You won\u2019t be around to see this kind of investment pay off. <\/p>\n
But experts say paying for your own funeral in advance can save loved ones money and heartache. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of expense associated with dying and a lot of time associated with dying \u2014 not for the dying person, but for the family that\u2019s left behind,\u201d said Mallory McGrath, whose firm Viive Planning helps clients navigate old age and death. <\/p>\n
When there\u2019s not a plan in place, one of the more fraught decisions among surviving family is whether to go for burial or the less expensive cremation option, McGrath said. Either way, they\u2019re looking at costs in the thousands or tens of thousands. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say that funerals really aren\u2019t for you. You\u2019re not going to be there. You\u2019re going to be gone,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA funeral is for your loved ones. It\u2019s for their grieving process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second-generation funeral director Heather Kiteley said a friend once shared an apt description of what a newly bereaved person faces: \u201cthe tyranny of micro-decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Purchasing a prepaid package from a funeral home not only relieves financial strain on those left behind, but it can also prevent family bickering over what the departed would have wanted, said Kiteley, a board member of the Funeral Service Association of Canada and CEO of bereavement-focused financial firm Guaranteed Funeral Deposits.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about taking big, intimidating decisions off a family\u2019s plate so they can focus on other choices that are meaningful to them as they grieve, like who should speak at the service, what music to play and which photos to display.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say almost half the time that I was meeting with families, they woke up that morning not thinking they were going to end their day talking with a funeral director,\u201d Kiteley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even in those circumstances, the families that had things organized just had a totally different experience with the funeral home. Their experience with us was way less emotionally difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n
People can reach out to funeral homes any time to inquire about packages they offer, at no cost. Kiteley said most of the time there won\u2019t be much variation in price, so the big deciding factor will be how at-ease staff make you feel. <\/p>\n
Costs for the service can be locked in at today\u2019s prices and the funds are put into a trust account at a financial institution, collecting tax-exempt interest. <\/p>\n
If the ultimate cost of the funeral exceeds what\u2019s in the account after the purchaser dies, the funeral home eats the difference, Kiteley said. If it\u2019s the reverse and there\u2019s more in the account than required, the difference goes back to the estate or to the family to use for extra funeral bells and whistles, Kiteley said. <\/p>\n
In the event of a funeral home bankruptcy, funds in a trust account can\u2019t be touched by creditors, Kiteley said. <\/p>\n
If someone wants to switch homes because they\u2019ve moved cities, for instance, she recommends transferring the funds instead of withdrawing them. Otherwise, starting a new prepaid package from scratch could cost considerably more compared to past prices that were locked in. <\/p>\n
A traditional funeral with burial can cost between $5,000 and $25,000, while cremation averages between $2,000 to $5,000, insurer Sun Life has estimated.<\/p>\n
Hans Friedrich, an adviser at Sun Life and managing partner at Evolv Financial Solutions, said funds from a deceased person\u2019s estate might not be immediately available, so it\u2019s important to make sure loved ones aren\u2019t forced to dig deep into their own pockets right away. <\/p>\n
In addition to prepaid packages from funeral homes, insurance products can help provide quick funds. When a life insurance policy holder dies, a one-time, tax-free death benefit payment goes to beneficiaries. <\/p>\n
Sun Life has an expedited claim process that, under some circumstances, sees death benefits paid out to a life insurance policy\u2019s beneficiaries quickly. A client late last year saw money appear in their account within four or five days, Friedrich said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe life insurance amount is not tremendous, but it does help provide that instant liquidity for beneficiaries or executors to get this done fairly quickly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Trusts and other investment accounts might also be an option, but Friedrich cautions that those might be subject to probate and not available immediately. <\/p>\n
Whatever the choice, Friedrich said he likes to hold family meetings so everyone is aware of last wishes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt all goes back to communication.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You won\u2019t be around to see this kind of investment pay off. But experts say paying for your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,113,176,61,5167,60,174,175,1603,10243],"class_list":{"0":"post-271790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-insurance","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-social","17":"tag-your-money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}