My husband's mother passed away early on April 17th. We spent several days making final arrangements for her. My parents-in-law made it much easier for us, as they had pre-planned and pre-paid for their funerals.
However, in the funeral contract is a clause that says that if anything changes, charges will be at current prices.
When they originally made their plans, they were going to be buried in North Carolina, my father-in-law's home. Since then, they decided to be buried locally. Because of that one change, the charges for my mother-in-law's casket was charged at current rates.
The increased cost for the casket and other expenses was an extra almost $3000. Some costs were legitimate - cost for the vault, for example, which wasn't included when they were going to be buried elsewhere.
This is our first time having to go through this, but here are some things I've learned:
- Make funeral arrangements for yourself or encourage your parents to do so to take some stress out of a very stressful time. When you are grieving is not a time to make thousands-of-dollar decisions.
- Pre-pay if possible.
- Decide carefully so you don't have to change your arrangements and incur greater expenses.
- Pre-planning is a good idea at any time. Pre-paying only works well for those who are pretty sure they are going to stay where they are until they die.
More on crisis planning:
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