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Should I Prepay for My Funeral?
There are benefits to prepaying, but there may be more cost-effective ways to make sure your final wishes are carried out accordingly
Prepaying a funeral can spare loved ones stress and expenses, but experts say it’s wise to weigh the risks and alternatives first.
Pete Ryan
Key takeaways
- Prepaying for a funeral can ease family stress and ensure that your end-of-life wishes are carried out accordingly.
- Purchasing a prepayment package from a funeral home enables you to lock in fees for certain services.
- Comparing funeral providers and considering alternatives such as cremation or body donation can significantly reduce costs.
After my father died, the first call I made was to my brother to discuss who we needed to contact to share the sad news. The second call was to a funeral home.
My father knew what he wanted for his final send-off, and he didn’t want his children to pay for it. So, years before he died, he prepaid his funeral costs.
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In our case, this worked out well. The funeral home’s owners were longtime family friends who had handled my aunt’s arrangements a few years earlier. The director even knew my grandfather. At a sad and stressful time, they handled numerous details, from contacting Social Security to publishing my father’s obituary.
Planning your own funeral, and making sure your family members know how you want to be honored, is one of the best gifts you can give your loved ones. And if you reach out to funeral providers to discuss services and costs, there’s a good chance they’ll offer prepayment packages.
Prepaying for your funeral enables you to lock in prices for some services and relieves your family of the need to finance the arrangements. That’s no small thing, considering the median cost of a funeral that includes a viewing and burial is $8,300, according to a 2025 survey by the National Funeral Directors Association, and fees could rise significantly over time. Prepaying funeral expenses can also minimize disagreements among family members who may have different opinions about what services your funeral should entail.
Another option is to purchase an insurance policy from an insurer that partners with a funeral home. With this type of policy, known as “preneed funeral insurance,” the funeral home is the beneficiary and will use the death benefit to cover your funeral expenses.
You can also purchase burial insurance, also known as “final expense insurance,” directly from an insurance provider; in that case, proceeds will go to your beneficiaries. The cost of premiums varies depending on the amount of your death benefit, your age and other factors, but they average $50 to $100 per month.
However, there may be more effective and less costly ways to cover your funeral expenses. The Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit consumer organization that monitors the funeral industry, generally advises against prepaying for a funeral. Among the drawbacks, according to the alliance: Your prepayment may not cover all of the costs; the funeral home could go out of business before you die; or your family may have a difficult time getting a refund if you die out of town and they need to use another funeral home. In the case of insurance policies, the insurer might not pay the full benefit, or any benefit, during the policy’s first few years.
State regulation of funeral prepayment plans varies, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Some states require funeral homes to put prepayment funds in a state-regulated trust; others offer little or no protection for consumers who purchase these plans.
Other funeral payment options
That doesn’t mean you should require family members to pay for your funeral arrangements. Even if you’re confident there will be enough in your estate to pay for the expenses, your executor likely won’t have access to that money until your estate has been settled, which could take months. In the interim, your family will have to cover the costs.
To avoid this problem, consider depositing funds to cover funeral expenses in a payable-on-death (POD) account with a reputable bank or credit union.
Designate as beneficiary a trusted family member or friend whom you’re confident will use the money for your funeral. POD accounts offer several benefits: The money is federally insured for up to $250,000; any interest accumulated will go to you, not the funeral home; and the funds are available immediately when you die. Critically, you’ll maintain control of the account while you’re alive, enabling you to use the money for other purposes if necessary, such as to pay for an emergency medical expense that you can’t cover out of pocket.
Shop around
However you decide to cover funeral expenses, comparing costs from several funeral providers allows you to review prices and services to find the best fit for your needs and relieves your family members of the stress of making arrangements while they’re dealing with grief. If you want to be buried, for example, it’s usually a good idea to purchase a cemetery plot ahead of time, the FTC says; otherwise, family members may feel rushed to buy one after you die.
Opting for direct cremation instead of a full-service funeral can help save money. Federal law requires funeral homes to include the cost of cremation in their price list. You can use any funeral home, even one that’s far from where you live, and have the remains shipped to you.
Donating your body to a medical school is another option that could save you thousands of dollars and benefit future health care providers. Medical schools typically cover most, if not all, of the costs, and usually return any cremated remains in a couple of years.
My very practical mother, who predeceased my father by several years, chose to donate her body to a university medical school in our state. After she died, we rented a local funeral home’s parlor for an afternoon so people could pay their condolences, then held a party for family and friends in our backyard. I’m confident that’s how she wanted to be remembered.
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