Funeral Bonds
Funeral bonds are something worth considering if you want to make arrangements for your funeral in advance and reduce the decisions and financial burden your family may face later.
Planning Your Funeral
When someone dies, there may be tears, pain, sadness and grief. How this process works for the people left behind will be unique to every family.
While most of us don’t know when death will come, we can still be prepared for it.
A pre-arranged funeral gives you the opportunity to think about your wishes now and put them in writing, so that things can be as smooth and stress-free as possible when the time comes.
A pre-arranged funeral might include decisions such as:
- Disposal — would you prefer cremation or burial?
- Coffin or casket — would you like a Daisybox, woven wicker casket or something else?
- Service — would you like a funeral with your person present, a memorial service after cremation, or no service at all?
- Location — would you like the farewell to take place under a tree, in a park, beside a river, at a favourite club or somewhere else meaningful to you?
- Transport — how would you like your person to be transported?
These are your choices. There is no requirement for a funeral to look like anyone else’s.
By making these choices now, you can save your family from having to make decisions at a time when they may not feel like making them.
Paying for Your Funeral in Advance
Once you have worked out the details of your funeral, you can also choose to pay for it in advance through a pre-paid funeral contract and funeral bond.
A funeral bond is different from funeral insurance.
With funeral insurance, you generally pay regular premiums — weekly, fortnightly or monthly — for cover. If you stop paying the premiums, you may lose that cover.
A funeral bond is a fixed amount held as a capital-guaranteed investment. It can be paid as a lump sum or by instalments. Once the amount planned for has been paid, there are no ongoing premiums.
The funeral can then be planned and paid for in advance and secured at today’s prices, regardless of how far into the future the funeral is needed.
Why a Funeral Bond?
The main benefit is certainty.
You can make decisions about your funeral while you are able to do so, rather than leaving those decisions to someone else.
You can also make arrangements knowing that the money set aside for the funeral is held separately rather than simply being part of your everyday finances.
Our funeral bonds are secured with Australian Unity.
A funeral bond may also have implications for your financial circumstances, including means-tested pension arrangements. We recommend discussing your individual circumstances with an appropriate financial adviser or Centrelink before making a decision.
What Can Be Pre-Planned?
There is no single funeral that suits everyone.
A pre-paid funeral with Rest can be arranged around the choices that are important to you. Depending on what you want, this can include a simple direct cremation, a burial, a funeral or memorial service, your choice of coffin or casket and other elements of the farewell.
If you have already purchased a burial plot or grave, that can also be taken into account. If you have not, the cemetery arrangements can be included as part of the planning process where appropriate.
The important thing is that the arrangement reflects your wishes, rather than simply following what has traditionally been done.
What Happens if I Change My Mind?
Pre-paid funeral contracts in Queensland have a cooling-off period. The terms and conditions of your particular contract will explain the cancellation arrangements, including any applicable cancellation fee.
Your pre-paid funeral contract contains the full terms of the arrangement, so it is important to read it carefully before entering into the contract.
What Happens to the Money?
The funds associated with the funeral bond are held with Australian Unity.
If Rest were unable to provide the funeral as agreed under the pre-paid funeral contract, the funds would be available to go towards funeral expenses elsewhere, subject to the terms of the contract.
The important thing about pre-planning is that the arrangement does not rely entirely on your family remembering what you wanted or finding the money when the time comes.
You Don’t Have to Know Everything
Pre-planning does not mean you have to decide every detail of your funeral today.
It can be as simple as starting a conversation about what matters to you, making some decisions and recording them.
If you want to explore the options, we can talk through them with you without assuming that you need a particular type of funeral.
A funeral bond is one option for paying for a funeral in advance. It is worth considering alongside your own financial circumstances and the alternatives available to you.