Do You Need Burial Insurance?
What Is Burial Insurance & Why Do I Need It?
The costs of dealing with the body after death can sometimes shock people. There are a large number of things to take care of, including the transfer, funeral, burial, and more. All of these can easily combine to cost thousands of dollars. In fact, the average cost of a funeral is around $10,000.
Normally, these costs fall to the surviving heirs or family members of the deceased. Even if an inheritance is left, these costs can take a surprisingly large piece out of it.
Burial insurance is there to help cover these costs. This is sometimes done as whole life insurance with a death benefit that could be anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000. It can also be done separately as its own individual policy.
What Does It Cover?
Always remember to check your policy for specifics, but there are several things that are usually covered under burial insurance. These includes expenses like:
- Casket or urn
- Cremation
- Embalming
- Headstone
- Funeral services
- Hearse or other vehicles
- Burial
- Flowers
- Cost of the plot
Why Do I Need Burial Insurance if I Have Life Insurance?
Life insurance policies are carefully planned out to make sure that the surviving family has enough for them to live, but it doesn’t always take the costs of the funeral or burial into account. Adding burial insurance to a policy ensures that there will enough to cover these expenses.
What If I Don’t Have Life Insurance?
Burial insurance is cheaper than life insurance since the insurance company will have to pay less out for burial insurance than life insurance. So it’s actually very common for people to have only burial insurance. People usually choose to buy burial insurance in these situations:
- They have no other means of paying for a funeral.
- They want to cover their entire family.
- They have limited savings with no other means to pay for funeral expenses and outstanding debts
How Much Does Burial Insurance Cost?
Like life insurance, the cost of burial insurance can depend on a variety of different factors. The biggest one of these is age. The younger someone is, the lower the premium is on burial insurance. This is similar to how life insurance is cheaper when you’re younger.
Are There Other Options?
If someone wants to have their funeral expenses paid for but don’t want burial insurance, there are other options. One of these is pre-planning a funeral with a funeral home. Doing this allows someone to pay for all of their expenses upfront before their death.
It’s a good idea to shop around and look at all of the options. Check with a funeral home for pre-payment plans, then compare it to the cost of multiple burial insurance quotes.