Death is certain, maybe the most certain thing in life so why avoid it or shy away from it? And while our own death and funeral is fearful for us, it is even more of a nightmare for the loved ones. This makes it kind of necessary to help those, who love us, prepare for funeral by taking care of the expenses because they already have to supervise the arrangements even when they are feeling awful and shocked from the sudden loss.
For this reason and many others, most people plan and pay for their funeral in advance. If you are planning the same, you’ll be faced with the choice to either to go for the Prepaid Funeral or for funeral insurance cover. To make your decision easier, here’s a piece of useful information to paint a clearer picture for both options:
Pre-Paid Funeral:
Pre-paid is a straightforward method where a person makes early payments for the funeral services to the funeral home of their own choice. The payment can be in any form, either by means of cash, valuables or through an investment that may directly go to the funeral home. In this case, you get to choose from one of the many packages offered by the funeral homes.
However, prepaid funerals are not always the best choice for the following reasons:
- There are no refund options.
- While you are paying heavy amounts to the funeral home, you still will have to purchase the burial grounds separately.
- Once you choose a burial ground, you cannot exchange it. Therefore, you’ll need to buy another one with more cash.
- Once you pay the funeral home in advance, it will lead to more detailed planning and procedures and before you know it, you’ll be too involved in your own funeral planning than you have been planning to. Legally binding contracts will also come to haunt you in the process.
- Don’t be fooled, funeral homes asks for hefty payments, so much so that you’ll have to divide the payments into monthly instalments and by that time, if something happens to you, you won’t be able to pay in full.
Funeral insurance cover:
Just like any other insurance, the one for a funeral follows the regular method of operation. However unlike a prepaid funeral, your funeral expenses will be covered if you die unexpectedly from a sudden accident. And if you have only paid one year premium and die of natural causes, you’ll still be safely covered.
Funeral Insurance cover is a much smarter choice for the following reasons:
- Some insurance companies set an age limit after which the person no longer has to pay the premium.
- There are so many flexibilities in Funeral insurance that one way or the other; you’ll be covered even if you have stopped paying after five years.
- You get the payments immediately upon death, as a lump sum amount.
- If you have trouble paying, you can change the premium amount according to your capacity.
The insurance will also cover you no matter where you are in the country; a funeral home will require you to stay in the same state or city as the funeral home, which is very unrealistic to say the least.
