Planning Ahead
There’s a lot that goes into planning a funeral, but making those arrangements beforehand gives you time to consider all of your options and make sure that you’re covering all of the necessary details.
Advanced Planning Options
Many people plan for life events such as weddings and vacations well in advance, but many people do not plan for something that is certain to happen, their funeral. While most people do not want to think about their own mortality, the time to pre-plan your funeral is now.
Why Plan Ahead?
The primary advantages of pre-arranging your funeral are to relieve the burden on your loved ones in an already emotional time and to ensure your funeral is carried out according to your wishes, eliminating the task of second-guessing what you would have wanted. Taking the time now to arrange your funeral is one less thing your loved ones will need to worry about once you’ve passed. Pre-planning and pre-paying your funeral is one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give to your family..
Pre-Payment Options
Pre-paying your funeral reduces stress and financial burden on your loved ones after your passing. We can co-ordinate a payment plans that suits your needs, from a single payment plan to monthly bank account withdrawals.
The Advantage
By pre-paying your funeral you eliminate your family second guessing on if they have spent too much or too little on your funeral. Pre-payment also protects you and your family from inflation, and the growth is non-taxable. Depending on your region, if your funeral costs less than the amount you have put aside, those funds will be refunded back to your beneficiaries.
For more information on what is applicable in your region, simply speak to your funeral director.
Each year thousands of people decide to pre-plan and pre-pay their funeral, these plans are designed to be flexible and can accommodate the many changes that often occur in people’s lives.
Benefits of Pre-Planning
- Between 70 and 75 decisions are made within the first 24-48 hours of death. It’s difficult to think rationally while making so many decisions within days of losing someone, pre-planning gives yourself, family and friends peace of mind. Pre-planning gives your loved ones direction of your wants and desires.
- It’s easy. Anyone can do it, and you can change your mind at any time.
- Ease the burden on your family
- Take advantage of a tax-free way to invest your money
- Ensure your final wishes are carried out with the quality and value you want
- Assume responsibility for your own funeral expenses while protecting from inflation
Preplanning Checklist
The following checklist will help you create your personalized plan
Information you’ll need to assemble:
Vital Statistics
This includes your father’s name, your mother’s maiden name, their places of birth, your social insurance number, health care number and driver’s license number.
Affiliations
This includes organizations, teams, service clubs, union memberships and/or other groups, along with any special recognitions you might have.
Talk To The Experts
Remember that there’s no need to make all of the decisions right away, and that the purpose of pre-planning is to allow yourself to take the time you need when considering your options and making the choices that are right for you. For personalized assistance in creating your plan, consult one of our experts by contacting us to schedule a one-on-one meeting.
Ways in which you can plan ahead:
General
- Identify the responsible survivor to carry out your wishes
- Make note of any special instructions you desire for your services and final disposition
- Gather personal information for your obituary
Funeral or Memorial Service
- Choose burial or cremation
- Choose the location and type of service
- Decide whether you’d like to have a viewing or visitation
- Select a casket or cremation container, and possibly an urn
- Select which photographs and memorabilia you’d like to display
- Consider any customs, traditions, or religious rites that are important to you and your family
- Choose the clothing you’d like to be dressed in
- Select music and hymns, if desired
- Select photographs and a design for your stationery and memorial register book
- Brainstorm any additional ways you’d like to personalize the services or pay tribute to your accomplishments, hobbies, personality, and life story.
Participants
- Choose a clergy member or officiator to preside over the service
- Select any musicians whose talents you’d like to employ
- Select casket bearers
- Choose friends or family members to perform the eulogy, read scripture, or prepare a tribute
For Burial
- Choose a cemetery (your funeral director can help guide you)
- Consider if you would like an upright headstone or a flat memorial
- Choose a burial plot, or space in a mausoleum
- Select the design and inscriptions for the grave marker
For Cremation
- Consider the many options for the final disposition of the cremated remains
- Most cemeteries have burial spaces and columbaria for urns, or scattering gardens for cremated remains
- For scattering of cremated remains outside a cemetery, determine who will do this and where
- Determine if your loved one wishes to keep the urn at home
Contact Our Team
Our team is here for you.