Please join us at Shomrei Emunah for a seminar on personal funeral planning, sponsored by Bnai Keshet and Shomrei; and organized with the help of our Chevre Kadisha.

Funeral pre-planning (personal funeral planning) is a wise practice that's becoming increasingly accepted and appreciated. People are sometimes hesitant to pre-plan a funeral because they think they're not going to die anytime soon, or they may not like the idea of thinking about their own death and funeral. There may even be some superstition that planning your own funeral will somehow bring on a hasty death. However, many people who get over their initial resistance to the idea actually find funeral planning to be a freeing experience. You're able to make sure things are done in the way you'd like them, and you'll know that you're relieving your loved ones of some very burdensome future responsibilities.

​You can begin the funeral planning process long before you are even close to death. If you're ill or in the process of dying, funeral planning can be a proactive way of dealing with the inevitable.   

There's a growing organization of information concerning less-than-scrupulous business practices and over-selling in the funeral industry. If you pre-plan your funeral before the stress and chaos of death occurs, you can avoid exposing your family the funeral home sales tactic of equating the money spent on a funeral with their amount of love for the deceased.

Pre-planning your funeral lets everyone know what you want and you leave no room for up-selling or over-selling. More benefits of funeral planning include:

1. Being forthright about your desires for your funeral will relieve your family of the burden of having to make decisions in their time of grief.
    
2. Prepaying for your funeral will also offer some relief to your loved ones. You have to be aware of some of the pitfalls of this process though.
    
3. A lot of people buy into the idea that the amount of money spent on a funeral is a reflection of the amount of love for the deceased. Prepaying decreases the stress of this aspect of funeral planning.
    
4. Making a will is a fundamental benefit to your family . You can add funeral arrangement preferences into your will.

Finding Enlightenment through Pre-Planning

When you really get into it, planning your own funeral can be a great experience. Many people who've done so have found it to be a helpful process, as they know they're lightening the load of their own passing for their loved ones.