Paying for your own funeral

A trend here in the last few years is quite a few people asking for donations to pay for the funeral of someone. They have a “ go fund me” set up by the funeral home right in their obituary announcement. Is this happening nationwide or is it just another devolving element of lack of personal responsibility of the inevitable in society? These are not unexpected deaths of young people in a lot of cases and also not people that have no family members and die alone. Sad to say but many in this area contribute nothing to society and have everything paid for them from womb to tomb and now in this case perhaps after the tomb as an extension of the way they live their lives. Just wondering.....

You wont have to worry about it when your dead-it will be someone elses problem,
If you have a problem scatching up enough money for a hit of fentanyl,I dont think you'll be putting money away for a funeral.
Same as people who dont prepare for retirement,then find themselves short of rent or feed.They aint gonna care what happens to them when they are dead either.

Not common here at all. Frowned upon.

not common here either,,,

As the coroner for arkansas 2nd largest county,Nd probably the richest it is a problem
I have problems with even getting a lot of family to even choose a funeral home , they want the county to take care of the body. I cringe when we have to transport to my office because without a lot of arm twisting I'm stuck with the body. And most of these have family but don't want to " waste" money on final disposition. Some even try to rearrange with my office and will tell me up front that they want xyz to inherit their funds one even wanted it to go to animal rescue.

Well, I believe that if you get groceries, housing, electric, dental and medical free all your life there is just no expectation to do something on your own upon death. I have suspected it is just another little step of the Great Society of the sixties in Appalachia that was the thief of most of the Scotch/ Irish pride and hard work that settled this area.

My wife and I have already paid for ours. We don't think we need to pay for a stranger.

As a former hospice social worker of 12 plus years, and the other ten as as an Alzheimer’s director, I found it amazing the people who have no clue the actual cost of a funeral as well as the fact most are nationally owned now. My family ran the local funeral home for over 75 years I might add as well. Few take payment plans unless they are local or know the family. Some won’t even pick up a body without a check. I often had to explain you can’t repo a funeral so they demand payment prior to service. 1500 to 3500 just for cremation. 7k for funeral service or more depending on actual service. I have no way at my age to “prepare for a funeral” other than life insurance which I have. I don’t want my family to bear the burden. I am not saying that a go fund me is the answer but for most they have spent the majority of their money on medical expenses, spend down to afford a nursing home etc. or cashing in policies as they need the money to keep the electric on just to prepare to die. Local trustees have very minimal to offer as well to help. Unfortunately not all make a fortune trapping apparently like some on here must. It is funny how humbling figuring out how to pay for your death becomes when a person is fighting for their life. I know I buried my first wife at the age of 31 due to a fight with lupus. Before one judges maybe consider the circumstances.

Here your estate gets a death benefit of 2g.from the gov't. pension plan.A basic cremation and funeral is 5g here.
I have helped pay for a few relatives funerals.Generally family will chip in whats needed.Most will have more than enough thru company pension plan life insurance.

Can unclaimed bodies not be donated to science? Like the body farm in Knoxville. I have a 1st cousin that dealt in body parts as part of his job. He said most bodies came from homeless and prisoners. Not to get off topic, but he had a freezer in his garage that he kept the parts in. Mainly sold like a shoulder for surgeons to train on. He stated at the time in NC the practice was pretty much unregulated. I suppose he could of ground the body parts up and sold them as coyote bait???? I never went to a BBQ at his house!

I’ve heard the “ I’m not rich like you are” for years and years. These people literally have more expendable cash income than working people. It has become an angle in life for a myriad of excuses for staying where they are and having all their needs taken care of for them. A burial policy could be paid for one of the many times they eat out at buffets each month. Some things you just have to live around and know the people to understand of what I’m speaking.

We talked about buying final expense plans and I decided to buy some life insurance instead. I qualified for a pretty low premium for an older guy so we took that option. I believe we will be able to cover our expenses as we have both decided on cremation, and I want my ashes dispersed on some areas I frequent. Most of that has been checked out. With the life insurance if there was a cash flow issue short term the family can get a bank loan to cover until the life insurance check comes. By deciding on cremation etc. we have cut our costs by 50% or more. That made more sense to us and our family than prepaying expenses for a more expensive option.

Bryce

Yes Scout they can be donated to science in fact Arkansas law states that however they must meet all the criteria before the schools will accept them. And a lot are being turned away because they are at capacity. I think this will be more the norm and a growing problem as we go forward

How much is a full body mount?

Mine is being paid for by NASA...…...no not the space program, North American Swiss Alliance. Have a policy that adjusts to cover a funerial cost, any left over goes to my estate.

