Prepaid Funeral Plan for Someone Who Is Terminally Ill

Oh oh, pick me! Seriously my ex's family owns a chain of funeral homes. Yeah, kinda creepy I know.

Okay here is where you are at, if it is a family owned funeral home like my exes there is little difference in price between pre and at need in the case of someone who will pass in less than a year.

If you go to a corporate owned funeral home, and they won't tell you up front, heck they don't want to tell you at all, you will be better off waiting since they have a mess of fees involved. Especially if they know the person will pass soon.

How a prearrangement works is you pay the price of the funeral now and the funeral home invests the money. At the time of passing even if there is a price increase you pay nothing more. As a rule the funeral home makes more on their investment than inflation. Corporate funeral homes don't like that chance that in a few cases they lose money so the build in profit. That is why I said you will lose money in that case with a prearrangement.

18 years married to that biz so I know quite a bit also my oldest is working on his funeral directors license. Message me if you have any other questions. Laws vary from state to state but the business principles are the same.

Oh Victoria, the stories I could tell you about how the funeral home makes up for that half price online casket...i digress. At need you can sign documents so the funeral home does all the life insurance paperwork for you. The funeral home gets the check and then hands you a check for any difference. They should not charge for this service. Most good funeral homes will also take payments with no interest charge.

4 moms found this helpful

It's usually cheaper and less of a hassle to plan it before hand.

When someone dies, there is so much paperwork, estate issues, hospital bills, traveling for relatives and memorial expenses, and just shopping around for good deals and funeral homes is hard too... not to mention the mourning and stress you feel so planning the funeral details are exhausting and pricey.

My dad was terminally ill and had a funeral plan for years. It saved us a lot of grief and heartache when he died. Also, burial plots get more expensive every year, but he had locked in a lower rate by prebuying.

3 moms found this helpful

Hi M.-

My mom several years ago pre paid (and planned) her funeral. In her case it was/is a loving gesture to save my sib and me from having to deal with the details...and...she also planned it down to the detail - including readings and music...and who was to sing what!!

While we are on the topic...she also did a 'living will' which specifies what she does and does NOT want in terms of medical intervention. A good idea for ALL to consider whether near 'end of life' or not...

Sorry to hear of an impending loss...
Michele/cat

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I used to work for cemeteries and I can promise you that pre-planning is the best way to go.
There can be a big difference between "pre-need" and "at-need" expenses.
Now, that said, some people do not wish to pre-plan. My aunt was one of them. She had a heart transplant and refused to discuss planning any type of arrangements because she thought it would jinx her in some way.
She collapsed one night getting a drink of water and my poor uncle had to start from absolute scratch at the worst time in his life.
Everyone feels differently about these things. I, personally, want a say in what happens to me when I'm gone, where or how I'm layed to rest.
I have dealt with many terminally ill people and many of them feel a sense of comfort in making arrangements.
It's just my opinion, but I think pre-planning is best.

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I don't know for sure, but I'm betting it's cheaper to wait. I'm a bit skeptical of those plans. If you know someone terminally ill I would ask them their wishes. They may wish to be creamated or have other special requests. Start there. Sadly, funeral expenses are similar to wedding expenses in the sense that many funeral homes really do try and hit you with "add-ons". If you feel that you may be experiencing funeral costs soon do a little research on what things cost and what you would or wouldn't want as part of the service or internment.

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I do the price list for a local cemetery & funeral home and I can guarantee you EVERYTHING goes up in price every year. So....cheaper? maybe.
But the best part about pre-planning & pre-paying is that it takes the "emotional impulse buying/upgrading guilt purchase" thing out of the equation.

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I think it is better to preplan. I have had to do both. When you are grieving it is very difficult.
My mom was terminally ill and her nursing home was close to the funeral home. So I opted for no embalming. The burial has to happen right away. She did not look like herself and I saw no reason for an open casket, especially since young great-grandchildren would be there.
Some people were upset, but I thought if they wanted to see her, they should have shown up before she died.

