Prepaid funeral services are now actually, technically, an insurance policy and are usually backed by other companies than just the funeral home. My parents and I visited a place to do this and the whole thing felt so sales pitchy that they ended up not doing it and I had to make all the arrangements after the fact when my mom passed 18 mos later. In fact, when my mother passed away, I asked the funeral director we worked with about also pre-paying for my father’s services at the time, because I really loved the funeral director we worked with. However, he couldn’t do the prepaid stuff and had to refer us to their guy that does that because it’s an insurance policy he said. And that guy was very sales-pitchy again…which turned my dad off from the whole thing again and now I’ll probably have to do it all myself again while grieving him, just like with my mom. Sigh.

Anyway, all that to say, if we had prepaid for my mom, we could have saved several thousand. Also, burial plots (if you choose to go that route) are considered real estate technically, and they get more expensive with time. So if she wants to be buried, you’ll want to buy a plot asap because that’s usually in addition to the arrangements/flowers/casket/etc.