There was once a time when arranging your own funeral meant loosely stating your wishes in a will. Today, people have much more control over the arrangements to the point they are able to pre-arrange their own funeral services in-person.
The trend of pre-arranged funeral services is growing fast. But it should be noted that wanting and doing doesn’t necessarily coincide perfectly. While the vast majority of people are on board with the idea of arranging their own funeral, far fewer are taking the initiative – right now at least.
Even though 17% of people have pre-arranged their funeral services, that’s a huge increase from just 10-20 years ago. Many more people plan on doing the same in the next five years. If you’re in that group, the information in this post is great for getting the process started.
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Funeral Planning
Making arrangements for after your death is a big life decision. Before jumping into things, it’s best to think a few things through by asking yourself the questions below:
What is my budget?
When you’re talking about services that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, budget is a factor for most people, and it can be limiting. Keep in mind you may have different options when paying in advance for funeral services.
Can I pay for funeral services upfront or do I need a payment plan?
There are usually, but not always, two options for paying for advanced funeral arrangements: paying the total upfront or paying it off in installments. Having the option to pay for funeral services in monthly installments can be a major benefit that makes more disposition services available to more people.
Do I plan to live in Texas indefinitely?
Ideally, you want the disposition services to be performed close to where the deceased lived and died. That way there should be less distance to transport the body. Transportation is a funeral service cost that could change at the time of death if you die away from home or move out-of-state.
The Changing Funeral Service Laws in Texas
The regulations for funeral services are created at the state level. That means there are 50 sets of funeral laws, and any of them can change at any time. What’s legal could be expanded in the future.
Texas has been slow to legalize new forms of disposition like dozens of other states. But there’s reason to believe that soon the Texas legislature will follow suit and update the state’s funeral laws to incorporate water cremation and natural organic reduction.
If you are interested in newer, more eco-friendly forms of disposition you may want to look for a forward-thinking funeral home that’s already prepared to offer the services you want. One of the advantages of choosing Cremation.Green as your funeral home is we already offer all disposition options. As the laws change we’re ready to make new services more accessible for people across Texas.
The Current and Potential Future Costs of Funeral Services
Pre-arranging and paying for funeral services now could prove to be a smart financial move for your family in the future. It’s not the top reason why Texans decide to pre-arrange their own funeral services, but potentially saving hundreds or thousands of dollars is a great ancillary benefit.
Right now, the median cost of a traditional burial (without the cost of the burial plot included) is $8,300. The median cost of a traditional cremation is a little lower at $6,280. Direct cremation services like our clean flame cremation are far less at just $995, and they are much less costly for the environment. Even so, the cost of funeral services across the board has increased over time.
When you pre-arrange funeral services you are essentially locking in today’s prices even if your funeral is decades from now. You can figure out how much you could potentially save by first looking at the service rates in your immediate area. Those are the baseline funeral prices that future projections are based on. The way pricing trends have gone, you can expect funeral services to increase in price by 3-4% a year.
In terms of cost savings, the sooner you pre-arrange funeral services the better. If you wait even five years to make arrangements the cost may increase by a notable amount. So if you want to pre-arrange funeral services we advise that you get started ASAP. Another benefit to early planning is that if you pay for the services with a long-term payment plan, you may get more time to cover the cost.
How Pre-Arranged Funeral Services Will Help Your Family
The number one reason people decide to pre-arrange funeral services is to ease the burden on their family. They don’t want their loved ones to have to worry about making funeral arrangements or the stress of paying for them while they’re grieving. It’s a true act of love and kindness.
Each family is unique with its own dynamics. For one family easing the burden may mean taking care of every single arrangement in advance. For another it could mean making the big decisions then leaving the details to a family member that wants to oversee the funeral services.
You may even want to incorporate family members in the pre-arrangements. Close loved ones will likely want to at least know that you’ve made advanced funeral arrangements. And whoever is managing your estate after your death will need to ensure that the funeral services are provided as expected.
At Cremation.Green we specialize in eco-friendly funeral services of all kinds, including pre-arranged funeral services. We’ve even created an entire guide for making advanced funeral arrangements. If you have any questions about the process, please don’t hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.
