Estate Planning

Funeral Preparations - Let's Not Ignore Them

By Hull and Hull LLP

Moneyville is launching a series online all week examining the financial considerations and logistics involved in organizing a funeral. Some noteworthy statistics I picked up from Moneyville's Sunday posting are:

... there were a little over 88,000 registered deaths in Ontario 2009;

... slightly more than half of the funerals involved cremation, with the rest being burials; and

... pre-paying is common practice – apparently as of 2009, 230,814 people in Ontario had pre-paid funeral contracts purchased.

Pre-payment and pre-planning was addressed in further detail. From this discussion I gathered that:

... there are a variety of payment methods e.g. out of pocket, setting up direct withdrawals from a trust account over time or buying insurance and paying from the policy proceeds;

...expenses one is faced with will be impacted by several choices that need to be made about the funeral facilities, vehicles, the casket/vault or urn, the choice of final resting place (grave, crypt etc.), what sort of monument or memorialization you want, and fees for the cemetery/crematorium, religious service, newspaper announcements etc;

...    pre-planning is promoted as it ensures the majority of the costs are paid for up front:

... under a guaranteed contract, if there are insufficient funds to cover the services arranged in advance no additional money will be owed at the time of your death (except possibly taxes), provided the terms of payment have been met; if there is money left over the balance is paid to your estate;

...  under a non-guaranteed contract, if there are insufficient funds for the funeral the shortfall will need to be paid from your estate assets;

...  you can cancel a pre-arranged contract at any time before the services or supplies have been rendered and the provider must refund your money; and

...   while pre-planning helps alleviate stress on loved ones, service providers suggest that to avoid disappointment you should leave some things for your family to decide.

On this last point, while I can appreciate the need for family to feel part of the process, they may not always agree. My cautionary note is to keep in mind that your estate administrator has the final say...so choose wisely.

Thanks for reading,

Natalia Angelini - Click here for more information on Natalia Angelini.

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).