What is Prearranging?
A prearranged funeral is one that is planned in advance, with the personal details and wishes for the funeral recorded with a chosen funeral director. When the death occurs, the family or person responsible for making the funeral arrangements needs only to sign the prepared documents and, in consultation with the funeral director, set the day and time for the funeral.
Though the option of prepaying the funeral is usually offered at the time of prearrangement, this is not a requirement. Ask for more information about prearranged funerals now >
Why Prearrange?
It is prudent. As an accepted practice, we insure our homes and possessions in case an untoward event happens. We insure our motor vehicles in case they are damaged or stolen. It is wise to make plans, with or without funding, for our inevitable passing.
It is kind to our loved ones. To spare those we leave behind the burden of decision making in the context of their grief and loss is a great kindness. There is a considerable number of small, but significant, decisions that contribute to planning and conducting a funeral. These can assume mountainous proportions when we are grieving. Made dispassionately at some distance from the event, they post far less of a challenge.
It is not morbid. When we are completing a house and contents insurance application, we are not imagining the sound of the roof lifting off in a storm, or the thief rummaging through our possessions. When we are insuring the car, we do not hear the crunch of metal or the sound of shattering glass. When we prearrange our funeral, we are neither imagining nor wishing our death upon us or our family. We are simply making some intelligent provision for the future.
Why Prepay?
This is an extension of the prudent act of prearranging. Funeral directors usually act as agents for one or more government approved funds designed to hold and safely invest monies set aside to pay for a funeral. These funds grown through interest or dividends paid over time and usually provide for most of the costs of a funeral, even through these costs will be affected by inflation. An added advantage if you are in receipt of a means tested pension is that current legislation allows an amount per person held is such a fund to be exempt from consideration as an asset.
Having prearranged and priced a funeral at today’s prices, you then by means of a lump sum or agreed time payment scheme, invest the value of the funeral in one of these funds. This planning leaves your family with little, if anything, to pay when a funeral is needed. Most funds will allow you to nominate a funeral director as the prime beneficiary of the plan you have bought, further saving your family from administrative concerns and probable capital gains tax.
Prearrange a Funeral
You can complete our Funeral Arrangement Form and keep it with your important personal papers, or return it to us for safe keeping and confirmation of your personal choices.
Contact us to receive information about our prearranged and fixed price prepaid funerals.