Funeral directive

When paying your last respects to someone, it is comforting to know that the deceased would have enjoyed the funeral and memorial service.

Trusted person, right to care for the dead

A funeral directive designates a person to manage your funeral arrangements and your wishes in that regard.

Your last wishes

Do you want to be buried somewhere special? Be cremated? Be remembered at a memorial service or no service at all? Who shall deliver the eulogy? Perhaps you want to host an unforgettable bon voyage party atop a mountain. Or donate your body to science. Do you prefer donations in your name to a charity over flowers? Do you have a budget?

Questions upon questions. You can still answer them.

Your next-of-kin

Without a well-prepared funeral directive, your next-of-kin will decide everything. If you are married with siblings and adult children, do you even know who your next-of-kin is? It is even more complicated if you remarried.

Particularly in the case of second marriages and blended families, there is a need for action to ensure that children from the first family and surviving spouses or partners do not clash over divergent ideas. This makes the difference between family peace and unnecessary, year-long conflicts.

Your written instructions

The point is, you can control how people see you in repose if you put your instructions in writing – disposition of your remains, memorial service, budget. A well-crafted funeral directive silences grumbling before it begins – that your sister should have invited more guests, chosen a different priest, spent more on flowers. If the directions are from you, your family can shake its head in collective bewilderment, but it will never harbor a lifelong grudge against your sister.

Would you like assistance preparing a funeral directive? Together, we can make sure it covers all the bases and is enforceable. Act now.