Dil's Advocate Preplanning & Prepaying For Your Funeral

Planning your funeral in advance seems like such a simple thing to do, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t think to do it. Planning your funeral in advance can be as simple as having a conversation with those nearest to you and expressing a few thoughts about what you might like to have happen when your time comes, or you might want sit down with the caring people at Dil’s Funerals and document in some detail your plans and preferences.

In any case, doing some sort of preparation in advance of your death make sense and really makes a difference to those you leave behind by giving them confidence that they’re following your wishes about how you wish to be farewelled. When planning your funeral in advance one thing Dil’s would suggest you consider is also leaving permission for your family to change your wishes, should the need arise.

This might sound counterintuitive, given the reason you plan in advance is so your wishes are known, but they occasionally find family members conflicted between what you wanted and what they’d like to do. This doesn’t mean they have carte blanche to change everything, but does show that you trust those you have left behind to carry out your wishes and at the same time fulfil their personal needs as they face your passing.

Advanced Planning can also be done as part of prepaying your funeral. Paying for all or part of a funeral’s expenses in advance is done for a number of reasons. For some it’s simply peace of mind. It’s one less thing for the family to worry about. Others just like to be organised or use pre-paid funerals as a legal way of reducing assets for Asset Testing purposes; such as to qualify for the Residential Care Subsidy.

As well as pre-paying funeral expenses you may also pre-arrange your funeral. By doing this you’re able to plan your funeral in advance and record your instructions. This helps ensure that when the time comes your wishes are known. Dil’s offer the FDANZ Funeral Trust. This plan is owned by the Funeral Directors' Association of New Zealand (FDANZ). Under the FDANZ Funeral Trust, your money is held in trust until the time of your death.

At this time the amount paid into the Funeral Trust plus any interest accrued, less any fees applicable are used to pay your funeral expenses. If the balance is insufficient to pay all funeral expenses then a claim is made against your estate for any outstanding amount. Likewise, any money left over after funeral costs have been met will be returned to your estate.

For more information on webcast funerals, ashes containers, eco funerals, funeral services Auckland and caskets for funerals please go to http://www.dils.co.nz .