When pre-planning a funeral, all of your thoughts and wishes are planned for. Your family will know what you want, and not what they think you want. At Caudle-Rutledge Funeral Home, we'll help you put it in writing. Writing it down will help avoid family disputes, or involvement by others that may not know what your wishes are. Your loved ones won't question: "Did we do the right thing? Did we forget anything? Is this what she/he wanted? Did we spend too much?" All that is eliminated because you put it in writing.

Pre-planning is the first step. Many people are considering ways to fund their funeral. Funding the funeral guarantees that the goods and services selected will not cost the family anything more. Pre-planning along with pre-funding work together because they offer peace of mind. Your survivors will not be burdened with decisions regarding your funeral.

Since 1960, the number of pre-planned funerals has increased by 1000%. Why such a dramatic increase in Pre-Planned Funerals?

Because pre-planning guarantees:

• Your wishes will be fulfilled.

• You will spare your loved ones any unnecessary financial burden.

Pre-planning your own funeral makes sense because it allows you to take full control of your funeral right now. You can save your loved ones the trauma of making difficult decisions without knowing exactly what you have wanted.

Pre-planning allows you to confer with your loved ones and make your plans together, thus resolving your most personal matters with a clear mind, in a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere. In return, you will save the people you care about most from the emotional turmoil and burdensome decisions that an unplanned funeral can often bring.

By making the decision to pre-pay now, you will lock in the cost of your funeral at today's prices, even if you live for another 50 years. When you pre-arrange and pre-pay, you can be assured that definite arrangements have been made and no other financial decisions need to be faced. Your funds are held by one of the countries leading reputable financial institutions in a special contract, designed solely for providing the exact funeral you have chosen at the time of need. No matter what the cost of fulfilling your last wishes at your time of need, pre-payment guarantees the cost will remain constant, regardless of inflation. In fact, since pre-paying ensures that you are protected against inflation, you can save thousands of dollars to spend as you please or leave to your loved ones.

(Finally, people preplan and prepay a funeral to reduce a family member’s assets so that that particular family member may qualify for Medicaid upon entering a nursing home. When a person enters a nursing home, the nursing home is going to utilize all of his/her funds before he or she can qualify for Medicaid. By using available money to prepay a funeral before funds are exhausted, the family can be assured that funeral costs will be taken care of while still qualifying their loved one for Medicaid.)