Planning your Memorial or funeral service in advance is not a task you would have expected to consider, earlier in your life. Once you move into your 40s and 50s, you may have already witnessed the loss of family and friends. You have probably experienced individuals arguing over the type of funeral or memorial that the deceased would have wanted. You can plan your service in advance and arrange to assign your life insurance policy into what is known as non-recourse funeral funding, so that you relieve your family of the financial burden of paying for your funeral while waiting for your probate to complete.
Relieve Your Family of Difficult Decisions
Discussing whether you prefer to be buried or cremated can be difficult or an impossible conversation to complete with close family members. By leaving instructions to family and friends, they will be able to undertake arrangements for your Memorial or funeral service, without fear of wondering what you would have wanted.
They will be able to go ahead and agree the financial aspects of the service and the funeral, without being worried about finding ways to pay and on time. As you arranged the non-recourse funeral funding in advance, the funeral director and the crematorium know they will get paid quickly.
Informing Your Decisions
You can inform your relatives that the non-recourse funeral funding is in place and that you have left instructions for your funeral or memorial service. By letting them know where the documentation is safely stored and how to access this information, on your death, is equally important.
You will be able to prepare by listing your specific requirements. Once you have chosen a burial or cremation, you can provide information about whether you would choose a religious ceremony, or a humanist funeral. You may choose to mix the two depending upon those who are going to attend.
You may list preferred location for the service and people you wish to act as pallbearers. Who would you like to speak at your funeral? Do you have specific songs or music that you would like played before, during and after the service? Would you like flowers replaced with donations to your favorite charity?
What other decisions would you prefer to make?
