Pre-Planning

Preparing funeral arrangements before the need arises is called pre-planning or pre-arranging. Many people find that pre-planning gives them peace of mind knowing that their wishes will be respected and the burden lessened on their family at the time of their death. Others find that they need to protect their assets from the state and assure that their funeral expenses will be taken care of. Pre-planning your funeral consists of meeting with the funeral home of choice to allow them to gather biographical information for a death certificate as well as any information you would like included in obituary notices. At this time you can also choose the type of service desired, the type of casket, concrete outer burial container or cremation urn.

Once your pre-arrangements are made, you may prepay your funeral to secure the price at today's cost. The interest that accumulates on your funds is then used to offset inflation. At the Peabody Funeral Homes, we work with a number of reputable prefunding vehicles such as insurance and trusts. We guarantee that your funeral funds will be secure and protected.One method of prefunding a funeral is to use a preneed insurance policy. This policy is usually in the amount of the preneed funeral contract, and typically grows by an inflation factor to cover inflation at the time of death. There are no taxes to be paid on accrued interest in the policy, and the proceeds are designated to be paid to the funeral home to cover the funeral expenses at the time of death. At the Peabody Funeral Homes, we offer some of the finest preneed insurance available, such as the Columbian Life Insurance Company. Preneed insurance guarantees that the arrangements you make today will be available just as you specified, without additional cost to you.

Another method of prefunding your funeral is a trust account. A trust account is set up with the funeral home and a financial institution. The money, usually the amount of the preneed contract, is invested with the financial institution to gain interest to cover the inflation of the funeral. Depending on how the trust is set up, there may be taxes to be paid by the family on the interest accrued. At the Peabody Funeral Homes, we offer trust agreements through Interment Trust Services, which is endorsed by the NH Funeral Director's Association. The benefit to Interment Trust Services is that the taxes are paid directly from the trust funds freeing the family of that burden. This method also guarantees that the arrangements you make today will be available just as you specified.