Organizing records for your executor

[rosarugosa]

DH & I finally got around to drawing up a will with an attorney just this week, so this is a timely thread for me. Yay for us for finally acting like responsible adults! A Book of Death is a good next project.

[iris lilies]

DH & I finally got around to drawing up a will with an attorney just this week, so this is a timely thread for me. Yay for us for finally acting like responsible adults! A Book of Death is a good next project.

I think a good “next project” for us is to make funeral plans and pay for it. While I simply do not care what sort of memorial or etc happens and what happens to my body, I guess it would be easier if those left behind didnt have to plan it. But really, what is there to plan? I guess I will find out.

[catherine]

I think a good “next project” for us is to make funeral plans and pay for it. While I simply do not care what sort of memorial or etc happens and what happens to my body, I guess it would be easier if those left behind didnt have to plan it. But really, what is there to plan? I guess I will find out.

I was just listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast on my daily walk and interestingly, that topic came up. Pre-paying funeral expenses winds up costing more than the compound interest you would earn by just keeping the money in the bank and then having your executor withdraw it. But, I can see the advantage to having everything all set up and paid for, too. In your case, the few bucks earned maybe don't matter to you, and it's thoughtful of you to try to make things easy for those left behind.

If I were to be buried in a traditional cemetery plot, I'd be inclined to pre-pay for a plot for both DH and I. But we're both interested in cremation, with ashes scattered somewhere, so I don't anticipate that expense. The only other expense would be the cost of the services.

[pinkytoe]

In-laws had pre-paids and it does take a load off of making those decisions. FIL was old school and wanted a nice casket and police escort. Shopping for caskets and services for my mother who left no plans was not a pleasant task.

[SteveinMN]

While I simply do not care what sort of memorial or etc happens and what happens to my body, I guess it would be easier if those left behind didnt have to plan it. But really, what is there to plan? I guess I will find out.

Heh. Like planning a wedding. Venue, details of the service, cemetary plot (if not already chosen), transportation to and from the final resting place, the luncheon,...

DW and I prepaid for cremation and the most basic container they offer. Our loved ones have been left with the instructions that they can do anything they need to do to "say goodbye". It will not matter to us -- and we're not funding it. So it's up to them. There will be enough to wind up (disposition of the house and savings/retirement accounts, etc.) that planning a service (especially one that is self-funded) should not be a big deal unless they want it to be (which we wouldn't have cared about anyway).

[SteveinMN]

I was just listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast on my daily walk and interestingly, that topic came up. Pre-paying funeral expenses winds up costing more than the compound interest you would earn by just keeping the money in the bank and then having your executor withdraw it.

Does Ramsey account for the inexorable increase in the cost of funeral expenses? I don't know what the rise in expenses has been over the years, but I'd be very surprised if a specific set of funeral expenses in 2044 would cost what it does in 2019.

[catherine]

Does Ramsey account for the inexorable increase in the cost of funeral expenses? I don't know what the rise in expenses has been over the years, but I'd be very surprised if a specific set of funeral expenses in 2044 would cost what it does in 2019.

The podcast came about because a caller said that her grandmother had died, and had arranged in 1999 for "funeral insurance" which had expired. I can't remember the dollar amount of this "insurance." He based his calculations on a fairly average cost for a funeral ($10,000), and how that money would have grown over 20 years (since 1999).

This isn't the same podcast, but it articulates his opinion on pre-paid funerals. https://www.daveramsey.com/askdave/posts/10041

[Teacher Terry]

When my grandparents died my parents and her sister all bought plots together. My aunt is still alive 50 years later. They also bought headstones and caskets. My mom wrote her own obituary and asked people to sing certain songs at her funeral. She told us to sell her car to buy everyone lunch at a nice restaurant afterwards. Because my husband is a veteran we applied for free cremation spots in our federal cemetery. Cremation is about 500 here. I am using the beautiful urn I bought my MIL. We only used it for the funeral as she wanted hers spread. We have also loaned it out for a few funerals)

[catherine]

Because my husband is a veteran we applied for free cremation spots in our federal cemetery. Cremation is about 500 here. I am using the beautiful urn I bought my MIL. We only used it for the funeral as she wanted hers spread. We have also loaned it out for a few funerals)

Eco-friendly, frugal funeral! Reduce, reuse, recycle! I love it! My DH is a vet, too. He's never collected any benefits of any kind. Maybe we should go for this one!

[iris lilies]

Heh. Like planning a wedding. Venue, details of the service, cemetary plot (if not already chosen), transportation to and from the final resting place, the luncheon,...

DW and I prepaid for cremation and the most basic container they offer. Our loved ones have been left with the instructions that they can do anything they need to do to "say goodbye". It will not matter to us -- and we're not funding it. So it's up to them. There will be enough to wind up (disposition of the house and savings/retirement accounts, etc.) that planning a service (especially one that is self-funded) should not be a big deal unless they want it to be (which we wouldn't have cared about anyway).

Haha like a wedding, Ok! Our wedding was at the courthouse with bare minimum hoopla, so I would like that treatment on death. Guess I will have to follow your lead and lay it out on paper, sounds good.

My dad always said “let those left behind do what gives them peace” and so when my mother made a big deal about buying him an expensive casket because his brother with a ton of money who had died 6 months prior had a fancy schmancy casket and why shouldnt HER husband have that! . —I silently rolled my eyes and remembered his admonition.

It would have been far more appropriate for my uber frugal father to have a pine box. But in reality,
I suppose that sort of thing is hard to find. And my mom could afford whatever funeral nonesense she wanted, so it was all fine.