Approaching Retirement at 65 - What kind of insurance do we need or not need?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

I think the main reason to pre-pay is so you can make the arrangements in advance and simplify things for your grieving relatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

I think the main reason to pre-pay is so you can make the arrangements in advance and simplify things for your grieving relatives.

We did this for my mom. I was glad everything was decided ahead of time and there were no decisions to make or any disagreements about what to do. The church was even paid for. It also locked in a price because by the time she had died, ten years had passed and the prices had gone up a lot.

[Anonymous]

How much does it cost, all in, including a service and plot? $10K, $15K, +?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

No, we had the body cremated and scattered the ashes in his favorite spots. We held a memorial ceremony in a rented room above his favorite restaurant.
You don’t need to buy into anything that you don’t want to…

[Anonymous]

We canceled our life insurance as we approached retirement, mainly because the premiums continued to increase as we aged, we have no dependents, and the mortgage was paid off. I thought one of us would die as soon as we canceled but so far we're both still kicking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

in his favorite spots. We held a memorial ceremony in a rented room above his favorite restaurant.
You don’t need to buy into anything that you don’t want to…

I don't think it's legal scatter ashes unless you own the land. You might get arrested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does it cost, all in, including a service and plot? $10K, $15K, +?

We had to go through this for a parent recently.. Prepaying won't work for us since we generally would need the cremation done as soon as possible after death for religious reasons. Had to call around to see who could accommodate us quickest and ended up paying close to 8K for the cremation and service (same day, prior to cremation). There were options as cheap as $4K but with longer wait times. We don't do plots (kinda moot since there's nothing to bury).

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t cancel life insurance if you have a term policy with a fixed premium. When it runs out it will be too expensive to renew, but let it ride until then.

I don’t know what burial insurance covers. I already bought a niche for my cremated remains. Cremation isn’t very expensive. No need to insure against.

I’ve looked at LTC insurance. Doesn’t seem like a good deal any more. I’m just gonna drain my investments for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

in his favorite spots. We held a memorial ceremony in a rented room above his favorite restaurant.
You don’t need to buy into anything that you don’t want to…

I don't think it's legal scatter ashes unless you own the land. You might get arrested.

Depends on the spot. We scattered my FILs ashes at a national park and we applied for and received approval for the scattering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

Do cremation and skip a burial. It's expensive and you don't need a burial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that?

Why? If you are rich, the cost is negligible in terms of your income. If you are poor, you can have a nice ceremony and cremation very inexpensively. We spent less than $2k when my FIL died.

Did that include a plot and funeral service? How much does a funeral and burial cost in the DMV?

Do cremation and skip a burial. It's expensive and you don't need a burial.

Did you place a memorial stone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do your own homework - you're retired, you'll have plenty of time figure this out.

It's hard to know what is necessary and what is a scam. All day long there are commercials about burial insurance, the $9.99 plan. My parents had those plans and the policy paid out about $10k but I think they may have paid much more than $10k because they lived into their 80s. I never questioned it when they were alive. I thought old people need that type of insurance. Scam.

How is it a scam? By your definition all insurance is a scam.

If it paid out $10k when they died then it was exactly what they paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does it cost, all in, including a service and plot? $10K, $15K, +?

funeral home costs can range from $2k (discount no services firm will pick up body, cremate eventually, prepare death certs) to $15k+ (+ also prepare body, viewing, services, transport to cemetery)

cemetery plots can start from $1k+, plus fees to open/close the plot. usually stonework contracted separately. my mom has plots but they are hours away and i haven't had a chance to figure out what it's going to cost to get them interred and the headstone altered. i assume a few thousand but for now since they are cremated, they are in my basement.

some funeral homes will arrange for a prepaid service to be handled by another firm if you move, but if they go out of business altogether you're out of luck.

and of course any wake after burial, if you're doing a full meal and several hours for a big crowd that can be $1-5 thousand or more.

i cremated my parents with a direct cremation firm, it was $2000 each. took several weeks to get the death certs and ashes.