A Guide To Being Proactive In Planning Your Funeral

You had nothing much to do with your entry into the world, but you can help manage how you exit it. Pre-funeral planning gives you the ability to specify how you want people to remember you after you have passed away. It also takes the burden of making those decisions from family and loved ones who are dealing with their own grief at your loss. Here are the most important areas of your funeral planning that you can address while you are able to make these decisions.

Choose Where You Will Be Interred

Selecting where you will be put to rest lets you see the facility and the view from your plot. You'll need to pre-pay for the space, but that locks you into the price, even if you don't need it for another 30 years. Make sure you understand the transfer policy of the cemetery. If you later want to be buried elsewhere, you want to know that you can transfer your plot request to another facility without losing your initial investment.

Choose the Right Casket

Pick the model you want now and pre-pay for it, as well. This is a hedge against inflation that would increase the price in the future. If you don't need it for 30 years, the funeral director must find a comparable model for you.

Design the Type of Funeral Service

While the intention of the funeral service is to help the family and friends to have closure, you can design it around your interests. You could choose a military funeral, a religious service within your preferred house of worship, or a secular service in the funeral chapel.

Many people lean toward a solemn affair, but you could incorporate a theme into your service, such as your favorite sports team, recreational activity or hobby. The service can be customized to be an event by which people remember those things for which you were most passionate.

Select the music and any devotional readings that you want at the service. Choose any photographs that you would like to have displayed during the viewing and service. Perhaps you have some sentimental items or family heirlooms that you want present at the service. Take your time to outline exactly how you would like the service to be designed.

This is also something for which you can pre-pay. This locks in the price and relieves your family of needing to come up with money for the funeral expenses.

Communicate Your Intentions to Your Family

Once you have made all of these arrangements for your funeral, communicate your wishes to family members and the executors of your estate. Let them know the precise details and where the information is located that shows your choices. This allows them to begin executing your final wishes without hunting down the information, or making the difficult decisions themselves.

Take time while you're physically healthy and clear-headed to plan out what will happen after you have served your time in this life. You had no choices when you came into this world, but you can create a master plan for how you will be remembered once you leave it. For more information, contact a local funeral home, like Morris Nilsen Funeral Chapel.