At one point in time, you may find yourself having to take care of funeral services. There are many details that you have to deal with, so it’s important for you to know where to start and how to go about the process. Read on to see a brief outline of what you should know about preparing for funeral services. This information can help you have a better chance of doing everything right without affecting your lifestyle negatively.
Choose the Funeral Service
One of the first things that you’ll need to do is to choose the funeral service. This will depend on specifics such as the religion that the deceased subscribed to or any affiliations that they had. This means that the funeral service could potentially be a military funeral service, a fraternal funeral service, or a religious funeral service, to name a few.
Once you know the service that needs to be done, you can look for the necessary parties to officiate it and more. In the United States, there are almost 28,000 communities for assisted living. If the deceased lived in one of these facilities, you may want to consider choosing a funeral service that’s going to involve them.
Take Care of Pending Bills
Before you start to pay for newer expenses, it’s a good idea to make sure that any bills accrued by the deceased are all paid off. The most common one in this instance may be hospital bills, depending on the circumstance. This is an important thing to do, so check to see if they had insurance and how much of their healthcare will be covered.
Note that the no-fault system of New York calls for applications for benefits to be made within 30 days of getting involved in an accident, according to the NYS Department of Financial Services. Failing to apply introduces the risk of losing the right to coverage for medical treatment. Find out similar details in the case of the insurance that the deceased had and ensure that it’s all covered so there are no disruptions down the road.
Confirm the Burial Arrangements
Remember to come up with the arrangements for the actual burial and confirm everything. This may involve picking the casket, outfits, and accessories for the deceased, finalizing plans of whether there will be a viewing and more. These details serve the purpose of ensuring that come the day of the funeral, everything is in order, including flowers if any are required.
At this point, you also need to find out whether the deceased will be buried or if they’ll be cremated. Keep in mind that the projected burial rate for 2020 was 37.5%, a drop of 7.7% from 2015, while the projected rate for cremation was 56%, an increase of 8.1% from 2015. This shows that people’s preferences are changing. This is why it’s a good idea to follow the wishes of the deceased if they’d left any, or of their family.
Prepare the Obituary
Finally, an obituary will need to be prepared. For this, you should have names and dates, so get to work collecting them. A typical obituary has a brief life history of the deceased and lists their family, accomplishments, and affiliations in a precise summary. If there are different preferences, it’s a good idea to make sure that everything is adjusted for and everything is ready to share with the publication of your choosing.
These are some of the things that you need to keep in mind when planning a funeral. Try to make sure that everything is covered and that there’s some room to make the necessary adjustments. Doing this can help make the process more straightforward so that everyone has time to grieve in their own way.