The Details on Setting Up Pre Need Cremation Plans

Preplanning a cremation is a simple process and involves collecting the information required to complete the certificate of death and reviewing the details discussed on our requests page.

 

Once you’ve gathered all of this information and decided how the cremated remains are to be disposed of, call us to set an appointment to meet a member of our staff. At the conclusion of the funeral pre planning conference, Metropolitan Funeral Service will create a file for future reference. Also, if you are unavailable to personally visit our office, all arrangements can be made via US mail.

 

Funeral pre planning does not involve establishing a trust account and no monies are exchanged. The prices that are quoted at the time we create your preplanning file are for general reference only and will not be guaranteed when death occurs.

 

Wondering what documents are required for the meeting to preplan cremation. Refer to our documents required page to see what to bring.

 

Prefunding your (or a loved one’s) cremation arrangements takes the preplanning process one step further.

 

The first thing you should know about prefunding funerals is that there are two types of preneed agreements:

 

1) GUARANTEED

 

The funeral home offers a guaranteed preneed agreement whereby the price of the funeral services and merchandise is guaranteed not to exceed the balance in your trust account at the time that the funeral is provided. The Guarantee will be null and voided if withdrawals are made from the trust account and the guarantee does not apply to third party (cemetery/crematory costs, clergy fees, death certificates) charges.

 

2) NON-GUARANTEED

 

A non-guaranteed agreement indicates that the funeral home will provide the funeral services and merchandise selected at the cost of those items at the time of your funeral. If the total cost of the funeral exceeds the amount in the trust account, the additional expense will be due. If the total cost is less than the balance in the account, the excess funds will be refunded. The cost of the items at the time of your funeral must correspond with the funeral home’s printed General Price List at that time.

 

Metropolitan Funeral Service offers our families GUARANTEED preneed agreements. 

 

Establishing a preneed account is easy and will take very little of your time.

 

First, just as in funeral pre planning, the statistical data for the death certificate is gathered along with the instructions for the disposition of the cremated remains.

 

Second, you select the services and merchandise you desire, a preneed agreement is completed and you submit a check for the cost of the cremation made payable either to the funeral home or the PrePlan funeral trust program.

 

Within ten days, your payment with be forwarded to the trust program where it will be deposited into a government backed, interest bearing account within a New York financial institution.

 

You will receive a deposit acknowledgment in the mail indicating where the money has been deposited within 30 days.

 

New York State mandates that prearrangements with New York funeral firms MUST be REVOCABLE, except for SSI/Medicaid recipients. This means that all prearrangements (except when prepared for a Medicaid spend down) may be canceled at any time prior to death and the entire balance, including all accrued interest, must be refunded within ten days of the request.

 

New York State also mandates that preneed burial trusts for applicants or recipients of SSI/Medicaid MUST be IRREVOCABLE. This means that the prearrangements MAY NOT be canceled prior to death. It may, however, be transferred to a different funeral home at any time.

 

We realize that you may have questions about the preneed procedure in general, Medicaid funeral planning or SSI/Medicaid regulations. Please feel free to contact our office at any time and one of our licensed funeral directors will gladly provide the information you need.