Preplanning Funeral Has Several Pluses

Nobody likes to think about his own death, but planning your funeral can both give you control over what happens and relieve your family of that responsibility during an emotional and stressful time.

A preplan can cover all the details of the service — burial or cremation, the type of casket, who will officiate, right down to the prayer cards.

"You get to talk about what you would want in terms of funeral arrangements," said Mary McPhillips, funeral director at the Applebee-McPhillips Funeral Home in Middletown. "The money gets put away ... it gets interest accrued. That interest offsets inflation. So a lot of times, as people age or even possibly have to go into facilities ... (funeral expenses are) all taken care of."

"It gives people that emotional comfort," said Randy McCullough, deputy executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association. "Whether them or their families, people know things are taken care of."

McPhillips said many people choose to preplan when they go in for lengthy hospital stays or rehabilitation.

"That's when they start to realize all of this care is costly," she said. "They're depleting their finances. They're beginning to worry about what comes next."

Becoming more common

McCullough said planning has slowly been growing more common over the years. He said there could be a couple of reasons for this, including New York's laws regulating preplanning, which he said protect the consumer more strongly than in any other state.

McPhillips agreed.

"We gear everything toward the consumer, not toward the funeral director or cemetery or crematory," McPhillips said. "It's treated as the family's money. The interest gained is their money; we just hold it for them until the time of a death. That's not the case in other states. Other states can charge people for making all the arrangements."

Act will expire in June

The Pre-Need Funeral Consumer Protection Act of 2001, which banned the sale of insurance for prepaid funerals, will expire June 1, 2012. The NYSFDA is lobbying for it to be made permanent, McCullough said. The association is also fighting legislation introduced last year that would allow funeral directors to accept commissions for selling certain life-insurance policies.

Under current law, funeral homes don't make any money from prepaid accounts. The accounts are also portable, and can be moved to another funeral home without penalty.

McCullough said changing the law would not be in consumers' interest, and could also undermine trust between consumers and funeral directors.

There are two types of prepaid accounts: revocable and irrevocable. Irrevocable ones are required for Medicaid applicants and recipients, to protect the money from being spent on medical expenses.

You don't have to prepay, but once the amount is paid in full, McPhillips said, then all service charges are guaranteed, except for things the funeral home can't control, such as cemetery rates.

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