Ensuring Your Funeral Plans are Followed

To be sure your funeral plans are followed at funeral homes in Burtonsville, MD, you need to make sure that they are accessible to your family and kept in a place where they know how to and are able to locate them after you die.

The easiest way to get your funeral plans in place is to create a document on your computer that spells out everything that you want done or that should be done for your funeral. You can update it and make changes as often as you want. Make sure that the person who will be responsible for planning your funeral – and a backup person, in case your first choice has already died or is otherwise unable – has a current copy of your funeral plans, and can access the file on your computer.

Some software packages that allow you to create end-of-life legal documents have a funeral plan document included that lets you spell out what you want done for your funeral.

After you finalize your funeral plans by documenting them, you should talk with your family about them and make sure each one of them has a written – and dated – copy of your funeral plans.

Be aware that some of your family members, even though you may be close and have a great relationship, may not be happy or agree with your funeral plans. For instance, you may have decided to be cremated with your cremation remains scattered in a place that is significant to you, while your wife or children would like to see you buried in the same cemetery where the rest of your family who has died is buried.

There is actually a way to negotiate the example above in a way that will fulfill your wishes and your family’s wishes. You can alter your funeral plan to say that a portion of your cremation remains should be scattered in the place where you want them scattered and the rest will be buried in the family cemetery.

Having said that, it’s important to know what a powerful impact earing someone’s funeral plans has on others. What it conveys is that you have given dying and death a lot of thought and your funeral plans are what you’ve settled on for the end. The odds are good that even if some of your family members don’t like all your choices, they will respect them and carry them out anyway.

The most practical way to make sure that your funeral plans are followed, however, in the event that someone in your family (who’s in a decision-making role) so strongly objects that they refuse to abide by them is to preplan your funeral with the funeral home.

Take your funeral plan down to the funeral home and let them know that this is what you want done after you’re dead. Some people, if they have a funeral insurance policy, will provide the funeral home with insurance company name and the insurance policy number.

You can also take care of providing the funeral director with all your pertinent information, and in the event that you’re a retired military veteran who wants funeral honors at your memorial service, you can provide the funeral director with a copy of your military discharge order (DD-214).

By taking care of these things ahead of time, you are actually relieving your family of a very huge burden, and you may be eliminating tension and fighting that can often occur when people are stressed out and grieving.

If you’d like to know more about funeral planning at funeral homes in Burtonsville, MD, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can visit our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.