You’ve planned ahead with final expense life insurance from Midgard Life Insurance Services. That’s great. But, now the day has come when you need to face the inevitable death of a loved one and make final arrangements. This isn’t something anyone teaches us to do or prepares us for, so the stress can be unbearable. Here are some easy-to-follow steps you can take to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.
Call Midgard Life Insurance Services
File your claim as soon as possible so you’ll have the cash on hand you need to take care of final expenses. Once your claim is received and approved, you’ll receive a check for the life insurance benefits within 24 hours.
Find Out What Your Loved One Wanted
If there is a will or trust, look there first to see what plans may have already been made and what preferences for funeral plans were spelled out in advance.
Take Care of Personal Belongings
If your loved one passed away in a care facility or hospital, take care of collecting their personal belongings, especially if there are things that are important to you. You don’t want the added stress of locating things that a staff member has misplaced. You’ll also want to do this as soon as possible to make sure a care facility won’t continue to charge you once Medicare or Medicaid payments have stopped.
Make Funeral Arrangements
Work with a funeral home to make arrangements based on your loved one’s wishes. It is hard to think about things like schedules at a time like this. But it is important to remember that both churches and funeral homes have schedules to maintain, so you’ll want to take care of this as soon as possible. You’ll also need to make cemetery arrangements. These are handled separately from the arrangements you make with a funeral home, although the funeral home may be able to provide assistance and guidance. Be sure to ask. For that matter, be sure to ask for help whenever you need it.
Inform Everyone
Have someone in the family write an obituary and place it in the newspaper. Assign another family member to deliver a notice to friends and family members directly about your loved one’s death that includes information about funeral services.
Take Care of Details
Plan in advance for what you are going to wear, how you are going to be transported to and from the funeral and burial site, and make sure you have everything you need for that day, including any personal items that you’ll want to have with you.
Assign someone to take care of personal items for the funeral like photos and choose speakers and pallbearers, create programs and handle other details. Your funeral home should have checklists available for you to make sure nothing gets missed. You may want to choose special readings or music and purchase a guestbook so you know who attended.
If you don’t have final expense life insurance, please give us a call. We’re here to help.