FAQs

Planning ahead with a final expense insurance policy can be one of the smartest and safest ways a family member or breadwinner can protect the financial future and eliminate debts that are often left behind with one's unexpected loss. Often we hear stories of how financially devastating an unexpected loss has become for a family. By spending time with your Senior Solutions Insurance Broker NOW, you can properly prepare and alleviate those financial hardships.

Final Expense Insurance can:

• Pay off your traditional funeral and burial expenses
• Leave your family money for living expense for years to come

A Final Expense Insurance plan is the easiest, and safest way to plan ahead and prevent your loved ones from the financial and emotional burdens often left behind when you pass away. These plans are affordable, age and health restrictions are very liberal, and they provide a tax-free cash solution to easily pay for a funeral or other expenses. Final Expense Insurance is also Permanent Whole Life Insurance. This means that the coverage never cancels, it will cover you for your entire life! Also, the monthly premiums are locked in and will not go up as you get older!

Senior Solutions Insurance offers multiple solutions to help protect you and your loved ones.

Funerals can be expensive. Many people think that funeral prices are still hovering at around $6,000. However, that estimate is based on prices from several years ago and inflation has made the cost increase significantly in recent years.

Today, the average cost for a traditional funeral in the U.S. ranges between $7,000 and $10,000. Typically this will be all inclusive of expenses from services at the funeral home, purchasing of a casket, burial in a cemetery, and the installation of a headstone.

While cremation is gaining in popularity, a traditional funeral with burial is still the most popular choice among families who have lost a loved one.

Traditional Funeral Expense Breakdown:

• Directors fee $1,500
• Casket $2,300
• Embalming $500
• Gravesite $1,000
• Opening/Closing $600
• Grave liner $1,000
• Headstone $1,500

This example totals $8,300 in expenses. This is just for the primary items. Additional charges often apply and can make a funeral cost even more.

* It is important to note that funeral prices vary considerably between funeral homes and across different geographic locations.

Cremation is by far a less expensive alternative to traditional burials that is growing in acceptance in the united states. Having a better understanding of the costs involved and knowing how to choose the right cremation provider can help you decide if its the right choice for you or your family member.

Cremation costs vary... Especially based on what goes into your arrangements and even where you live is a factor in the price. Prices are typically higher in urban areas and vary tremendously depending on which services and add-ons you choose. The average cost of a cremation and basic memorial service through a funeral home is $2,000-$4,000. If you go directly through a crematory, that price can drop to as low as $1,500.00 up to $3,000.00.

Additional services that will increase the cost of a cremation include:

• Extras provided by the funeral home, such as hearses, visitations, or viewings

• A rental casket for a visitation or viewing

• Fees for transportation and storage

• Participating in the cremation via a witnessing service

• Interring the urn in a burial plot, vault or columbarium

For a direct cremation, without any add-ons, embalming, or memorial service, costs can be as low as $500-$1000. In this scenario, families can still host a service at home or place of worship with the remains, the service is just not provided through the funeral home.

These examples reflect the national average

Traditional Burial Merchandise:

• Casket's $2,000.00
• Headstone's $1,000.00 up to $3,000.00
• Grave liners $700.00 up to $1000.00
• Obituary's $200.00 up to $500.00
• Transportation $700.00 up to $1000.00

Cremation Merchandise:

Once the cremation is complete, families must choose how to honor their loved one’s remains. This typically begins with purchasing an urn. Urns range from less than $100 to over $1,000. Choosing an urn is obviously a very personal choice, and may depend on how it is intended to be used.

Options for cremation remains to include:

• Storing an urn in a private residence

• Interring the urn in a burial plot, vault, or columbarium

• Burying the remains outside a formal burial location, such as in a garden or forest

• Scattering the ashes

Each of these options come with varying associated expenses. Internment in a formal burial space typically costs around $1000, plus the cost of the urn. If you choose to bury the remains somewhere else or scatter them, you may choose to use the simple cardboard box provided by the crematory. In that case, your only additional expenses would be any incidentals, such as hiring a boat to scatter the ashes at sea.

If your loved one has died and the medical and credit card bills have started piling up, then you'll need to understand who will be responsible for paying off all of these debts and in what amounts. The answer depends on whether the estate of the decedent is solvent or insolvent.

What is a Solvent Estate?

A solvent estate is one that has enough assets to pay off the decedent's bills. In other words, when added up, the value of all of the decedent's individual assets exceeds the number of bills owed.

 What is an Insolvent Estate?

An insolvent estate is one that doesn't have enough assets to pay off all of the decedent's bills. In other words, when added up, the value of all of the decedent's individual assets is equal to or less than the number of bills owed.

 Death and Credit Card Debt:

If a loved one leaves behind thousands of dollars in debt on credit cards, you probably have nothing to worry about. That is, unless you are a co-signer on that card, in which case you will be responsible to pay those bills.

 

Mortgage Debt:

If the deceased's house is not paid off the bank will eventually foreclose – with some caveats. If you live in the house as a co-owner, or if you inherited the house, as long as you take over the payments, the bank should not attempt to foreclose.

 

Auto Debt:

If your parent, child or spouse passed away, and he or she was still making car payments, the vehicle can be repossessed by the bank, but not if you're willing to take over the payments.

Medical Debt:

In general, you would be personally liable for your relative's medical debts if:

• You agreed in advance to be personally responsible, such as by co-signing or guaranteeing a particular transaction.

• You are liable for the debts because of another legal relationship that results in a duty of support, such as you claim your parent as a dependent, or your negligence caused the debt.