Why Planning Your Funeral May Be a Good Idea
About how much does a funeral cost? According to the National Funeral Director’s Association, the average cost of final expenses is $7,640. This cost includes viewing and burial. These do not include extras like music, flowers, or the best way to live stream a funeral service. In America, close relatives apply to Social Security for financial help. They get about $255 towards these funeral expenses if they are able to climb the mountain of paperwork during this time of emotional turmoil.
Life insurance is a huge industry that provides beneficiaries of the deceased with enough money to cover funeral expenses and, sometimes, a little extra to cover final debt like unpaid credit card bills. Any checks sent are usually written for the estates of the deceased and not to individual persons. This means you have to go all the way through probate and get the estate settled long before the insurance check can be cashed.
There are many agencies that help with funeral expenses in America. If the deceased was an honorably discharged veteran, relatives can go to the Veterans Administration website and download VA Form 21P-530 Application for Burial Allowance. Fill this out and mail it back to the Veterans Administration. There are many state and national charities that offer grants for funeral expenses. National charities include Final Farewell and Children’s Burial Assistance.
If you have the opportunity to do so, it can save your loved ones a great deal of stress and grief if you plan your own funeral. A traditional funeral service can be very expensive and it can be hard to find the best price when you’re in the midst of grief. So it gets easier to be taken advantage of. If you buy your own casket and plan your own funeral before you die, then you’ll be able to find the best and cheapest funeral plans without having to hurry. You can
identify the best burial casket prices and set up the ceremony in advance. You can also likely pay the burial fees yourself before you pass away. While this isn’t always possible, sometimes you have advanced warning that you are going to die. In these situations, you have an opportunity to help your family deal with your passing. And one practical way of doing so is to plan your funeral in advance. If everything is set and paid for, then all anyone will have to worry about is celebrating your life.
Unfortunately, there comes a time when all our loved ones will pass away. A funeral is a ceremony that we hold in order to pay our last respects and say good bye to the deceased. Many different cultures have different funeral traditions. However, the idea of a ceremony held after a person has died is a fairly common tradition, even if the specifics vary greatly.
In the United States, most people will organize a funeral through a funeral home. There are roughly 25,680 funeral directors in the United States. The vast majority of these, an estimated 86%, are privately owned by families. A funeral home will provide many services related to a funeral, including organizing a wake and funeral, casket flowers, preparing the body, handling the transport of the body, respecting any religious requirements, and arranging the final disposition of the body (i.e. burial, cremation, etc.) While most people chose to be buried, cremation has recently seen a huge uptick in popularity. In fact, cremation rate in the United States was 47% since 2012.
Because of all the different options available, you may want to create a funeral plan before you pass. This can help your loved ones to easily arrange your funeral once you have passed on. It will also allow you to control the cost of a funeral, as they can get very expensive. For example, the cost of a casket ranges anywhere from $500 up to $10,000.
If you are attending a funeral, then know that it is customary to bring flowers for the funeral home. You can get flowers for the funeral home anywhere. There is often a local funeral florist, and there are now online funeral florists that offer same day flower delivery to funeral homes. If you are shopping for flowers consider looking online for an easy option.