PLANNING your own funeral
Our funerals are our emotional legacy. They really matter. They can help the people who survive us to begin to work out how to live their lives without us.
Is it helpful to plan my own funeral?
Leaving no instructions can be disconcerting for the people arranging your funeral, who may wonder what you would have wanted, but leaving detailed and prescriptive instructions can cause added stress.
The best kind of funeral plan is a loose framework allowing the people arranging and attending the funeral to do whatever they need to do. In most cases, you don’t need to plan every detail, but an outline of the kind of thing you’d like for your funeral can be very helpful.
We’ve put together the document for you to communicate your wishes to the people who will be responsible for arranging your funeral. If you’d like to receive it, please get in touch and we’ll send it over.
Things to consider:
A good funeral is created with the belief that funerals honour the person who has died but are for the benefit of the living.
A funeral plan isn’t static. It can change over time. As your life circumstances changes, so will your funeral.
Funeral wishes in the UK aren’t legally binding. It’s a good idea to talk to the people who will arrange your funeral about what you want to happen, although they are under no legal obligation to follow your wishes after your death.
You may want to appoint an executor, who will be responsible for arranging your funeral after your death.
If you want to pay for your funeral in advance, you could look into ethical funeral plans such as Open Pre-Paid Funeral Plans or simply put the money into a savings account which can be accessed after your death.
If you are approaching the end of your life and would like to discuss planning your funeral with us, please get in touch so we can talk it through.