Prepaying for Burial
November 11, 2008 – 5:28 am
My wife’s parents were in town to visit last week, and one thing they mentioned over dinner was their desire to be cremated. This, they told us, was primarily due to the cost of having a full-blown open-casket-style funeral and burial. They are Christians and have no worries or fears about what will happen to them when they die, and they don’t want to be a burden on their children.
Here’s the thing I’m trying to wrap my head around: they want to purchase some kind of product or policy for cremation in advance that has the following properties:
- They pay $100 (each) to some company that has contracts with companies that perform cremations all over the country.
- The $100 payment locks in the price of the cremation today, which is currently about $1,000.
- My in-laws are both about 55.
- The expectation would be that the children (3 children) would pay the remaining $900 for each one when necessary.
- They currently live out of state, and it’s unclear what state they will live in from one year to the next.
I’ve always heard that pre-payed burial plots and pre-paid funerals are a bad idea, but I don’t know if that is really true. Do any of you know?
My initial thought was “this is probably a bad idea”. My second thought was “it’s not worth bringing up without having any facts. Either way my in-laws are only spending $200, which is a lot to them but is not a lot in the grand scheme of things. I’ll just shut up and see where this goes.” Oddly enough my in-laws actually already purchased on cemetery plot, but now they don’t live in that state any more (and they would obviously need another plot).
It’s not a big “investment”, but I’d still be interested to know what the inflation rate is on burial services. My grandfather also prepurchased burial plots for him and several member of his family. I completely understand want to leave your friends and family without burdens, and this is absolutely admirable.
What do you think the best way is to accomplish taking care of burial charges? It’s likely your last few years will be your most expensive if health issues exist. My thought is to buy a small insurance policy that would be left to a beneficiary that could then pay the charges. If you rely on estate assets your estate could be wiped out due to debts or medical bills.
Any thoughts?
Image Credit: Army.mil
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4 Responses to “Prepaying for Burial”
I like your idea of just having a special policy that would cover expenses. Nowadays you can usually put 4 cremaines in one lot. That should save the lot expense if you’re going to be cremeated. My Dad always said “I don’t care, I won’t be there.”. btw he left my Mom broke. Maybe that’s not the way to go. lol
By Judi on Nov 11, 2008
It may sound morbid but I suppose if they can use the service anywhere they decide to live it may not be a bad idea. Even if it does not make the most sense financially it can really relieve the family of a burden and having more stress while grieving.
My mother died when I was only 18 (she was young, only 44). In addition to the shock of her death the family had to determine all plans for burial. I was not very involved but remember seeing the stress on everyone.
By Matt @ MyFinancialRecovery.net on Nov 12, 2008