How To
Design Your Funeral In 9 Easy Steps
Creating a Funeral Directive is an important step in any estate plan. A Funeral Directive is more than just deciding on the ceremony itself, it’s a comprehensive guide that ensures your loved ones know how to honor and respect your wishes. Completing this document is extremely valuable for your loved ones. Think of it as a selfless act of consideration for those you love. Losing someone is an emotional time, by leaving them a clear check-list, you are ensuring they are able to focus on grieving and celebrating your life without the additional burden of making tough decisions.
At GoodTrust, we’re dedicated to making estate planning as intuitive as possible. That’s why we’ve created a Funeral Directive creation tool that walks you through each section step-by-step. Read on to learn more about these sections.
The 9 Easy Steps To Create Your Funeral Directive With GoodTrust
1. About You
This is your Funeral Directive so we’ll start with you. In this section, you’ll provide basic information such as your name, email address, birthday, phone number, and address.
2. Appointee
The appointee will carry out the terms of your funeral directive and make sure all your wishes are respected. If you have any specific requests, they can use their power to make sure these plans become reality. An appointee can be a trusted loved one such as a family member or close friend.
3. Death Announcement
Decide whether or not you would like to have a death announcement for everyone outside of your close family and friends. If you do wish to have one, you can select whether you want it shared on social media like facebook, or an official obituary in the newspaper. If you have any special requests, let your appointee know by specifying "other".
4. Organ Donations
Confirm whether you are a registered organ donor in your state or not. If you are, let your family know your specific wishes, or if you'd like to support a particular cause such as research or transplant.
5. Final Disposition
Now it is time to decide on your final disposition. This is a personal decision, so you should take some time to think about your choices. Funeral options are no longer simply cremation or burial. You may choose to detail a more modern form of disposition such as being planted as a tree or turned into a diamond, or specific location for burial.
6. My Funeral
In this section, you have the freedom to personalize every aspect of your funeral service. You can choose the service details, location, attendees, and music. Decide on flowers or not, reflecting your unique preferences for a meaningful and fitting tribute.
7. Funeral Expenses
This step determines how your funeral will be financed. Check to see if you have insurance that partly or fully covers funeral costs. Otherwise, you may be able to use funds from the estate. The total costs of a funeral depends on location, type of service, memorial choices and other arrangements. According to the latest data from the National Funeral Directors Association, the average cost of a funeral and burial is $7,848.
8. Additional end of life wishes
In this section you may specify any additional wishes you have. Consider people special to you who you may like to thank or any other personalized arrangements made in your name.
9. Review
Once you have completed the Funeral Directive Creation process, you will be invited to review all submitted information for accuracy before downloading your document, uploading it to your Digital Vault, and exploring the other features GoodTrust has to offer. We highly recommend sharing your will and other documents you may create with your Trusted Contacts (e.g. family members and loved ones) so they can easily access it when the time is right.
Remember you don’t have to make these decisions alone, feel free to lean on your loved ones and ask them for advice.
In order to create a robust estate plan, you'll want to consider creating the following important documents as well. Please note all of the following are included in our Estate+ plan:
With any estate planning decision, we recommend that you consult your loved ones, ask them questions, and work through your decision making process with them to ensure you are confident with your choices.
Start your Funeral Directive today! Click here to begin.