More and more people are choosing to make their own funeral arrangements in advance of their death. In the past many families were left not knowing what the wishes of their family members were. Pre-arranging funeral services or pre-arranging for a cremation not only expresses the wishes of the deceased, but takes away some of the stress that is placed on families when a death occurs. Pre-arranging can be as simple as just providing background information and vital statistics to help create obituaries and to complete death certificates, to partially or fully funding the funeral in a Michigan (TM) Trust Fund.
There are three ways to pre-plan a funeral or cremation
- Pre-plan without funding –> this includes providing the funeral director with all information about yourself required for the death certificate and obituary, choosing the kind of services you desire, and perhaps even fully planning the funeral and getting an idea of what that funeral might cost at today’s prices.
- Pre-plan with funding –> the Duzak Cremation and Funeral Home is a participant of the Michigan Prepaid Funeral Trust Fund (TM) Choices. Upon meeting with a funeral director, you can set up your entire funeral and place money in the interest bearing trust fund to pay for your future funeral. The benefit of this fund is that it allows you to use the services of any funeral home, not just the funeral home you set the account up with. In addition, the interest earned on the account will help keep up with the inflation of funeral services.
- Pre-planning for Medicaid Purposes –> through Choices, irrevocable accounts can also be set up for purposes of Medicaid. In order to qualify for Medicaid, the person applying must reduce his or her assets below $2,000. Money can be set aside, however, in an irrevocable funeral pre-need account and will not be looked at as an asset by Medicaid. A funeral director can help you set up an irrevocable account through Choices, and provide you with easy to understand paperwork and copies for your Medicaid social worker.
To obtain more information on pre-need funeral planning, call us and we will mail you a brochure.
We are happy to help with any question you might have!