Preplanning your funeral is a gift to your family and friends. It ensures that not only will you have the funeral that you want but also that your family will be faced with fewer questions and worries when they put your plan into action. Preplanning a funeral often takes working with a knowledgeable funeral director who will be your guide in the planning process. But what if you can’t visit the funeral home in person? Can you still preplan your funeral?

Should I go to a funeral home to preplan if I can?

If you have the ability to venture to the funeral home of your choice to preplan, take advantage of the opportunity. Beyond meeting with the funeral director face to face to discuss your options, you’ll also be able to see the funeral home in person. You’ll want to be sure that the funeral home suits the needs of your service. Can it fit the number of people you’re expecting to attend? Is there enough parking for all of these people? Can the funeral home fit the needs of your religious or cultural traditions? Seeing the funeral home with your own eyes will help you to know if that’s where you want your funeral to be.

Do I have to go to a funeral home to preplan my funeral?

When it’s not possible to visit the funeral home in person, your funeral director can help guide you through your options from afar. Just like many professions, the funeral profession tries to keep up with the rapid advancement of technology to ensure that they can serve the people who come to them for assistance properly. One way in which funeral homes are striving to serve in the modern age is by offering virtual ways to preplan.

When you preplan your funeral, it’s crucial that you know who you’re working with. A face-to-face meeting with a funeral director is always more ideal than a phone call. With today’s technology, face-to-face and in-person meetings aren’t synonymous. A face-to-face meeting can still be accomplished virtually by way of online meeting applications like Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype. With these applications, you can talk to your funeral director as they show you your options for your funeral and final disposition.

Funeral homes will walk you through various documents during your meeting, ensuring that you have a thorough and complete understanding of your choices before making any major decisions. From there, they’ll send the documents to you to reference throughout the decision-making process. For instance, a funeral home is required to show you a General Price List, a Casket Price List, and an Outer Burial Container Price List. Ensure that these documents are sent to you after the meeting so you can follow up with any additional questions you might have after your initial conversation.

During your meeting, you should also try to get an idea of what the funeral home’s facilities have to offer to allow you to envision what the funeral or other services will look like. While in a virtual meeting with your funeral director, ask for a tour. You’ll still be able to see the facilities and ask questions, just like you would if you went to the funeral home yourself. Another option is to send someone to be your liaison. Ideally, this person should be the person who will be handling your affairs after you pass, such as your next of kin or the executor of your estate. Talk to this person about what you want in your funeral to ensure that they know what to look for when they visit the funeral home.

What should you do if you’ve never used virtual meeting applications or if you don’t have an email? Planning over the phone is still an option, but you’ll still need some way to see the documents that are essential for preplanning a funeral. Ask a loved one if they can help you with this issue. Have the documents sent to your loved one’s email, and then ask your loved one if they can deliver them to you. If your loved one is available during your meeting times, you can also ask if they can help you set up the virtual calls. That way, you’ll still be able to speak face to face, even if you yourself are unfamiliar with virtual meetings.

Funeral directors aim to be as accommodating as possible during the preplanning process. They want you to plan the exact funeral you want, so they’ll do anything they can to ensure you’re comfortable throughout the planning. Let them know about any restrictions while planning, such as if you’re unable to come into the funeral home, and ask them what options you have for planning from a distance.

Funeral directors have years of experience helping people plan their funerals, so you can rest assured that you won’t be the first person they’ve worked with who can’t come into the funeral home. They’ll be able to guide you through the planning process, whether it’s by phone, virtual meetings, through a liaison, or in person.

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