There is a common misconception that your funeral wishes including your preferences for being buried or cremated should appear in your Will. We recommend that this information appears in a separate document that is stored with your Will, and there are a number of good reasons for this.
Firstly, your Will is a strict legal document that has to pass through formal legal proceedings to be accepted. Particularly through the court probate processes, even before it is accepted as your official Last Will and Testament. Usually, by the time the document is accepted, your funeral would have already been taken care of.
Your Will is also a public document once it is accepted by the courts. There may be personal things written into your funeral wishes that you may not want to be made publicly available.
Your funeral wishes are often personal preferences, which may change frequently over time. Things like which songs you want played at your service. You should have the flexibility to update these things easily without going through the formal processes of updating a Will.
Your funeral wishes are not legally binding. They are your personal preferences that you would expect your Executor, family and loved ones to respect. There are no formal signing and witnessing requirements for your funeral wishes, and they do not have to go through any formal court process to be accepted.
We offer a free
MyFuneral service at USLegalWills.com. It works in a very similar way to the
Last Will and Testament service in that it guides you through the process of expressing your funeral wishes. This includes things like whether you want to be buried or cremated, but also the style and tone of your service. One of the most important questions is related to the costs of your funeral, which can be an emotionally difficult decision for your family and loved ones.
After you have stepped through the MyFuneral service you can download and print the final document and then store this with your Last Will and Testament.