When preplanning a funeral, the funeral director's most important role is helping you. Making any kind of funeral arrangement involves many choices and decisions. Funeral service professionals give you and your family the information you need to make the right choices. Once this decision has been made, you can call on your funeral service professional to help guide you and your loved ones through the process.

Because they understand your need to consider all available options to you and your family to help coordinate all of those details. No matter what the size, they encourage special requests for planning a more personal and meaningful ceremony.  In addition, they will provide the information you need to make informed choices about burial and cremation, as well as casket and urn choices.  Also, they will discuss benefits that your family may be entitled to, as well as the qualifications for these benefits.  Furthermore, they will assist you in making cemetery plot, monument or memorial selections.  If you choose, your funeral director will also discuss and arrange for you to set aside funds for these future services -- either in part or in full.

Although your funeral director will help you plan ahead, remember the decisions are still yours. Your director can answer questions, make suggestions and implement your desires, but all decisions rest with you and your family.

Licensed and trained funeral directors help with both the practical arrangements and the emotional issues involved in planning a funeral. On the practical side, they typically remove the deceased from the place of death, obtain the required legal documents and prepare the body for viewing, if desired. Once you and your family are satisfied with your decision regarding services, burial or cremation, your funeral director will arrange for the final disposition, provide facilities for the visitation and funeral service, and transport the deceased and mourners to the place of final disposition.

Your funeral director will take great pains to plan a fitting tribute to your loved one. In fact, he or she will insist on taking an active role in helping you plan a personal and meaningful ceremony to begin the healing process. After the service, your funeral service professional can also provide support materials to help you deal with your grief.

It is important to recognize that funerals are for the living ... for those who have suffered the trauma of losing a loved one. It is through the funeral process that a number of emotional needs are met. The funeral declares that a death has occurred, commemorates the life that has been lived, and offers family and friends the opportunity to pay tribute to their loved one.

Throughout the ages, people have relied on the comforting rituals and ceremonies of funerals to move them through their grief. Consumer research and grief experts suggest meaningful ceremonies provide closure. But most importantly, the funeral is a vital part of the process that allows the bereaved to adjust to an abruptly altered life. Your funeral director can suggest a variety of ceremonies that will help you and your family begin the essential grieving process.

Unfortunately, many families do not receive the benefits to which they are entitled. All too often, the survivors are unaware of the claims and benefits that apply in their situations.

Social Security
When the deceased has paid into Social Security, his dependents and survivors may be eligible for certain benefits such as Death Payment, Survivor's Benefits and Medicare Benefits. These benefits are not automatic and must be applied for.

Veteran's Benefits
Honorably discharged veterans and their families may be entitled to a number of special benefits upon death. These may include a plot allowance, burial allowance, headstone, death pension, and burial flag. Since there are many different benefits and qualifications for each, it's best to discuss your situation with your funeral director.

After a loved one has passed away, a friend or family member immediately will be required to provide the funeral director with personal information about the deceased. Often referred to as “vital statistics”, this includes biographical, financial and funeral arrangement information. It is valuable for obituary notices, death certificates, veteran's benefits, and helps the funeral director plan a more personalized funeral.

By clicking on the document listed below, complete, and store this documents in a safe place and advise your family where they can be found. A safe deposit box is not recommended, since it is normally frozen at the time of one's death.

Just as there are complexities in life, so are there many dimensions in planning the modern funeral. But by making the fundamental choice between burial and cremation, you have already taken care of one of the most important decisions you will need to make. You will need essential information that will help you make the final burial arrangements, such as:
      1. What type of service will you have?
      2. What type of casket will you choose?
      3. How will you memorialize your loved one?
      4. How can you personalize the funeral?
      5. Where will the final resting place be?

People choose cremation for a variety of reasons. Some do so based on environmental considerations, while others have philosophical or religious reasons. Still others choose cremation because they feel it is less complicated than ground burial or mausoleum entombment. Whatever the reason, it's important to know that like burial, there are a variety of options available with cremation. You will need essential information that will help you make the final cremation arrangements, such as:
      1. What type of service will you have?
      2. What type of container will you choose?
      3. What type of urn will you choose?
      4. How will you memorialize your loved one?
      5. How can you personalize the funeral?
      6. Where will the final resting place be?

A ceremony can be individualized with musical selections, readings and displays to reflect the person's life, occupation and interests. It may reflect one's religious beliefs as a re-affirmation of faith in a greater life beyond this world. It may center on an ethnic background or social affiliation, occupation or hobbies of the deceased. Inviting friends and family to stand and say a few informal words about the life of the deceased can be very helpful to survivors. Family members are encouraged to express any ideas that will create a more meaningful and personalized service.

Personalizing the Casket
Personalization is a valuable element of today's funerals. As a way to honor the deceased, many families customize the casket by adding personalized panels.

Personalizing Urns
Whether you select a bronze, marble or hardwood urn, most urns can be personalized with special designs or text.

There are a variety of choices for the final disposition of remains. Subject to some restrictions, cremated remains can be scattered by air, over the ground or water. Your funeral director is knowledgeable about allowable practices in your community. Some cemeteries offer areas for scattering and may provide a space where families can place a commemorative plaque or other memorial.

Burial
Usually cremated remains are placed in some type of permanent receptacle or memorial urn before being committed to a final resting place. The urn can be buried in a family plot or urn garden, with a marker or headstone.

Columbarium
Some families choose to place cremated remains in a columbarium as the final resting place. A columbarium is an arrangement of niches that may be an entire building, a complete room, a series of special indoor alcoves, a bank along a corridor, or part of an outdoor garden setting. Columbariums are often constructed of permanent materials such as bronze, marble, brick, stone, or concrete.

Home
As a permanent memorial to the deceased, many families choose to place the cremated remains of their loved one in the home. Many urns are fashioned as statuary works of art for display there.

Scattering
Whether it's near famous landmarks, well-known bodies of water or pristine natural settings, the scattering of cremated remains is a popular disposition method. Whether you choose total scattering (dispensing all of the cremated remains) or ceremonial scattering (sprinkling just a small portion), you may want to consider some form of memorialization. Most people find consolation knowing there is a specific place to visit when they wish to remember and feel close to the person they have lost, regardless of whether the deceased person's remains are actually located at that place. Because many communities prohibit scattering, talk to your funeral director regarding any local ordinances.

Grief is not an illness, but rather a natural and necessary journey that follows the death of someone we love.  As such, it deserves our attention and respect, as well as the support of others, if we are to heal. In this area, we offer direction for emotional support in better understanding the grieving process.