Why You Need to Preplan Your Funeral

Part of our cremations services is to help you when you decide to preplan your funeral. Preplanning your funeral is a smart move, but it is also a very compassionate and thoughtful act for your family.

Be sure that before or after you preplan your funeral that you share this information with all of your immediate family members. First, this lets everyone know that you’ve taken care of this (you can either preplan in a written document or you can actually sit down and do preplanning at the funeral home). Second, it gives everyone a chance to get on the same page with what you want so there is no dispute when the time comes.

One reason that you need to preplan your funeral is because it gives you the time to make sure that you can have the funeral you want. You can choose from what kind of funeral you want, what kind of service you want, and what you want done with your cremation remains.

Although you may be sad thinking about a time when you will no longer be with the ones you love, you should take advantage of the opportunity to preplan your funeral and make sure that you leave them with all the information you want them to have and they need to know.

This information can be both practical and personal.

On the practical side of things, there are important things that your family will need or will need to have access to after you die. Be sure to list out where your important documents, such as your will or trust, burial and life insurance policies, investment and retirement account paperwork, are located.

There will be people who need to be notified of your death. When you’re preplanning your funeral, it’s a good idea to make a list of these people for your family. Be sure to include their names, phone numbers, email addresses, and their relationship to you. Don’t forget to include employer information and clergy information on the list.

This is also a good time to document all your digital assets. Make a list of all your online accounts, including credit card companies, banks, investments, shopping, and social media. Your family will also need access to your email account(s), so be sure to include your email addresses and passwords.

Many people die without getting an opportunity to tell their loved ones the things in their hearts. As you are preplanning your funeral, you get the chance to tell your family, both individually and collectively, the wisdom and the sentiments that you want to leave with them after you’re gone.

You can simply write a letter to each one of them, put it in an envelope, seal it, and write each person’s name on the envelope containing their letter. This is a wonderful gift to leave with your loved ones.

Preplanning your funeral has an additional benefit of helping you to think about your stuff and whether you want to keep it, give it away to family members or to charities, or throw it away. Sometimes, funeral preplanning helps us see the reality that we won’t be around forever and that gives us the motivation to do cleaning out and cleaning up that we often just never quite get around to doing.

Funeral preplanning is one of the cremations services we offer, so you can depend on our compassionate and experienced team at Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home to help you. You can visit our funeral home at 483 Chenango St., Binghamton, NY 13901, or you can call us today at (607) 722-4023.