Funerals are getting more expensive every year. As a result, more people are paying for their own funerals in advance. This guide explains why you may want to do this – and how to do it.
Why pay for your own funeral?
The biggest reason you should pay for your funeral is to reduce the burden for your loved ones. Funerals can cost thousands – leaving your loved ones to deal with this cost could add to their stress and grief. Funding the funeral yourself ensures that your family aren’t left having to take out loans or dip into savings.
Paying for your own funeral also ensures that all of your plans will be carried out. If you want a specific headstone or you want a specific type of flowers, you can set aside enough money for these features.
A lot of people are also paying for their funerals now in order to beat rising funeral costs. In ten or twenty years, it’s possible that a funeral could double. Paying in advance could allow you to secure your dream funeral before it becomes unaffordable.
Ways to fund your own funeral
There are several ways in which you can find your own funeral. These include:
Pre-payment schemes
Some funeral companies offer pre-paying schemes. This allows you to start paying your funeral in installments. The earlier you start one of these schemes, the smaller installments you can pay.
Pre-payment schemes can be a good way of securing a funeral with a specific company. Just make sure to read the small print when signing up to these schemes. It’s important that your money is protected so that if the company goes bust you won’t lose your money. It’s also important to check what is included in the prepayment scheme – in some instances, there may be extras that cannot be purchased until the time of death.
Life insurance
Life insurance is an insurance policy that pays for your funeral (as well as possibly paying money to your loved ones) when you die. If you don’t have any wealth in savings or assets to give to your loved ones, life insurance can be a great alternative solution.
Life insurance schemes come in all different forms from whole life to universal life insurance. It’s worth shopping around to find the best schemes. There are companies that can help you to secure you with the best form of life insurance for your needs – this PHP agency review describes one such company. Life insurance can sometimes be combined with other forms of insurance.
Death savings
You could consider simply saving up some money that can then be used to pay for your funeral. This could be cheaper in the long run than life insurance and you won’t have to commit to a funeral company as with a pre-payment scheme. Your savings could be put into a high interest account, allowing you to build up money more rapidly.
Just be sure that you don’t dip into this account for other reasons beyond your funeral. Some people may prefer to put their money into a trust so that they cannot access it. Tell your loved ones exactly what you want to use this money for so that it isn’t mistaken for a general inheritance fund (although it could be both for funeral money and inheritance money).
