Six Reasons to Pre-Plan Your Funeral

Regardless of age or health, pre-planning a funeral can be beneficial to you and your loved ones. Help take the burden away from loved ones during time of grief and pre-plan your funeral. 

1. Reducing the stress on your family is the top reason to pre-plan
   Grief often makes the simplest tasks difficult. Funerals tend to be planned immediately following a death, this often means that family members must dive immediately into planning a large event and making significant financial decisions while dealing with enormous grief. The more of your funeral you plan in advance, the easier it will be for your family to execute on your instructions and wishes. 
   
   
2. You'll help prevent family conflict
   If you pass away unexpectedly and you haven't outlined your wishes, your family will be left to guess what you would have wanted. If two family members disagree, that can lead to a lot of unnecessary tension in the funeral planning process. The more you can record, the better, even down to song decisions or what charity you'd prefer people make memorial donations to. 
   
   
3. You'll help ensure your wishes are met
   Many people have ideas about what they would like done surrounding their death. Whether you feel that a burial is important for religious reasons or you'd prefer a lively celebration of your life over some somber affair, planning your funeral in advance will help ensure that the things you find most important will happen. It also give you a chance to inject some of your personality into the event and reflect on how you'll be remembered. This can provide a lot of comfort in your final days.
   
   
4. You'll save your family money
   Many people don't think to shop around when they're grieving and rushing to plan a funeral, which can lead to thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs. If you plan ahead, you can take the time to compare funeral homes, which often vary in price by thousands of dollars for almost identical services. You can even shop around for caskets and headstones.
   
   
5. You'll be able to prepare financially
   Funerals are expensive. By preparing for your funeral in advance, you'll be able to determine roughly how much everything will cost and make a plan for how to pay for it. Once you know how much you'll need, consider purchasing funeral insurance or putting the funds in a payable-upon-death bank account.
   
   
6. It will encourage meaningful conversations with your family
   While talking to your family about death may sound uncomfortable, may people find that it leads to meaningful conversations about what's important to each of you. Frequently, people want to talk about the end of life, but feel awkward or don't know how to bring it up themselves. When you open the door, you may find that others in your family have been thinking about their own end of life and also want to share their thoughts and preferences. 

We here at St. Paul's have created a booklet to help you pre-plan -> click here to download.

Additional Important Information

1. As part of your pre-planning, we've also created an updatable form for you to record the location of important documents, account numbers, passwords, and special information your survivors might need.

Your personal copy of the document can be downloaded and saved by -> click here. 

Six Reasons to Plan Your Funeral obtained from: https://www.freewill.com/learn/6-reasons-to-pre-plan-your-funeral