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January 08, 2023

Ready to Go?

When we die, some of us leave our survivors with only good memories. Others leave them with major expenses and a myriad of legal and financial problems. Can the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans help?

I recently announced on KNON radio that six states, not including Texas, now allow survivors to compost cadavers and that another funeral home operator had been arrested for illegally selling body parts. TARA activist Elva Roy called in right away with some excellent suggestions about how Texans can leave their survivors with fewer expenses and hassles.

One’s choices have to do with their estate, their religious attitudes, their commitment to a safe environment, and whether or not they care what happens to their survivors after they are gone.

Currently, many seniors die without a will or a plan for cadaver disposal. Lawyers, funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemeteries benefit; survivors and the environment lose out.  Average arrangements cost about $10,000 and up. Embalming chemicals and cremation gases are poisonous pollutants. The space taken by cadavers will never be farmland or anything useful.

Elva has done considerable investigation. She says that Texas does not require expensive caskets, or any casket at all. Embalming is not required. “Green burial” is an option. Donating a cadaver to science is an option. Burial in one’s private property, instead of in a cemetery, is often an option. Cremation can cost $1,000 instead of the $3,000 that funeral homes may require. Making and saving a video for the survivors is relatively simple. Veterans can get special deals.

She recommends some outstanding web sites for more information. Http://fcant.org is the nonprofit Funeral Consumers Alliance of North Texas.  Https://www.careandprepare.org/ helps with planning.  Https://www.freewill.com/ says that one can get a legal will done in 20 minutes. It also helps with bequests for one’s favorite organizations.

Should the Texas alliance for Retired Americans try to make final planning a membership benefit? Let me know.

–In Solidarity

genelantz@texasretiredamericans.org