Preplanning Your Funeral

Preplanning your funeral at Adelphi, MD funeral homes is an excellent way to ensure that your wishes for how your remains are disposed of are honored. Preplanning your funeral also relieves your family of the additional stress of trying to honor your memory while they are dealing with losing you and the grief they are feeling as a result.  

Preplanning your funeral may or may not include prepayment for the funeral. If you decide not to prepay for your funeral, it’s advisable to be sure that you have a burial insurance policy that’s designated exclusively to cover all the expenses of your funeral.   

One option for this kind of insurance policy may be to convert a portion of insurance coverage you already have into a burial insurance policy. For example, when you purchase a home, you typically purchase insurance to cover the home (not the contents, which is a separate policy) and this is usually the full value of the mortgage. As you pay the mortgage down, you may be able to convert a portion of that home insurance into a separate policy that’s designated for your funeral expenses. Your insurance agent can help determine if this is an option available to you.  

For a traditional funeral and burial, you will need to obtain a cemetery plot. If you are a military veteran, you are entitled to a military funeral, which includes a grave site, at no cost to you and your family. If you are a member of a church that has a cemetery, you may be entitled to a free grave site in its cemetery. A final option may be to obtain a free grave site in a family cemetery where you have relatives already buried.  

You will next need to choose your casket. While this doesn’t necessarily mean you purchase the casket now, you should specify the type of casket you want. Then you’ll need to plan your funeral service. Include scriptures, poems, or anything else you want read as part of the service and any music you want to be included. Be sure to specify who will oversee the funeral service and give contact information for that person.  

Finally, you can specify burial arrangements and what you want and don’t want in terms of services. For example, although the funeral home can transport your family in a limousine to the cemetery, it will incur an extra cost for your funeral. So it’s less expensive for your family to follow the hearse in their own cars. 

Be sure to write everything related to your funeral preplanning down. If there are charities that you want people to donate to in lieu of sending flowers, be sure to include those. Write out your funeral service. You can even write your own obituary. But everything should be in writing and with your important papers, either in a home safe or at a bank safety deposit box (include the information for your burial insurance policy and who to contact to get the money).  

It’s important to also give a copy to the person in your family who will be handling your funeral. And finally, you should let your family know about your funeral preplanning so that everybody’s in the loop and there are no surprises after you die.  

Our Adelphi, MD funeral homes experienced staff members at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. can assist you with all your funeral preplanning questions and needs. You can visit us at our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705. We can be reached at any time, day or night, for immediate assistance, so call us today at (301) 937-1707.