The Problems We Faced With Our Parent’s Pre-Paid Funeral Plans

We learned a lot from our experience.

My parents had purchased and paid for their funerals in the 1970s. My father died in 2016, and mom in 2022.

When our father went into hospice, he gave me all his important documents, one being his pre-paid funeral contract. At the time, I never thought to ask about mom’s contract.

When he died, the funeral home found his information with only his name and date of birth. When my sisters, mom, and I went in for the final arrangements, we made a few upgrades and ended up paying $1800.

Because our father was an Air Force veteran, our parents would be buried in the military cemetery at no cost to us.

When mom died 6 years later, the funeral home could not find mom’s contract. They asked us for her contract, but we couldn’t find it.

We had to end up paying for the funeral ourselves. The total came out to $9,002.00. My sister and I each paid half. Mom had a $10,000 life insurance, so we would get reimbursed later.

Five months later, when we were emptying mom’s house to get it ready to sell, we found the pre-paid funeral contract. I called the funeral home and gave them the contract number. They told me they didn’t have that contract. They suggested I call the other locations. There are 4 funeral homes with the same name in town, which we assumed were all part of the same company.

I called a different location, and yes, they had the contract. I asked why the other funeral home hadn’t found the contract. The lady there told me each location is owned by a different sister, but they are not connected. The original location where my parents purchased the plans is the one that still had mom’s. If that’s true, I don’t know how the other funeral home was able to find dad’s contract.

I was told I had to file a claim with the insurance company. The insurance company asked for many documents. This included itemized funeral receipts, a copy of mom’s will, and a letter of testamentary. This meant I had to see a lawyer and he would have to probate mom’s will. This took months and cost us approximately $2500.

One month before the 1-year anniversary of mom’s death, we finally received the check from the insurance company. It was for $3,000.

After paying the lawyer, all that remained was $500. That was so ridiculous!! If I had known this would be the end result, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the insurance claim. It was more trouble than it was worth, going back and forth to the lawyer’s office and to the courthouse.

Shortly after our father died, someone from the funeral home contacted me and wanted to sell my husband and myself a pre-paid funeral plan. We were interested, so they came to our house and gave us a presentation. We liked what they were offering and were ready to buy. Once we got into the financials, we backed out. The plan was going to cost us $7,500 each, but after the finance charges, we would end up paying almost $15,000 each. We didn’t see that as a smart move. We figured we’ll just have our kids pay for our funerals out of the life insurance.

Also, after this fiasco with mom’s plan, we will never use any of these funeral homes again.

We may buy the cemetery plots, though. My daughter’s husband died last month and we were told the plots start at $7,500 each. She ended up having him cremated, so she didn’t need the plot. We will be contacting the cemetery to see what type of deals and financing they offer for the plots. If it turns out to be the same as the funeral home, we will more than likely not purchase the plots either.