By Andrew Hoffman
As I continue this series on preplanning funerals, keep in mind that each step you take makes life easier for your loved ones. So now you have had your discussion with your family and the funeral director, so you are all on the same page. If cremation is chosen, you’ll choose the container you like and to this point you have completed what we in the industry call a Plan-No-Pay prearrangement. The definition of which is you have all your vital statistical information recorded, you have all your wishes recorded as to what type of service and what is to happen to your remains and you have recorded your selections to carry out your wishes and services. You can stop right now and have the funeral director make you a copy for your loved ones and the funeral home will keep the original for their records to work as a guideline.
Now you can move on to the next step, and in my opinion, the biggest reason to prearrange in the first place, which is to prefund your prearrangement. What that means is that you have put money down on your funeral arrangements and/or you are making payments on your funeral arrangements to freeze the costs and also prepare for a possible Medicaid situation.
So, how is the prefunding done? Well, I first want to talk about some funding options that were done in the past and some people still practice but it is not the best option. The first is a burial trust or burial CD through a bank. It involves going to a bank with a certain amount of money and you either place that money in an account or CD with the intent that this money is meant for your funeral services. These are not the best options because it is not safeguarded towards the goal. It may also be considered an asset, making it harder to qualify for Medicaid.
Andrew B. Hoffman is a funeral director at Jeffries and Keates and Keates-Plum Funeral Homes. He is a twenty-two year veteran of the funeral industry.
