People frequently think about setting up various types of estate planning documents to protect their family after their own passing. However, they do not often think about their actual funeral. Although it might seem morbid to consider, preplanning your funeral can often be extremely helpful. Pre-arranging your future wishes through a funeral and estate directive offers emotional, administrative, and even tax benefits.
An Atlanta funeral directive lawyer could meet with you – with convenient virtual options – to better understand your wishes. With their guidance, you could learn more about advance healthcare directives and the legal process involved in planning a funeral and make decisions that could later benefit your family.
What is a Funeral Directive?
A funeral directive allows an individual in Atlanta to make decisions about their eventual funeral service or burial. You can make very specific requests or set up less detailed plans – and identify a decisionmaker to handle anything you had not included in your plan. You can set up a prepaid contract with a funeral home that pays all the costs in advance. The funeral home you select will be paid ahead of time in preparation for when you eventually pass away.
After the death, the designated decisionmaker would notify the funeral home, and that business could begin executing the plans that you directed. An experienced lawyer could consult with an Atlanta resident to help you set up a funeral directive that best meets your needs.
Advantages of Preplanning a Funeral or Burial
Pre-arranging the terms of a funeral or burial may not always be at the top of someone’s estate planning tasks. However, this can offer many advantages.
Control Over Their Funeral
If you prepare your funeral plans in advance, you can have a greater degree of control over it. You would not need to rely on family members to respect your wishes because the plan would explain exactly what should occur. For instance, you can decide what kind of casket to be buried in, whether you would have an open or closed casket service, and what songs will be played the funeral service. If you would rather not have your funeral turn into a large spectacle with the public, you could plan a more intimate and private gathering.
Lessens the Financial and Emotional Burden on Surviving Family Members
Planning a funeral is mentally draining. Leaving the planning to grieving family members can often feel overwhelming to them. The family can feel less stress if they can just abide by your wishes, instead of trying to make difficult decisions while grieving. A pre-paid funeral plan could also allow your family to hold the funeral and burial without financial stress.
Depletes Assets
Putting a sum of money away to pay for a funeral reduces your countable assets. By pre-paying for a funeral, you might be able to improve your chances of qualifying for governmental benefits that would allow you to move to a nursing home or receive other types of assistance.
A knowledgeable Atlanta attorney could draft a funeral directive that provides clarity and peace of mind to you and your family during a difficult time.
Contact an Atlanta Funeral Directive Attorney to Discuss Your Future Preferences
Thinking about your death is never easy. However, if you plan your funeral and burial in advance, you could save your family the emotional and financial burden of having to do so at the time they are the most emotionally devastated. Contact an Atlanta funeral directive lawyer today to set up a strategy session and begin the planning phase.
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