End of Life

Why Choose a Pre Need Plan?

Why Create an End of Life Plan?

Many people are now realizing that the best finance advice is to have a sound financial and estate plan that takes care of your funeral services, funeral costs and funeral expenses ahead of time.  A Pre Need Plan is specifically designed to accomplish this type of planning, and is one of the most common choices among families.

A Pre Need Plan gives you the ability to choose your method of disposition, the exact type of services you want, and allows your family to focus more on things such as grieving and recovery. In addition, a Pre Need Plan is also a good thing for you because it allows you to make extremely important decisions through a calm and clear thought process. Emotionally, it is much more likely that you will create a more rational and logical End of Life Planning.

Like so many families, when we suffered the loss of a loved one last year we faced the difficult decision of what to do next.  Because we were never willing to accept this as a possible outcome, nor did we think about preplanning a funeral for this incomprehensible loss, we had no idea where to begin or who we could turn to.”
Chris Hill, Founder – FuneralResources.com

2 Key Pieces to Creating a Smart End of Life Plan:

1.  Preparing an Estate Plan

You may have started your estate planning process.  If not , please consider taking advantage of our FREE Guide to “How to Choose Last Will or Living Trust“, which can be downloaded, printed, or saved.

The sad truth is that approximately 70% of Americans die without even leaving behind as much as a Will, also known as a Last Will and Testament, which is designed to describe how they would like to distribute they wealth and other types of assets.  What this means is that most Wills and Living Trusts are lacking some of the most critical information a family or loved one will need, which is the details regarding their final plans and preferences.

So if you think about it, what this really means is that the large majority of families are left to deal with many of the emotional and financial pressures of planning a funeral, such as difficult decisions and determining how to paying for all of the funeral costs.

The key foundation to a solid estate plan is learning, choosing, creating, and most importantly, completing a Will or Living Trust.  By properly completing one of these all-important documents designed to distribute your assets, you have clearly taken a step in the right direction.  However, as you will see below, there are other equally, if not more important, estate planning matters that also need to be addressed.

2.  Create a Pre Need Plan With Funeral Expenses

Similar to planning and preparing your estate plan, another extremely important task is creating a Pre Need Plan, which specifically addresses, in advance, the immediate concerns of your family and your loved ones.  In other words, at the time they need this type of advanced planning the most, a Pre Need Plan is there to provide them with all of your final plans and preferences.  This type of End of Life Plan includes using funeral insurance and burial insurance as some of the most common ways you prepay funeral expenses.

After losing a loved one, most families find themselves asking questions such as:

•  What do we do now?
•  Who can we turn to?
•  What would you have wanted?
•  How will the funeral costs and funeral expenses be paid?
•  Was your wish to be buried or cremated?
•  What is your preferred final resting place?

Yet another one of the funeral planning challenges is making difficult decisions in a timely manner, usually within a few days after your death.

The Multiple Benefits

Most people are realizing that an integral part of a sound financial and estate plan is taking care of your funeral plans, preferences, and even funeral costs ahead of time. Creating a Pre Need Plan gives you the ability to choose your method of disposition, the exact type of services you want, and also takes care of the large majority of your funeral expenses in advance.  This offers your family and loved ones significant advantages since they can now eliminate or minimize the grieving process, not have to face all of the tough choices, as well as be surprised by any unexpected funeral expenses.

So by creating your Pre Need Plan today, this allows you to make extremely important decisions through a calm and clear thought process.  By preparing such a plan well in advance, it is much more likely that you will create a more rational and logical End of Life Plan, and ensure your memorial service and life’s tribute can be done in a way you would have wanted.

More Helpful Funeral Resources:

Although using a Pre Need Plan for advanced planning may not fully alleviate the emotional and financial stresses your loved ones will face, this will certainly help them reduce or eliminate many of the most stressful decisions, pressures, and expenses, helping them ease the pain of a very difficult situation.