Funeral Planning
Unless a funeral is prearranged by the deceased, planning a funeral for a loved one often comes at an emotionally charged time and sometimes as a complete surprise. Funeral homes and directors are equipped to help you plan a funeral that reflects your loved one’s life and personality. But where do you start when the need arises? A checklist can be helpful when organizing events and responsibilities during the funeral preparations.
Funeral Checklist
When planning a funeral, try not to do everything yourself. Call on family members or a friend to help you make the following arrangements…
Notify:
- Funeral home
- Clergy
- Relatives and Friends
- Pallbearers
- Insurance Agents
- Banks
- Unions and fraternal organizations
Select:
- Cemetery property
- Funeral service
- Casket
- Vault or outer container
- Clothing
- Flowers
- Music
- Thank-you cards
- Transportation
- Time and place for funeral
- Time and place for visitation
Provide vital statistics about the deceased:
- Birth date
- Birthplace
- Father’s name
- Mother’s name
- Social Security number
- Veterans’ discharge or claim number
- Education
- Marital status
Obituary Information:
Our funeral home staff will compose the obituary for you to approve before submitting it to the newspaper
- Age
- Place of birth
- Occupation
- Educational Background
- Memberships
- Military service
- Outstanding work
- List of survivors in immediate family
- Time and place of services
- Charities for memorial contribution
In addition, you will want to:
- Have addresses and phone numbers of all people who must be notified
- Make arrangements for out-of-town visitors
- Find someone to help answer sympathetic phone calls, cards and letters, and to greet friends and relatives when they call.
- Decide an appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made (church, hospice, or charity of choice)
- Prepare a list of distant persons to be notified by letter or printed notice and decide which to send
- Locate the will and notify the lawyer and executor
- Check carefully all life and casualty insurance and death benefits, including Social Security, credit union, fraternal and military
- Check promptly on all debts and installment payments, including credit cards. Some carry insurance clauses that cancel balances upon death.
- Notify utilities and landlord and tell post office where to send mail (if deceased was living alone)