The final step to complete your funeral planning is to decide how you will fund the costs associated with your funeral. These include funeral home services, merchandise such as caskets or urns, cemetery charges, and cash expenses such as the fees paid to newspapers for publishing the obituary.
You may choose to not pre-fund any expenses. However, it will surely be more difficult on your loved ones than if you had taken care of the expense arrangements ahead of time. The smart choice is to make arrangements now so that the funds will be readily available at the time of need.
Below you will find some of the most common ways people choose to pay for their funeral expenses. Consider these choices when making your plan and consult with the staff at Kistler-Hardee Funeral Home if you have any questions.
Pre-Funding Options
Pre-Need Insurance
Pre-Need Insurance is the safest way to make sure funds are available to pay for expenses when you die. After completing your funeral plan, you simply take out a policy that covers your anticipated expenses such as embalming, visitation, transportation, casket or urn, grave monument, cemetery expenses, and more.
Companies such as Assurant Pre-Need offer a specialized form of life insurance used to fund funeral, cremation, or burial expenses. They also offer a number of payment plans to suit your financial circumstances, and benefits are transferrable if you should move to another area. Please contact us if you would like information about setting up a pre-need policy.
Annuities
A contract sold by an insurance company designed to provide payments to the holder at specified intervals, usually after retirement. The holder is taxed only when they start taking distributions or if they withdraw funds from the account. All annuities are tax-deferred, meaning that the earnings from investments in these accounts grow tax-deferred until withdrawal.
If the owner dies during the accumulation phase, his or her heirs will receive only the accumulated amount in the annuity. This money is subject to ordinary income taxes in addition to estate taxes.
Life Insurance Policies
Life Insurance is designed to protect the financial well-being of an individual in the case of unexpected loss. Agreeing to the terms of an insurance policy creates a contract between the insured and the insurer. In exchange for payments from the insured (called premiums), the insurer agrees to pay the policy holder a sum of money upon the occurrence of a specific event, usually death.
Many people depend on life insurance benefits to pay funeral expenses, only to find that they either are insufficient or are not immediately available. If you are planning on using a life insurance policy to fund your funeral, please speak with us. We can advise you about steps you can take to ensure your coverage is sufficient to pay expenses, as well as how to make your policy more easily convertible at death.
Bank or Funeral Trust
Another way to pay for your funeral is through a Bank or Funeral Trust. Kistler-Hardee Funeral Home will open an account in your name at a bank or other financial institution that will be payable on death. Your deposits into the account are overseen by an official of the institution for the benefit of paying funeral expenses.
Like all methods of pre-funding, a Bank or Funeral Trust may offer certain tax benefits depending on your financial circumstances. You are encouraged to speak with your financial counselors about how each situation may affect you.
Talking About Finances
Although it may be uncomfortable to some, financial discussions are a part of the funeral planning process. It has an effect on which services you choose, the type of casket or urn you may select, and the style of marker or monument placed at the grave.
We realize this can be a sensitive subject for some and we pledge to only ask those questions necessary for us to do our professional best in serving your funeral needs.
Finally, the Kistler-Hardee Funeral Home staff are of the highest integrity and we respect the privacy of each and every one of our clients. Our discussions together will always be held in the most strict confidence.
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