PLANNING AHEAD
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.-Benjamin Franklin
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
-Benjamin Franklin
Whether you are considering pre-planning your funeral as part of your estate plan; to spare your loved ones from having to make difficult decisions; to keep from being a burden on your dependents or needing to manage your remaining assets to qualify for Medicaid, we can provide guidance and assistance in meeting your goals.
Four Reasons To Pre-Plan Funeral Arrangements
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ESTATE PLANNING
Estate Planning -
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ESTATE PLANNING
Pre-arranging your funeral should be a part of your estate plan. The plans do not have to be elaborate, just thorough enough so that your next of kin knows that things are taken care of. In most cases, your family will want to have some say in how they commemorate your life so it is okay to leave some of the details to them. You can make it easier on them by having a plan that outlines any specific wishes you have. By pre-funding the arrangements you can relieve them of the stress that comes from not knowing where the money is coming from to pay for a funeral.
FOR THOSE YOU LOVE
When it comes to some things, like planning for our funeral, knowing that we need to do something doesn't make it any easier. No one willingly wishes to cause their family concern but by not planning ahead, we do just that. Pre-planning your funeral relieves much of the stress that goes into making funeral arrangements.
LOCK IN TODAY'S PRICES
Funeral services and merchandise purchased today for future use, sometimes years from now, can be essentially locked in by funding the arrangements in full now. This is done by placing the money into a financial product that will grow on an annual basis. The growth of the insurance policy or trust fund accrues and this growth is what offsets inflationary increases and is paid to the funeral home only after they provide the services.
Let's say you pay for a funeral now for $7,500 and then live another 20 years. If the contract was guaranteed, the $7,500 plus the growth goes to the funeral home to cover the 2035 costs of the funeral and services. As long as the family does not change the services or merchandise, they would owe no additional money. Money set aside for products or services provided by others, such as flowers and cemetery charges, cannot be guaranteed as we have no control over these costs.
MEDICAID SPEND DOWN
Medicaid applicants must spend down their available assets until they reach the qualifying level (usually around $2,000, depending on the state). By purchasing a prepaid funeral contract, you can turn available assets into an exempt asset that won't affect your eligibility. In order for a prepaid funeral contract to be exempt from Medicaid asset rules, the contract must be irrevocable. That means you can't change it or cancel it once it is signed.
The cash value of existing life insurance policies are considered assets that can be protected if the policy is irrevocably assigned to a funeral home. We can assist you in having existing policies made irrevocable. When there is no life insurance in place, you can use existing funds to irrevocably pre-pay for burial expenses before all funds are spent on medical and long term care expenses.