Funeral Planning Checklist

Planning a funeral can be a very emotionally enduring time with several tasks to accomplish. Follow this easy checklist to ensure that all your objectives are met.

  • Notify a funeral director.
    • Call your local funeral director to find out who needs to be notified in case of death.
  • Meet with a funeral director.
    • The funeral director will guide you through most of the funeral process.
    • Have the funeral director provide you with copies of the death certificate for insurance companies, banks, etc.
    • Death certificate information click here
    • Decide on calling hours at the funeral home.
    • If the funeral is to include a religious ceremony, the clergy must be selected and notified.
  • Notify friends and family.
    • Contact those who would attend the ceremony.
    • Decide who will give eulogies and who will be pall bearers.
    • Notify legal representation of the deceased or administrator of the estate.
  • Make disposition decision.
    • Decide on a traditional or non-traditional burial or cremation.
    • Consider embalming the body – by law, non embalmed bodies must be buried sooner than embalmed bodies.
    • Notify legal representation of the deceased or administrator of the estate.
  • Make burial decision.
    • If not previously purchased, choose a burial plot, mausoleum or cremation niche.
    • If choosing burial for disposition, choose a type of casket. If choosing cremation, decide on an urn.
    • If burial is your decision, decide on clothing and jewelry for the deceased to be dressed in.
    • Decide on having an open or closed casket.
    • Decide what burial vault is preferred.
    • Decide when and where to have the funeral service: before or after the burial? Do you want the ceremony in a church, a funeral home, the burial site or at multiple sites?
    • Will there be a visitation or other family gathering?
  • Write the obituary.
    • See How to write an obituary
    • Publish the obituary in the local newspapers or organization publications (Alumnit, business, church, fraternity, veteran, etc) where the deceased belonged. You may also want to send it to the person’s home newspaper or to the paper in a city where he or she was a long-time resident.

Additionally, there are other resources that may prove helpful to you depending on your individual circumstances. You may wish to contact your religious center for additional support, a local counseling center or your family physician.