This article discusses Affordable prepaid funeral home costs funerals order of service. first, here are three quick tips to saving money on funeral services :
1. Make your wishes known about your funeral, memorial, or burial arrangements in writing. Be cautious about prepaying because there may be risks involved.
2.For information about the least costly options, which could save you several thousand dollars, contact a local memorial society, which is usually listed in the Yellow Pages under funeral services.
3. Before selecting a funeral home, call several and ask for prices of specific goods and services, or visit them to obtain an itemized price list. You are entitled to this information by law and, by using it to comparison shop, you can save hundreds of dollars. See funeral services for more information.

Funerals generally rate only below the cost of a home, car, and education in a family's finances. If you don't want a fancy funeral, plan now. Best bet: Join a memorial society, which is an information center run by a reputable undertaker that lists alternatives to big-money funerals. Cost to join is minimal. For a list of memorial societies, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to: Continental Association of Funeral and Memorial Societies, 2001 S St., NW, Washington, DC 20009.

A related subject, where to put a will for safekeeping? The question of where to keep a will isn't as easy as it sounds. It should be in a safe, private place. But it must also be available to the exec­utor immediately upon the death of the testa­tor. The answer generally depends partly on state law.
Some ideas:
If the bank is the estate executor, the natural choice is the bank vault. (If testator changes his mind and executes a new will naming another executor, remember to remove the will to another place.)
A safe-deposit box is not a good place if no one else has access to it without a court order. Best: Authorize executor's access in advance, if local law permits entry by two or more people and the death of one does not affect entry right of the other. Use a separate box for the will only, if the testator doesn't want the exec­utor to see other private documents.
Your attorney's safe is a good choice only if it is fireproof and burglar resistant. The law firm's safe-deposit box in a bank vault is a bet­ter choice.
Whatever place is chosen, keep another copy of the will elsewhere. Make sure it is identical to the original but clearly marked "copy". It should not be signed. Too risky that it will be thought to be the original. If the will is then changed, it could cause confusion and challenges.

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When Someone Close Is Very III: It may seem callous to even think about taxes when a loved one faces a life-threatening illness. But if tax planning is ignored at that point, assets carefully accumulated over a lifetime may be squandered unnecessarily. For many facing a final illness, dealing with these matters provides life-oriented focus that helps them to combat depression and achieve a sense of completion in seeing that their affairs are well ordered. Some things to consider:
Gifts by the patient. In many cases, estate taxes can be saved by making gifts to family members and other intended beneficiaries. An unlimited amount may be transferred tax-free provided no one person receives more than $10,000. The maximum tax-free gift per recipient can increase to $20,000 if the patient's spouse is still alive and consents to treat each gift as having been jointly made.
Under the old law, gifts made within three years of death were figured back into the taxable estate. The '81 tax act repealed this "contemplation-of-death" rule in most cases. One major exception: The old rule still applies to gifts of life insurance.
Gifts to the patient. This tactic may be useful when the patient doesn't have enough property to take full advantage of the estate tax exemption ($600,000 in 1987). Reason: Property that passes through a decedent's estate gets what's known as a stepped-up basis. That is, the person who inherits it is treated for income tax purposes as though he bought it and paid what it was worth on the date of death. (Or what it was worth six months after the date of death if the executor chooses this alternate date to set the value of the taxable estate.)
Example: Mr. lones, a cancer patient, has $150,000 worth of assets. His wife has a large estate, including $75,000 worth of stock that has a tax basis of $10,000. That means there's $65,000 worth of taxable gain built into the stock. She gives the stock to her husband. (There's no tax on gifts between spouses.) Mr. lones leaves the stock to the children. The children inherit the stock with the basis stepped up to $75,000. So if they turn right around and sell it for $75,000, there's no taxable gain. With these shares, Mr. lones's estate is still only $225,000-under the exempt amount. So the stepped up basis is achieved without paying estate tax. And the property is taken out of Mrs. lones's estate where it might be taxed.

In most cases, it doesn't pay to use this tactic with property that will be bequeathed back to a spouse who gave it to the patient. Reason: Unless the gift was made more than a year before the date of death, stepped-up basis will be denied. But when the patient is expected to survive for substantially more than a year, this tactic can be quite useful.
Example: Mr. Smith owns a $150,000 rental property with a $25,000 tax basis. Mrs. Smith has a disease that will be fatal within two to five years. She has few assets of her own. So Mr. Smith gives her the building and inherits it back from her a few years later with the basis stepped up to $150,000. This substantially increases his depreciation deductions if he keeps the building and eliminates any taxable gain if he sells it.
Loss property. In general there is a tax disadvantage in inheriting property that is worth less than its original cost. Reason: Its tax basis is stepped down to its date-of-death value and the potential loss deduction is forfeited. If the patient has substantial income it might pay to sell the property and deduct the losses. But it doesn't pay to generate losses that are more than $3,000 in excess of the patient's capital gains. Reason: These excess losses can't be deducted currently, and there's likely to be no future years' income on which to deduct them. Alternative: Sell the loss property at its current value to a close family member. Result:

The patient's loss on the sale is nondeductible, because the purchaser is a family member. But any future gains the family member realizes will be nontaxable to the extent of the previously disallowed loss.
Charitable gifts. In some cases, bequests to charitable organizations should be made before death. Benefit: Current income tax deductions. But it's important not to give too much away. This tactic may generate more deductions than the patient can use.
Flower bonds. Certain series of U.S. Treasury bonds can be purchased on the open market for substantially less than their full face value, because they pay very low interest. But if a decedent owns these so-called "flower bonds" on the date of death, they can be credited against the estate tax at their full face value.
Timing: Flower bonds should be bought when death is clearly imminent. There's little point in holding them for substantial periods before death because they yield very little income. On the other hand, it does no good for the estate to purchase them after death because they won't be applied against the estate tax. In some cases, flower bonds have been bought on behalf of a patient in a coma by a relative or trustee who holds a power of attorney. The IRS has attacked these purchases. But the courts have, so far, sided with the taxpayer.
A power of attorney should be prepared early on. If it's properly drafted, it can cover flower bond purchases and authority for a wide variety of other actions that can preserve the patient's assets and allow for flexible planning.

Income tax planning. A number of income tax moves should be considered. Examples:
Income timing. If the patient is in a low tax bracket, it may pay to accelerate income. The key here is to compare the patient's tax bracket with the bracket his estate is likely to be in. In some cases it will pay to accelerate income to make full use of deductions that would otherwise yield little or no tax benefit. Medical deductions, in particular, may be very high.

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