Becky Cholewka: Part of estate planning that a lot of people never even think about is thinking about how you want to be buried, or cremated, or what type of funeral you want.
A couple years ago, my husband and I on Black Friday, that was our Black Friday shopping extravaganza. We went to Mountain View Cemetery here in town. We pre-planned our funerals.
We’ve picked out how we wanted to be cremated, what type of vessel we wanted our ashes to be in, what type of services that we wanted. We paid for a life insurance product that would actually pay for all of the things that we chose.
Not only is it much less expensive when you pre-plan because you are locking in today’s prices for whenever something happens to you in the future, but also you’re dealing with now a situation where you get to control all of that information and all of those decisions, rather than leaving that burden to family members at a time when someone has just died.
If you haven’t been through that process, it can be very difficult. My dad died when I was 19 years old. I remember I couldn’t even go to the funeral home. It was too difficult for me at that time.
My sister went with my uncle and they picked out a plot and they figure out how he was going to be buried. It’s a really emotionally difficult time to sit there right when you’ve lost a loved one, try to figure out all of these small details.
If you have the means to be able to go in and do it yourself, it’s not scary. It’s not something that’s really difficult to talk about. Most professionals will walk you through it very easily. You just start making some decisions about how you want others to remember you by.
My husband and I really recommend that process to you. If you need a recommendation of some great local places for you to go to, please feel free to call our office.
We’re at 480‑497‑3770.