I just prepaid mine this summer. I am 54 years old. The benefit is that the price they charge you will always remain the same....even with inflation. For example: a plot in our local cemetary 6 years ago was an average of $3000.00, now it is $6000.00. The only thing I overpaid for was the obituary, because that is governed by the newspaper. Any refund will go to my children.

To the best of my knowledge most prepaid funerals allow you to lock in at the current prices rather than having to pay an increased price at a later date. If the person planning the funeral is going to die in the near future then one could assume that costs will not increase dramatically in a short period of time.

I don't know if there are tax consequences to prepaying for funeral services (I know that funeral expenses are an allowable estate tax deduction but do not know if prepaid arrangements can be deducted).

Another thing to consider is whether it is likely that the person may need to be in a nursing home and qualify for Medicaid. If so, assets that are placed in a prepaid funeral plan do not count against them for eligibility. If that is not likely to be an issue, you could still do a lot of the planning and know that the person's funeral wishes were going to be carried out as they would want. That is much easier than having to do it when you are in shock.

I think it depends on what you plan. My husband died last year and there was no prepaid plan. My sons and I planned a memorial service. We chose cremation due to my youngest being unable to finish a course in the air force. Also because he was a Swede and it's common practice there. We really wanted to send his ashes back to Sweden but his family there wouldn't hear of it. The service was put off until my son could get home.
The memorial was at our church, I went to Inch memorials in Northville and found a headstone that was marked down because it was used for advertising or it was being discontinued. And the engraving was free. Since a good friend from church tends a small cemetary, he offered a place for very inexpensive. I think that in total it came to around $2500. And it was very nice. There was a meal offered after the service at the church by the ladies group. Lots of support and friendship. I did go through a local funeral home. And the only part I had any issues with was the obituary in the Detroit News. It was ridiculously expensive for such a small thing.

Is there life insurance? If so, you may want to wait until after so you don't have any out of pocket expenses. And if the person is terminally ill, I can't imagine that you will lock in a better rate now than when the pass. When my FIL passed away, we ordered a casket online for 1/2 the price that the funeral home was offering. It was 24 hour delivery direct to the funeral home. Afterwards, the funeral director said that if we showed him the advertised price he would of matched it for us. It maybe something to look into. I would definitely look into how much things cost and what you want so that you don't need to make any decisions in your time of grief, but like i said if there is life insurance, most funeral homes will wait until you get payment to collect as long as you can prove that the life insurance is paid up.

I dont know anything about price but that most people have life insurance that will cover the expenses. My mom passed away after batteling cancer for 5 yrs when i was 19 and she had everything planned out at the funeral home. She picked out her coffin for viewing, urn, flowers, ect. It did help. I dont know if she prepaid for it or not though.

I don't think its cheaper but in the long run it maybe worth it to get the property now and pay on it monthly so that when the time comes its not such a big expense and you maybe able to have it paid off by the time the comes than there wouldn't be so much to do.

My mother passed away last summer after battling cancer for many months. She still had a life insurance policy through her former employer and they paid for the funeral expenses directly. I would find out if they have life insurance that will cover funeral costs.

Can't tell if it's cheaper or not but it will save you a ton of added heartache to get it done now. There is no other worse time to make any major decisions after a loss of a loved one. You can end up making some serious expensive emotional decisions if you wait and can feel "pressured" into doing some things that are not necessary.
And I certainly don't claim to know much about the insides of funeral policies but I would NEVER sign any documents stating that anyone would receive any life insurance monies and let them "handle" it and send you a check with the difference. That doesn't sound wise at all.
Sorry to hear about your situation.
Gods best to you,
C.

Most things are better done ahead of time. You can make decisions logically, and not under the huge emotional burden of grief. My grandparents have done this and when my Grandpa passed it was one less thing to worry about!

Best wishes!