What advance funeral planning covers
Advance planning means making the funeral decisions now so your family does not have to guess later. It works best when the plan is written down and paid for, and those are two different steps.
Preplanning and prefunding are not the same thing
Preplanning is deciding: the kind of service, burial or cremation, the casket or urn, the cemetery arrangements, and who should be called. Prefunding is paying for it ahead of time. You can preplan without prefunding, but then your family still has to find the money on short notice. A plan that is both written and funded is the one that actually takes the weight off.
What gets decided
- The service. Viewing or no viewing, a chapel service, a graveside service, a memorial later, or something simpler.
- Merchandise. Casket or urn, outer burial container, and memorial items, chosen in person rather than from a discount website.
- Cemetery property and funeral home services. These are separate. A grave, crypt or niche is cemetery property. Preparation, the service and transportation are funeral home services. A plot you already own is one less decision.
- Who to call. The first calls your family makes, written down: the funeral home and your counselor.
- Funding. How the plan is paid for. How the Homesteaders policy funds the plan.
What the small policy is for, and what it is not
The Homesteaders Life policy used here is life insurance meant to fund a funeral plan. It is not a retirement plan, not an investment, and not a large estate policy meant to replace income. Its job is narrow: pay for the arrangements you chose, so other money can be used the way it was intended.
What happens at a planning meeting
Billy meets you at home, by phone or video, or at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary. You see the funeral home's General Price List, choose what you want, and get the details in writing before you sign anything. California residents 65 or older receive a written disclosure before any policy is bought.
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Next: the funeral planning checklist · burial and cremation choices · planning at the Inglewood cemetery