"don't want no fancy funeral, just one like old King Tut."

You can donate your carcass to a medical school. They will re-purpose any organs they can and medical students can can cut it up and sew it back together without any chance of harming anyone. Students can learn from your demise to help the living live longer. When the medical school is done with your carcass, about a year usually, they cremate it and give the ash's to your family. Some good will come from your death and your family has more money.

Served my country, war vet, US govt will plant me when the time comes... But yeah this business of selling raffle tickets to bury a loved one is really sad

if family won't kick in to help pay for a funeral that is sad.

I know around here creamation is around $1000. My BIL and dad were talking yesterday, that they believe in NC if the family can make it happen, somehow if they can get you in the ground within 24hrs after death you don't need to be inbalmed. I don't see that happening with the autopsies, morgs dragging feet, slow death certificates????? I know it's different state by state.

Cat collector might want to make shutter about that. Here they will provide the space and open and close the grave, that's it. Any other expenses are not covered, casket, vault, embalming,service ect. Whole body donation must be done within 48hrs of death. No contagious disease, must meet hight, and weight requirements, there are also a few more rule outs.
It is a sad deal, I have one in my office now that I can't get family to claim. Hopefully they will tomorrow, may have not wanted to deal well it over Christmas. We notified the father on Monday, he still wont contact us.

I have had it all paid for... by myself, for 10 years. Casket and vault bought, cemetery bought, funeral paid for and this too...


I freaked the woman out, where I got the plot and marker … they called and said it was in and set, and ask if I would come and check it and make sure everything was okay....So I went to the cemetery, went out and looked at the stone and went back into the office... the lady sitting there, an asked, "is everything there and is it okay?" I looked her right in the eye and shook my head a little and said, there is only one thing missing … her yes about popped out of her head, "What"? I took a depth breath, let it out slowly and said... "there is no ending date".. I thought she was going to cry... and started to say.... Oh I am so sorrrrr…… and she realized that it was my marker and was still standing in front of her. She started laughing until the tears rolled down her cheeks. I just stood there, with a calm expression on my face and said, "you are correct." Oh well, once a SA always a AS.

Garry-

I'm stuck between cremation (2K) or going to the school in Tennessee where they throw your carcass out and study decoposition. A green bottle fly, if the temperature is right, can find you in 14 seconds for example. Carrion beetles not far behind cause they eat maggots. Of course, my wife is sneaky and may not do what I want anyway so I'll never know for sure. People walking past me telling others how good I look just ain't my thing.

My wife knows how to run the back-hoe. We have a pet cemetery on our property. I told her to put my body next to my favorite dog.

Seriously though, whoever my beneficiary is at the time of my death will have more than enough money willed to them from my estate to bury me.

I really wouldn't mind if I got buried in the pet cemetery, at least I'd get visited once and a while.

People have plenty of options. Responsible people will make their own arrangements. My kids all know that when K.U. gives them my ashs I want them scattered in a local river. In another hundred years the only people who remember me will be dead too. Seems pretty silly to buy a stone. I know that taxidermy or mummification of remains has been popular since ancient Egypt but I find it morbid and creepy.

Everything is all set and paid in full. I told my son as long as I am laid out next to his mom, I am good.

Do you know, you can be buried in a cardboard box... my son protested. It was the only change I made to the pre-plan funeral arrangements.

In the last 20 yrs I've known of two funeral homes that went belly up and people that had their funerals paid up lost most or all their money. The funeral homes didn't lose their money in the business. One was into dope. I didn't know formaldehyde was used to make dope til that hit the news.

I went to a $50,000 wedding, the brides daddy had 27 funeral homes. The marriage didn't last much longer than it took the 300 butterflies to relocate, lol.

Its, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, for me.

Mummies were burned by the train loads in wars when they still used steam locos, so the end result was still the same.

My dad had pre-paid for his funeral. He told us it was all taken care of. When he died, we assumed it would be all paid for. That was far from the case. He paid for a wake with a viewing and a burial. Instead, the funeral home insisted there were additional charges such as $300 for the newspaper obituary, $800 to move his body from the nursing home to the funeral home, a distance of less than a mile, $100 for one of us to identify his body prior to the viewing, hearse rental to the church and cemetery, and some other charges they claimed weren't covered in his PRE-PAID funeral.

So, we ended up with no viewing, no church service, and cremation. It still cost us a little over $3,000. My advice, don't pre-pay for your funeral.

Yep..Is a deceased person charged tax for being dead?

