Planning Ahead

Every family who plans ahead does it for the same reason: they do not want the people they love guessing. When wishes are written down in advance, the family is not standing in a room trying to remember whether Dad wanted burial or cremation, or whether Mom would have wanted the church or the graveside. Planning ahead with Parker & Burns Funeral Home costs nothing to start, commits you to nothing, and can be as simple as recording your preferences or as complete as funding the arrangements in advance.

Recording Your Wishes

The simplest form of planning ahead is a conversation and a written record. We sit down with you, go through the same questions we would ask your family later, and put your answers on file: burial or cremation, visitation or none, church or funeral home or graveside, the music, the scripture, the veterans honors, the people you want notified. There is no obligation and no payment involved in this step. You can change any of it at any time, and we keep a copy while you keep one for your records.

Families who arrive with a plan in place have a noticeably easier week. The decisions that cause the most tension, especially among adult children who remember things differently, are already settled, and no one has to wonder whether they are spending too much or too little. Grief is still grief, but the administrative weight of it is lighter, and your family gets to spend those days remembering you instead of debating on your behalf.

Funding a plan in advance is a separate decision from recording your wishes, and plenty of families do one without the other. Prearranged funerals in Indiana are typically funded through a trust or an insurance policy, and the arrangement spells out what is guaranteed at today's prices and what is not. If your family is dealing with Medicaid eligibility or a nursing home spend-down, a properly structured prearrangement may be treated differently than other assets, and that is worth discussing with us and with your attorney or financial advisor before you sign anything. We will explain the options plainly and in writing, and we will not push you toward the largest one.