When creating your own funeral pre-plan, it's important to find the funeral home that will fulfill your final wishes and support your family as they deal with their loss. You'll want to work with a funeral home that has the people and services you and your family will need most. Many offer similar services but some have unique ways to support your family. Here are some points to consider when looking for just the right funeral home.

Talk With The Funeral Director And The Staff

Spend some time with the director and their staff to get a sense of the atmosphere at the funeral home. A facility where the staff genuinely enjoy their work is likely to be a more pleasant place for your family to work with. Look for a funeral home where the staff is eager to come up with solutions to help your family instead of being focused on upselling products and services.

Evaluate Their Approach To Grief Counseling

Every funeral home offers some form of grief counseling. But their approach may be different. Some of the ways a funeral home addresses grief counseling can include:

• The facility hires its own trained grief counselors. They hold support groups at the facility and may offer classes in dealing with grief. They may also have individual sessions for those people who prefer a one-on-one counseling.
• The facility contracts out grief counseling to an outside source. They may offer support groups and individual sessions in their own office and not at the funeral home.
• The facility refers people to other organizations in the community, such as non-profits and religious groups. Your family may have to contact these groups themselves and make arrangements to get help with their grief.

Learn how each funeral home handles grief counseling and decide the best approach for your family.

Find Out About Any Cemetery Connections

Some facilities manage their own cemetery which you can use for your remains. If you are considering using their cemetery, find out the restrictions they have for that facility. They will include rules for such items as:

• the size, shape and materials allowed for headstones
• who is responsible for preparing the grave for the memorial and erecting the headstone
• what responsibilities the family and the funeral home have for maintaining the grave site and headstone

Make sure that you and your family can work within the parameters established by the funeral home for their cemetery use.

Ask About Administrative Assistance For Your Family

Filing for insurance and military benefits can be confusing and puts an additional burden on your family. Some funeral homes offer administrative assistance to families to make sure that these tasks are done correctly the first time. This can be an important service for your family during their time of grief, especially if they are in need of those benefits.

For more information, consider contacting a professional like those at M J Murphy Funeral Home.