That's a huge trend out here in rich Connecticut, as soon as someone dies - or better yet - gets sick, a go fund me page is set up, and the cash rolls in like no tomorrow.
it's disgusting beyond words.

Personally I think funerals are a waste of money.
Both myself and my parents, we got our little plot, vaults already in the ground - caskets will be ordered real soon, and no funeral - just a grave site service.

If anyone wants to pay their respects to me, I'd rather have them do so while I'm still alive.

How true George,about paying respect when your alive.
It Irks me no end when I attend a funeral and hear people speak of how great the dead guy was,when in life they would often denigrate him behind his back-bunch of phoneys.i usually have to leave before I say something that would wreck the funeral.

not exactly but his family is if they want the body back.

there is a mortician/funeral director lady lady on youtube that explains all sorts of options my wife watches it and comes up with new ideas from time to time. I told her not to waste much money on me at a funeral home , but get a event room at a restaurant and have a good meal and all spend time together remembering me and sharing memories.

When I was in high school there was a girl whose family owned a chain of funeral homes. Her last name was Coffin.No joke !

How appropriate is it that Ark Trapper................a county coroner..........lives in Gravette, AR ??

$200 for cremation, covered by SSI, and a plot at the National Cemetery at Jefferson Barracks, with all my Bro's and Sisters, VA Post Honor Guard. No muss, no fuss.

Be careful if you buy the "economy package"
Joe Schmoe might be in the urn too.

You notice stuff like that because you are a market person. Or maybe I should say you are a market type person because you notice things like detail and relative correlations.

Guilty !

My mother just passed away the 13th of December. She had her plots and a headstone already as my dad was killed in 1973. We were pretty careful with her service, but we did follow her wishes. A modest vault and coffin was $4400 give or take a few $ and the service provided by the funeral home was just shy of $10,000. But they did pay for the flowers, grave digging, newspaper notices, all the legal death notices required, etc. We just paid them, they took care of everything. We did have a lunch after the services where the local Legion Auxiliary (she was a life member) did the work and serving. We just bought the main dishes, they brought deserts and the little stuff. I personally have been doing research of what has to happen upon my own death. I am pre paying a cremation ( money is used to buy a CD or something like that in both my name and the funeral home's name.... thru a state funeral home association program) and then having just a simple service towards evening, since it is the end on my time on earth I want a service for family and friends (most of whom are almost all outdoorsman) to attend . I watched President Reagan's service and knew then just my case will be is in my old age it is like the end of the day... my time on earth. I will have money set aside for a good cookout …. an evening for friends to enjoy the outdoors, just like I did. NO flowers, headstones coffin or vaults, plots, etc. There is no law here in Nebraska that I have found or been told that you have to dispose of ashes (really just ground up bones that didn't burn) in a certain matter. A full intact body has to be disposed of legally. My son and a hunting buddy have been instructed to put part of my ashes in the wind where I elk hunted in Colo or Wyoming. Some in NW Nebraska where I hunted around there and some or the rest where me and my son hunted the first 40 years of his life, where I grew up and lived my entire life. In 200 or even 100 years I doubt anybody will even remember or even care who I was. In the realm of reality our short time on this earth is like a grain of sand in the ocean. I came into this world with nothing and will leave it the same way. Humbled but with a strong trust in My Lord, My Savior... God !

I have to work till lunch the day of my funeral, if I don't have the funds to pay it, sorry!
RR

I hope to disappear thru the ice at 40 below never to be found &
Haunt someones trapline for eternity !

.

Ha ha. However, lousy way to die.

Life insurance works exactly when you need it and it is tax free.

I won’t be surprised that in the future some sort of “ disposal of the body” benefit will be tacked on taxpayers to pay for their determent. If cremation can be done quickly fairly cheaply it’d amount to about an extra check after death. I see things now being done that we’re unheard of or preposterous 20 years ago being accepted without question.

I see it a lot. I find it sad and irresponsible and not a little disingenuous.

We have a decent support circle if you will. Its easy to have such a circle when you do not have antisocial behaviour. The ones begging for money I tens to assume they were antisocial (drugs, anger...whatever)


Typically when someone dies my wife will provide most of the food. My sister in law provides flowers at actual cost and the venue of the memorial service is voluntary donation (can be $0)

Then many people will also bring a sympathy card with a little cash in it. By the end of it all almost everything is taken care of with the family not being out out very much and never having to beg from strangers.

Run the Funeral home and work in Hospice isn't that a conflict of interest? Ask James

As John Gustafson said, "Give me a cardiac any day."