Don't wait until the end to plan for your funeral

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - Funeral service planning doesn't make most people's to-do lists. Replacing your tires, renewing your life insurance, putting the mail on hold during vacation _ these things might get done.

But to spare family members from the expense of a funeral and making decisions on such things as caskets and floral arrangements in a time of grief, you should consider preplanning what's inevitable.

Planning can be as simple as sitting down with your family and sketching out the type of service you would like. That doesn't cost a dime.

You also can enlist a funeral provider to help draft a plan. There could be a nominal charge, but many funeral providers are willing to do this for free with the expectation you might come back to arrange your funeral. In this plan, you can designate whether you are to be cremated or buried, the type of casket you'd prefer, and pretty much dictate all aspects of your funeral.

You can even prepay your funeral. The most popular method is what's called a pre-need funeral, where you or your loved ones pay a funeral provider for services in advance. There are several types of pre-need arrangements but the most popular is a guaranteed contract in which prices are fixed, which means no additional expenses are incurred at the time of the funeral.

It works like this: Money you pay the funeral provider is put into a trust that accrues interest over time. If the amount in your account exceeds the funeral cost, the funeral provider pockets the difference. If your account comes up short, the funeral provider makes up the difference. Either way, you're guaranteed to get the service you bought.

Vickie Hand, legislative chair of the Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association, said pre-need funerals are a good way to make sure your final arrangements aren't left to chance.

"(With pre-need) you're getting the kind of funeral you want and you're spending your money the way you want it spent and not the way some family member wants it spent," Hand said.

But Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, thinks pre-need funerals are "a rip-off" because the consumer doesn't get to keep the interest that accrues on their money. He said a better option is a pay-on-death account, which is essentially a savings account to cover funeral expenses that pays out to your beneficiary _ a relative or another person you designate _ upon your death. Consult your bank or credit union to set up such an account.

Slocum also recommends shopping around for funeral services because the price can vary widely. In the Chicago area, an average funeral costs about $7,000, not including the costs of the burial plot and headstone.

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"The first mistake (consumers) make is that they don't price shop," he said. "What do you think your mom or dad would say if they knew another funeral home that's just as nice would have been 30 or 40 percent less?"

If you're like me, you probably think shopping for caskets is creepy.

But according to the AARP, funeral services are a consumer's third-largest expense, behind a home and a car. Federal law requires funeral providers to give you a price list for goods and services and to allow you to pick and choose which ones you want rather than pay for things you don't want in a package deal. The morticians also are required to disclose which services are required by law so you know which ones are optional.

Would you be comfortable purchasing a casket or urn directly from a manufacturer to save money? If so, under federal law the funeral provider can't refuse to use the item or charge you extra for using it.

All the planning, however, may not pay off unless your loved ones are clear about what you want. So, have a straightforward talk about your wishes, Slocum said. When they suggest putting it off, he said, put your foot down. "Don't take no for an answer."

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(Contact the writer: kataiyero@tribune.com)

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© 2009, Chicago Tribune.