Are Pre-Paid Funeral Plans Worth It?

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If you’re like many people, making pre-paid funeral plans isn’t high on your everyday to-do list. That’s understandable. It’s hard to think about end of life issues. Some might find it sad or morbid to plan for a funeral, especially when there’s no immediate reason to think about death.

But pre-paid funeral plans can actually provide many benefits, both for an individual and for families. We’re going to break down a few of the reasons you might want to consider making pre-paid funeral plans, especially if you call Pennsylvania home.

What is a Pre-Paid Funeral?

A pre-paid funeral is a service that is planned and paid for before death. Your chosen funeral home in Pennsylvania will ensure that your wishes are carried out as directed when the time comes.

You can pre-plan and pay for your funeral as an individual, or you can go through the process as a family. If you are an aging parent, pre-planning your funeral can be a way to remove the burden your children and loved ones might feel when the time comes for your services. The same is true even if you don’t have children. When you pre-plan, and pre-fund, your funeral, you are taking those tasks away from those who survive your death.

Why Should I Pre-Plan a Funeral?

There are many advantages to pre-planning a funeral. They can be categorized in two broad ways: emotional reasons and financial reasons.

What Are the Emotional Reasons to Pre-Plan a Funeral?

Pre-planning a funeral is advantageous emotionally in many ways.

For one, having a pre-planned and pre-funded funeral alleviates the stress your loved ones might feel to plan your service as they grieve. If left to plan until after death, the stress of making decisions can feel overwhelming when they are already dealing with the emotions that grief brings.

If the service has been pre-planned, however, they will be able to focus on their grief and on being there for one another, rather than making decisions about funeral services.

Another reason that pre-planning a funeral is a good idea is that it allows more time to make important decisions. Often, funeral planning can seem rushed if it’s left to do upon death. Trying to decide where and when a service will occur, who will take part, whether there should be a burial or a cremation, if there should be a meal following—all of these questions and more can take time to think about and decide. But if left to do so after death, time becomes another barrier to planning the type of service you actually want.

If a service is pre-planned, though, there is time to think about even the smallest details. What music would you like played, and by whom? Do you want certain information disclosed in an obituary, and where would you like that obituary printed? Do you want to have a meal following the funeral and burial at a special place?

All of those questions and more can be explored and considered if a funeral service is pre-planned. Leaving it until after death can cause logistical problems that are impossible to resolve.

Finally, when you pre-plan a funeral service, you can ensure that the service will be exactly as you want. Leaving it to loved ones to plan after you’re gone might mean that they make decisions that are contrary to what you’d want.

What Are the Financial Reasons to Pre-Plan a Funeral?

First, it’s important to note that you can pre-plan a funeral without pre-paying for the services. If at all possible, however, we recommend doing both.

One of the most important reasons to pre-pay for a funeral is that it can save you money. How? Because if you pay for a funeral at today’s price, it will almost certainly be less than the price of that same funeral in the future. Due to circumstances out of our control, like inflation, this will always be the case.

Here’s what happens at Bateman-Allen Funeral Home when you pre-pay for a funeral: we take those funds and put them in a future internment master trust. Your payment earns interest until it’s used to pay for the funeral services that were planned.

This means that even if prices increase substantially, the price you’re given at the time of pre-payment is the price you pay. The only exception to this rule is for fees assessed by parties other than the funeral home. These might include floral arrangements, death notices printed by the local newspaper, or cemetery plots. The reason these fees are not guaranteed to increase is that they are not controlled by the funeral home.

Another important financial reason to pre-plan and pre-fund your funeral is that you take the burden of finances off of your loved ones. They will never have to wonder if they spent too much or not enough on your services.