It is common to see insurance agents educating their prospects and clients on the need for death and estate planning. However during such planning, many of these agents stop short at ensuring their clients have sufficient insurance coverage in the event of their death. While insurance planning is important, money alone cannot solve everything. Another area which needs to be discussed sufficiently is funeral pre-planning. If you have not discussed this with your insurance agent, you may wish to start thinking about it now and here’s why…
Burden on Family
A meaningful funeral requires proper planning. Unfortunately family members are in the worst possible state of mind to plan and make important decisions especially when a loved one has just passed on. While an insurance policy can help cover the funeral expenses, it cannot help the bereaved family make important funeral decisions. Hence, pre-planning your own funeral is important and doing it now, with a clear mind is often wise.
Loved Ones Need Not Second Guess Your Wishes
A common question surviving family members often ask is how the deceased will have wanted his funeral to be. Would he have preferred a grand sendoff or a private small scale one? Should he be cremated or burial be preferred? Whatever the bereaved family chooses, the choices are at best a second guess. And this can cause stress or even guilt, especially if the person making the decision is unsure of the correctness of his choice. You can easily save your loved ones from this unnecessary burden by properly pre-planning your own funeral.
Avoid Unnecessary Over Spending
Your family members will want to give you a final send off that is befitting. But what exactly is befitting enough? If left for them to decide, it can at times lead to unnecessary spending as they will be pressured to plan a “good enough” funeral rather than live will the guilt of not having done so.
Who Can Help with Funeral Pre-Planning?
Any competent Singapore funeral services provider will be able to offer you advise. Here’s one: www.singaporefuneralservices.net and here’s their funeral pre-planning services page. Best of all, they offer their consultations for free.
And if you need some guidance to get started, Nirvana’s funeral services pre-planning checklist is a good read.
Why Am I Highlighting This?
Only because I had a close relative whose dad had recently passed away. Like most Chinese families, death is seldom discussed, let alone funeral pre-planning. As he was the only son, he faced lots of unnecessary stress planning the funeral; stress which could have easily been taken away from him had the family done a proper funeral pre-planning.
Important Notes on Pre Planning a Funeral
While pre-planning a funeral is important, it is equally important that the plans are properly documented and made know your family members.
Also, none of the above constitute financial advice or any other advice/ recommendation; they are just my personal thoughts on the importance of funeral pre-planing.
(Image courtesy of Dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
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