Funeral Planning Checklist: A Simple Guide for Families
Planning a funeral means dozens of decisions in a few days, usually while grieving. This checklist breaks it into simple steps, whether you're writing down your own wishes ahead of time or arranging a funeral for someone you love right now.
The LifeTrove Document Organizer
Keep your funeral wishes with your will, insurance and IDs, in one book your family can find.
See the LifeTroveIf someone has just died
- Get a legal pronouncement of death. In a hospital or care home, staff handle this. At home under hospice, call the hospice nurse. At home without hospice, call 911.
- Tell close family and friends, and ask one person to help you make calls.
- Look for their wishes and paperwork: a will, a prepaid funeral contract, a cemetery deed, life insurance policies.
- Choose a funeral home and ask for its itemized General Price List. Under the FTC Funeral Rule they must give you one.
- Order several certified copies of the death certificate. Banks, insurers and government offices each ask for one.
- Plan the service and write the obituary (see the lists below).
- Notify Social Security, their employer or pension plan, and their insurance companies.
Know your rights: under the FTC Funeral Rule you can choose only the goods and services you want, and you can buy a casket or urn somewhere else without paying the funeral home a fee.
If you are planning ahead for yourself
Decisions
- Burial or cremation
- Preferred funeral home
- Type of service: religious, celebration of life or private
- Where you would like to rest
Personal touches
- Music and readings
- Who you would like to speak
- Clothing or jewelry
- Flowers, or a charity for donations
For your obituary
- Full name, birth date and birthplace
- Spouse, children and grandchildren
- Schools, work and military service
- Places you lived and things you loved
Paperwork
- Prepaid funeral contract, if you have one
- Cemetery plot deed
- Military discharge papers (DD 214) for veterans burial benefits
- Life insurance policies
- Write your wishes down and keep them with your will and insurance.
- Keep it all in one book your family knows about.
- Tell one person where it is, today.
Why not just put it in the will?
A will is often read days or weeks after the funeral, so wishes written only in the will can be missed. Keep a separate written copy of your funeral wishes where your family will find it right away, along with the papers they will need in the first week.
Questions
How much does a funeral cost?
The National Funeral Directors Association reported a 2023 median of about $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial, and about $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation. Cemetery costs and headstones are extra.
Should I prepay for my funeral?
It can lock in some costs, but read the contract carefully: ask what happens if the funeral home closes or you move. Many people simply write their wishes down and set money aside.
Should funeral wishes go in my will?
Not only there. The will is often read after the funeral. Keep written wishes where your family can find them right away.
How many death certificates do I need?
Most families need several certified copies, one for each bank, insurer, pension and government office they deal with. The funeral home can usually order them for you.
Is the LifeTrove fireproof?
The LifeTrove itself is not fireproof. For fire and water protection, keep it inside the FireGuard Pro fireproof bag.
Spare your family the guesswork.
Get the LifeTrove