Some people in Connecticut choose to include their funeral plans in their wills. While these provisions are enforceable, many family members do not search for wills before they hold the funerals for their loved ones. This means that the plans might be inadvertently overlooked.
A better way to handle this is to draft a funeral planning declaration as a part of the overall estate plan. This document can be used so that people can plan the details of how they want their remains to be handled and what they would like to happen at their funerals. It might be a good idea for people to have powers of attorney in place as well. These grant specified people the power to make important financial or medical decisions for them if they are incapacitated and are unable to make decisions for themselves.
While POAs expire when people die, they still can be used to give the power to dispose of the remains to the designated agent. If people pass away without funeral planning declarations, POAs or provisions about funerals in their wills, the power to decide how to hold the funerals and the disposal of the remains will fall according to the laws of intestacy.
People who want to have control over how their funerals will be handled might want to talk to their estate planning attorneys about including funeral planning declarations in their overall estate plans. The attorneys may draft the documents for their clients to reflect their wishes. They might also draft powers of attorney on behalf of their clients and help them to select the trusted people who will be able to make decisions for them at the end of their lives.
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