How to Help With the Cost of a Funeral
When a death creates a set of circumstances that leaves the family in need of financial assistance to help pay for final arrangements, it's time to step up to the plate. Writing a check is the easiest way to ease the burden, but there are other ways to be helpful that you may not have thought about. The concern and comfort you offer will help friends and family cope with their loss, but the financial relief offered to the bereaved family is the stuff of which good Samaritans are made.
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Things You'll Need
- Credit cards
- Line of credit
- Good credit
- Insurance policy
- Death certificate
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Phone and numbers
Instructions
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Write a check or use PayPal or another cash transfer system to send funds to the funeral home. The most obvious way to handle payment is by accessing personal funds, but if you're not liquid at the moment (but will be in the near future), tap your bank line of credit. You may also help make payoff arrangements through the funeral home by offering to put your excellent credit on the line if there's no other way to negotiate a payoff plan on behalf of the family.
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Loan your credit or debit card to a trusted family member. Today's crematoria, funeral homes and mortuaries take a variety of credit cards to settle final arrangements, and if you're out of town and want to speed your financial assistance, you can help immediately from any location. If you've got great credit and qualify for 0 percent credit card offers, take advantage of such a deal to avoid paying interest.
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Contact the family's insurance agent or broker to see about hastening payment from a whole or term life insurance policy that may have provisions for funeral funds built into the contract. You may have to provide a death certificate to collect funds, so this option won't be available to you and the family if there are suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a coroner or medical examiner has yet to rule on the cause.
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Initiate a fundraiser. With no time to plan an event, there are still ways to drum up financial help by appealing to others for cash donations. Contact members of a community organization to which the deceased belonged -- the Kiwanis, Rotary, garden club, Junior League or a church -- or a board on which he sat. Tap former work associates for funds. Send emails to folks listed on the decedent's address book, asking, in the name of the family, for financial assistance to pay her final expenses.
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Liquidate goods to help the family pay for the funeral. Obtain permission to sell jewelry, collectible art and other valuables. If the funeral home is willing to wait a month to settle the bill, direct your efforts toward websites like eBay, Amazon and online auctions. If you aren't given time to undertake Internet sales, volunteer to visit area pawn and jewelry shops. One caveat: Check with family members before making a sale so there are no pricing disagreements after the fact.
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References
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