Planning your funeral in advance

Planning your funeral in advance makes sense in all sorts of practical ways. If you’d like something specific, or out of the ordinary, then the way to make sure that happens is to plan in advance and ensure your closest relatives know your wishes. But there are other reasons why planning your funeral in advance can be a caring, thoughtful act.

Cost - see Paying for your funeral in advance

Lightening the load – you may feel that to put arrangements in place before you die will be of great help to your family. This may well be the case but it isn’t always so. For many, the act of preparing their loved one’s funeral is a process they feel the need to go through. It can focus the mind on something other than their loss for a while. It can make them feel they’re carrying out one last important act on your behalf. It can help the with the grieving process. To deny them that, even with the best of intentions, would be unfortunate.

There are, however, those who would appreciate the gesture, especially if illness or infirmity would make it difficult for them to contribute to arranging your funeral. Talk to your family about your plans before you make any decisions.

Putting plans in place

One of the easiest ways of setting out your wishes is in your will. If you've already made a will then you'll probably need to revoke it and create a new one.

Talk to your solicitor about creating, revoking or amending your will.

If you don’t have a will you can still leave instructions for your family or inform them of plans you've already put in place. The details should be in writing and should be signed and dated.

Paying for your funeral in advance

There are a number of good reasons to pay for your funeral in advance:

• It removes a financial burden from your family
• It ensures there's enough money to cover the cost of the funeral
• You can pay the cost of your funeral at today's prices, rather than at higher rates when you die.

A pre-paid funeral plan is available from your funeral director, a number of insurance companies and specific funeral plan companies. You can normally pay for the plan in instalments.

Choosing your plan

Make sure you satisfy yourself of the following before entering into any plan:

• How long will I have to pay this for?
• Will I be able to keep making the monthly payments?
• Does the plan cover everything I need?
• Can I change the plan?
• Is my money protected if you stop trading?
• What happens if I die before I've finished paying the instalments?

Tell your family

To have paid for your funeral in advance and not have told your family would be a tremendous waste. Without letting your family know they could choose another funeral director and pay the full cost of a funeral without ever knowing of your actions.

If you leave such details in your will make sure you keep a copy of it at home. This will prevent any delay in finding out about the pre-payment, or the details of your plans.

Make sure a member of your family knows about the pre-payment and where to find the will or other documents.