If you own final expense insurance, then you know that its insurance designed to pay for your funeral and burial costs when you die. It’s an unfortunately necessary type of financial provision which all responsible people should have. Final expense insurance doesn’t cost as much as general life insurance and is easier to get. It also allows you to take out policies for small amounts of money. Since you don’t want to pay for insurance you won’t need, follow these tips to make the most of your insurance funds.

Pick out funeral plans ahead of time. This is the only way to know how much it’s actually going to cost you. If you guess, you’ll probably guess wrong. Visit a local funeral home and get a price list. If you fill out a form on what you want and include it with your insurance policy, that will make it all the easier for whoever has to manage your affairs when you die.

First of all, don’t pay for any services you don’t want. Although most funeral homes offer packages, you don’t have to buy one if it doesn’t suit your needs. It’s a good idea to get a price list for caskets and look at it before you look at the caskets themselves, so that you don’t get carried away. Remember to ask for an itemized, written list of costs. You need one for inside funeral home services, and another for outer burial, if you plan to be buried.

Remember that most packages do not include the price of the burial plot, and probably don’t include the vault, the headstone and the casket. If you chose to be cremated, rather than buy an expensive casket just to be burned, ask for an “alternative container.” You can also purchase a casket or urn someplace else.

All of this is just to get a clear idea of how much money it’s going to take to wrap things up after your death. That way you can talk to local companies that offer final expense cover about a policy that will exactly meet your needs.