffer Legal in the Greater Baltimore area for a consultation. You can schedule an appointment by calling us at (443) 470-3599 or emailing us at office@stoufferlegal.com.
