Of all the challenges that you will ever be faced with, one of the most difficult will be the distasteful task of making funeral arrangements for a loved one. The emotional stress that you will experience is not one that you will easily recover from. However, the challenge can be somewhat easier to handle if you prudently take the time to plan ahead and prepare yourself financially and otherwise for this inescapable eventuality.
The first task that you will need to do is to meet up with a reputable funeral director. Funeral directors are professionally trained to take care of any funeral arrangements and to ensure that everything goes according to plan.
How to finance a funeral
The next task will be to secure the financing. The cost these days for a funeral is very high, for instance within the US, the average costs for a funeral is $5,200, and depending on your selections can cost up to $10,000.
You may find that it is not easy to secure these funds all at once. Moreover, if you are expecting to rely on the life insurance to cover for this expense, think again. Usually, you will have to pay for these funeral costs, either at the time of the funeral, or shortly there after. Unfortunately, the life insurance coverage will not have cleared by this time. This is where funeral insurance comes in; funeral insurance is designed so that soon after the loss of a loved one, you or your family will receive a payout to cover the cost of the funeral expenses.
To get this insurance, all you need to do is to go to an insurance company that offers this kind of coverage, and sign the contract for either yourself, or any of your loved ones between the ages of 15 and 80. It is simple as that; there are no inspections to determine the health of your body. As long as you keep up your periodical payments that amount to only a few dollars a week then you can rest assured that at the time of a funeral, you will not have to undergo the additional stress of looking for funding.
How to find good funeral insurance coverage
Before you sign a contract, just make sure that you have "shopped" around and spoken to a number of funeral providers. In fact, it might be wise to have a list of question that you would like to find out from them such as:
• Whether the premium rates are subject to change or not. For instance some funeral insurance costs increase with age. Therefore if you are taking out funeral insurance for yourself, as you grow older, the charges will increase.
• How you will be expected to pay this premium, whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.
• Are these charges dependent on inflation?
Once you are sure that you fully understand the funeral insurance plan then you are better placed to invest in a funeral insurance coverage plan that will address all your needs.