# Prepaying for your own "after-death arrangements" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932 "2026-02-24T13:14:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/21 "2026-02-24T23:14:12Z")
Dunno where you have to live to be able to use UC’s [Willed Body Program](https://meded.ucsf.edu/about-us/educational-support-resources/willed-body-program/about-willed-body-program) – must be some similar programs elsewhere? My mother, sister and brother all signed up for it. (Truth to tell, I don’t remember whether I have.) When you sign up they send you a card with their phone number; a survivor dials the number and they come to pick up the body. No doubt they’re glad to get all the bodies they can. ---
**Author:** ![Trieste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Trieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trieste)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/22 "2026-02-24T23:44:01Z")
I want to be cremated. After that, my wife can just flush my ashes if she wants to. (She won’t). I am a veteran but I am not very enamored with this country so don’t care if I get a flag or not. Probably won’t be up to me though. T ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/23 "2026-02-24T23:50:16Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > Man are things different here. Funerals are a big business here and the role of the chevra kadisha is just body prep and prayer until the funeral. A plot and internment are CAD$5000, caskets are used at every funeral I have attended and the funeral homes charge thousands on top of the casket cost. Israel is unusual, I think, in that burial is a government service. You die, they clean you, wrap you in a shroud and bury you within 24 hours, if not the same day - and the state pays the bill. It’s a well-oiled, slightly impersonal machine, but at times like that people seem to want a machine. They don’t want to make decisions; they want to do the rituals, say the eulogies and go home for the shiva. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/24 "2026-02-25T00:32:07Z")
Dad has prepaid through the Neptune Society. When my sister died unexpectedly her husband chose them, and seems satisfied with their services. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/25 "2026-02-25T03:34:03Z")
well, having gone unprepared for my mother’s demise, I tried to do better for my daughter. I have an itemized step-by-step SOP package, with appropriate paperwork, forms like DD214, bank account data, insurance, burial instructions (VA) who to contact; she’s already my power of attorney ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/26 "2026-02-25T07:22:05Z")
I plan to donate my body to a local reseach/university hospital so I can do more in death than I have in life. If I am aware that my time is near, I will send funds to a friend to pay for the booze at my wake. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/27 "2026-02-25T11:36:48Z")
My partner arranged her own cremation with Pure Cremation, the UK version of the Neptune Society. Cost £2000 (GBP incase that pound sign doesn’t work). When she died just after Christmas, they dealt with everything, not even any ashes - she asked for them to be scattered in their own garden. We held a wake at a pub later. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/28 "2026-02-27T14:44:25Z")
Both of my parents decided to donate their bodies to medical science, so I got paperwork from the University of Miami. You have to do it in connection with a local funeral home. They signed the papers for the funeral home too, and prepaid for everything. When Mom passed away, I simply called the funeral home and made sure to mention that they had the paperwork on file for the donation. Everything else was automatic. I got a follow-up from UM requesting that I confirm that I did not want her ashes back when they were done. Then, about 8 months later, I got an invitation to their Physical Therapy department’s “Rose Ceremony” where they honor the deceased and family. It was over an hour away, and would require rush hour travel, so we opted not to attend. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/29 "2026-03-01T06:09:21Z")
With my luck, I’d prepay and they’d find a cure for death. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/30 "2026-03-01T11:22:21Z")
You say that like it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/31 "2026-03-01T12:32:31Z")
My wife and I just prepaid for simplest possible cremations - we’re both 71, and not in a hurry, but are also dealing with an 87 year old aunt who needs to be shamed into making SOME kind of plans, so we decided to lead by example. We paid about $2300 each, to a plan administered by the closest funeral home that offered such. Curiously, the prices advertised in nearby Massachusetts were significantly lower - I suspect local ordinances and RI tradition have more to do with this than I really care to think about. At any rate, the actual cost was not the most important to us, but rather the absolute minimum of fuss and last-minute-decision-remaking. I had to travel to a different funeral home to formally identify my late mom before they could proceed with cremation a few years back, which I could easily do at the time - neither of us wants the other to have to drive [or be driven…] for an hour in their 80s or 90s just to say ‘yup, that was him’… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/32 "2026-03-01T13:09:57Z")
You could do like actor Luke Perry and be buried in a mushroom suit. I like the idea of fertilizing new life. > **[Luke Perry's Daughter Reveals Late Actor Was Buried in Mushroom Suit](https://www.insideedition.com/luke-perrys-daughter-reveals-late-actor-was-buried-mushroom-suit-52693)** > > The suit is biodegradable, made of mushrooms and other organisms that help in decomposition. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/33 "2026-03-01T21:09:30Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > They were given the choice of **reviving the ashes back** or having them buried by the receiving medical institutions after the donations were finished in use. ( bolding mine) Isn’t that a little bit like trying to resuscitate and well done steak?… quite a long shot I reckon… ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/34 "2026-03-01T21:14:28Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > You could do like actor Luke Perry and be buried in a mushroom suit. I like the idea of fertilizing new life > > [Luke Perry's Daughter Reveals Late Actor Was Buried in Mushroom Suit | Inside Edition](https://www.insideedition.com/luke-perrys-daughter-reveals-late-actor-was-buried-mushroom-suit-52693) This is cool. I like this idea much more than cremation. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/35 "2026-03-01T21:28:31Z")
I vaguely remember first seeing a “[green burial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_burial)” in an episode of Six Feet Under years ago. I think the deceased was buried in a simple cloth bag in a forest. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/36 "2026-03-01T23:49:10Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > They were given the choice of **reviving the ashes back** Don’t you just love auto correct? I caught it once in that post but missed it the second time. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/37 "2026-03-01T23:55:09Z")
[Here’s a direct cremation prepaid option.](https://www.after.com/articles/direct-cremation) Half the price of Neptune Society. StG ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932/38 "2026-03-01T23:58:14Z")
My wife and I have both specified we want green burials. I’m particularly amused by the thought of worms playing pinochle on my snout! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaying-for-your-own-after-death-arrangements/1027932.md?page=1)