Final Expense Insurance

Final expense insurance is often a *whole life insurance* policy that has a small death benefit and is easy to get approved for. It is often called funeral insurance, burial insurance, simplified issue whole life insurance, or modified whole life insurance. All relate to small whole life policies with a face value (and death benefit) of $2,000 to $35,000.

However, you don`t have to buy whole life insurance to cover final expenses. You can simply pre-pay for final expenses while alive. It all depends on your assets and ability to access cash upon a death. We would never want to accuse the insurance industry of embellishment. The simple fact is whether you want to have a so-called traditional funeral or you choose to be cremated would probably determines whether you should buy Final Expense Insurance.

• Average cost of a traditional embalmed burial and casket $8,000.00 and up
• Average cost of a cremation should be under $2,000.00 (have not accounted for recent inflation but ...)

I had my Brother, Father and Mother all cremated in Arizona for under $1500.00 each. My brother and father were significantly less. Other desires and costs determine what will be needed for Final Expenses.

• What bills and expenses cannot be paid without additional monies
• What you will do with the Urn/Ashes.
  • Will/Can you dump them in their requested place
  • Will you bury the Urn/Ashes in a cemetery costing a plot
  • Will you have a Tombstone in the cemetery
  • Do you want anyone to have a few extra bucks upon your death.
  • Would someone be needed for estate liquidation.
  • Are you a hoarder leaving much to be cleaned up and sold.

Lots of other choices running up the cost like you can have the ashes poured into the Grand Canyon for under a $1,000.00 (last time I checked).

Add all that up and that is the amount needed for Final Expense. You can pay for all that with a Final Expense Policy.

Be careful here as there are what I consider predatory companies in this business. One of my relatives passed away with a pre-paid policy that included a box to put the urn in at a very excessive price. I had to threaten the company with a fraud lawsuit to get them to cancel the like policy for the spouse. It was just plain excessive. They prey on older people who don`t have a full understanding of all their options.

Long-Term Care Insurance is like tires, nobody gets excited about going shopping for those things. Additionally, LTC provides a benefit while you are living where Final Expense Insurance benefits are after your dead so the real benefit is to your family or whoever will bury or cremate you.

A large percentage of Final Expense Insurance is for people who say they don`t want to dump all that on their kids both for stress and cost even if they are leaving a nest egg behind.

When one of my relatives Son died in New York while they lived in Florida they had to decide to just leave his body dumping the cost of burial on the State of NY taxpayers or pony up for the cost to go get him and take care of it themselves. They chose the latter. Needless to say, he did not have insurance of any kind.

More and more people are choosing cremation probably due to the cost. As stated We can get you cremated for a reasonable sum probably under $1,500.00 whereas a traditional burial would cost $8,000.00 or more. You can save some by not embalming but that depends on your States rules as States make you bury them within a certain amount or hours/days after death if not embalmed.

Cremation also removes much of the hassle of working with undertakers. You don`t have to stress over coffins and other costs just a simple urn. Cremation also eliminates other problems with a traditional funeral.

A real good read on this subject is

• “The American Way of Death” by Jessica Mitford
• “The American Way of Death “Revisited”
• “The price of Death”

You may be able to buy these books used and cheap at https://estatesal.com

The book sums up an incident where a woman`s husband died, and she had her sister make the funeral arrangements due to her grief. The sister picked out a reasonable priced coffin only to have the undertaker call her back later saying that the coffin would not work for her sister`s husband as he was too tall to fit in it. A disagreement began and ended with the undertaker simply saying to the sister, ok we can use that coffin, but I will have to cut his feet off!

While this may be unusual it shows there are a lot more hassles with a traditional funeral. For instance, historically it is recommended you do not bury relatives with their jewelry. If you decide to do that make sure you watch the undertakers close the coffin and follow it to the grave full of dirt. It is alleged undertakers have some of the finest jewelry collections.

So clearly, what kind of Final Expense policy you buy is dependent on cremation or burial.

Final Expense does not have to be done with insurance although there are advantages of doing so. One can just do pre-need basically just paying for your cremation while you are alive. The rationale of doing this is that funeral costs have historically doubled every 10 years. This usually means you want to save your relatives money and stress.

We can do that for you we probably have the lowest cost cremation provider available in Arizona

You just pick out an urn and pay for it.. Now having done that you need to decide what you want done with your ashes and do you want a service. For those that are inclined you can still have a service and view the body prior to cremation. You can have your ashes flown up in an airplane and dumped in the Grand Canyon for a very hefty price. The price being almost as much as the cost of cremation.

However, if you are going to have the ashes buried in a cemetery you will have to pay for the burial plot and then for course if you want a tombstone too you will have to pay for that.

Take out an insurance policy for about $3,000.00 it could take care of the cremation and urn and leave about $1,500.00 for other expenses. This would most likely be a Whole Life Policy. Term insurance is not an option. If you are that close to death you probably should just go pre-need.

If you are going with a traditional burial funeral then take out an insurance policy for $10,000.00. It should cover the cost of a reasonable funeral. But if you love your relatives don`t burden them with the stress and cost.

We can align you with one of the lowest cost cremation providers in the State of Arizona. Contact us.

What we do for Final Expense (more or less my elevator speech)

We help people alleviate some common fears and misconceptions related to planning and funding one`s own final expense costs.

We help solve retirement and end-of-life challenges facing Americans today showing people how to spare your family the financial burden of paying for a funeral.

We show people a way there family will not be remembering you for leaving a financial burden for the family so you can be memorialized under your own terms allowing family and friends the opportunity to honor a loved one.

We remove the stress of a financial burden on relatives from final expenses.

As a debt collector during bear markets it was not that unusual to have someone tell you they could not pay the bill as they just forked over some $8,000.00 for a relatives funeral.

We are all going to go to the other side

It`s just a matter of who pays for it.

U or those loved ones U leave behind

Everybody leaves something behind