Affordable
Options:
A Guide to Funeral Planning
To plan your funeral is
sensible, economical, and considerate. It will be your funeral. Your family or your
estate will have to pay for it. When you plan the kind of arrangements you AND
your family want, you . . .
- save
needless expense
- secure
peace of mind
- smooth
the way for those you leave behind.
When a person dies, there are
two tasks at hand: one is the timely disposition of the body,
the other is commemorating the life that was lived. When you can separate those
two events, there will be more possibility for saving money. How much you
choose to spend may influence your decisions.
Body burial costs depend on the casket selected, the services
provided by the mortician, and the charges made by the cemetery (the grave
site, the vault or liner, opening and closing the grave, the marker or
monument, and perpetual care), Costs could range from
$800 to well over $5,000.
Grave liners (usually cement slabs) are not
legally required but are mandated by many cemeteries to keep the ground from
settling. Coffin vaults, which serve the same purpose as grave liners, cost
nearly twice as much, if not more.
If you, or someone close to you, own land
outside the village or city limits, home burial may be an economical and
preferred option in some states.
Except in special cases, embalming is not
required. Embalming is rarely used in other countries. Refrigeration may be
used to preserve a body when there will be a delay in cremation.
Cremation is increasingly popular. It accomplishes in a few
hours what nature takes years to complete. A modest container, rather than an
expensive casket is generally used, and total costs
range from about $200 to well over $1,000. Many crematories will work directly
with a family for substantial savings, but all permits must be in order,
accompanied by a death certificate.
Cremated remains—cremains—may
be scattered, buried, or stored in an urn. They can be easily transported or
inexpensively shipped. Their disposition can be handled by the next-of-kin or a
designee. Although some denominations oppose cremation, the majority accepts
it.
Bequeathal of your body to a medical school is another option.
Many medical schools value a body for teaching or research purposes and may pay
for transportation and final disposition, usually cremation. If requested, some
medical colleges will return the cremains to the
family for disposition.
It is important to have a written agreement
with a medical school, and it is essential to have alternative plans. The
circumstances of your death may render your body unacceptable for teaching
purposes. Autopsies are valuable for medical science, and organ transplants give priceless benefits to
recipients. Most medical schools do not accept a body on which an autopsy has
been performed or from which organs (other than corneas) have been removed.
Aside from the disposition of your body,
there is the question of the kind of service you prefer. Should it be formal or
informal? Public or private? A
funeral or a memorial service?
A funeral service is one with the body present. Therefore, it is held
soon after death occurs, generally in a religious setting or mortuary. There is
also the option, as in days past, to have a funeral at your own or family home.
A memorial service is held without the body present and does not require
extensive services or the expense of a mortician. It can be scheduled several
days or weeks after death occurs, allowing time for
far-away family or friends to gather.
A committal service may be held at the graveside immediately before
burial or in a crematory chapel before cremation.
Many people prefer to dispense with a
committal service. Others dispense with services altogether. But generally some
sort of observance—public or private, in a religious or familiar setting, with
or without ritual, is helpful for promoting the acceptance of death.
Discuss your preferences with
family members and your minister,
priest, or rabbi. Discussion will help you decide on the kind of services most
suitable for you and your family. If your funeral is a topic that is difficult
to bring up, sharing printed information may be a way to begin. Your local
Funeral Consumers Alliance has this online information in attractive brochures,
as a benefit of membership. And remember, your Alliance has probably done the price-
shopping for you.
When you make a will or purchase insurance,
you are planning for your death and the lives of your survivors. By planning
your final arrangements you are doing precisely the same thing: smoothing the
way for your survivors.