PartingWishes.com - Documented funeral planning using the MyFuneral ™ Service

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MyFuneral™ - Document Your Funeral Wishes
International Service - can be used by anyone, anywhere in the world

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you document your funeral wishes? First of all, it is a thoughtful and considerate gesture for your loved ones who would otherwise be faced with a battery of questions and options at a time when they are least capable of dealing with them. You may have discussed in general terms with your family whether you would rather be buried or cremated, or that you would prefer a big party over a somber get together, but most people do not even consider these basic questions until they reflect on their own mortality. For many people it is also a difficult subject to discuss seriously and openly with their friends and family. However, even if you have made your basic wishes known, did you share your views on the overall cost of the funeral service, or who you would like to be present, or any readings or music that you feel would be appropriate at your service? And what guarantee do you have that your wishes will be remembered or communicated when the time is right?

Let us worry about communicating your wishes to your designated friends or family members when the time is right. Do you wish to be buried or cremated? In which cemetery? Where would you like your ashes to go? Open casket or closed? Who do you want to be there? Would you prefer people to celebrate your life, or reflect on your passing? How do you feel about organ donation? How much should be spent on your funeral? The possibilities are endless. Yet the only way to ensure that your wishes are carried out, is to list them here.

A funeral service should be an expression of your life, and of your character. You should be able to decide who will attend, what the atmosphere should be like, and where you would like it to be held. If you would like to be cremated, you should also be able to specify where you would like your ashes to be buried, or if they should be scattered at a place that is meaningful to you.

By stating your preferences for your funeral arrangements, your family will be able to control costs. How much money should be spent? Should it be a final fitting tribute to your life on Earth, or should it be a modest affair as you feel that the money could be better spent if it were passed on to a charity or to your family? The decisions that will be left to the organizers of your funeral will require them to make tradeoffs on price against worthiness, and these difficult decisions will be made at a time of great loss.

You only need to answer the questions you feel comfortable answering. If you step through the PartingWishes.com MyFuneral™ wizard you will find all of the above questions, and more, that you will be able to answer. Make these decisions now, on your own behalf, and obtain peace of mind knowing that your funeral service will reflect what is right for you.

You can make unlimited updates for the rest of your life. You can keep your documented funeral wishes with PartingWishes.com for your entire life, updating them whenever you please. We take care of informing your friends and family where your funeral wishes are located, so that they can access them from anywhere in the world after you have passed away. Join PartingWishes.com for FREE right now, and you can use both the MyFuneral™ and MyMessages™ services free of charge for 1 year.

Document your Funeral Wishes for FREE right now using the MyFuneral™ wizard

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MyFuneral™ - Frequently Asked Questions

	Why should I use this service?
	I have specified my funeral wishes in my Will. Isn't that good enough?
	What kinds of questions will I need to answer?
	How much does MyFuneral™ cost?
	How will my funeral wishes be communicated?
	How do I ensure that my Keyholders® do not view the information prematurely?
	Is this a legal document?
	How long will it take to complete the wizard?
	How secure is my information? Can it get destroyed or lost?
	What countries, states and provinces do you support?
	How can I get more information?

Why should I use this service?

It is rare for people to tell one another about their funeral wishes, and those that do only cover the most superficial details such as whether they wish to be buried or cremated. By using the MyFuneral™ service, you can specify as little or as much detail about your funeral wishes as is important to you. Also, because your funeral wishes are stored on our secure servers here at PartingWishes.com, it also ensures that your wishes are easily located and accessible to your designated Keyholders®, not hidden in some document in some drawer that no one can find, or may not even know exists.

Furthermore, when you die it will be a stressful time for your loved ones, family and friends, who will be left to organize your legal and financial details as well as your funeral arrangements at a time when they will be most vulnerable and least able to cope with some difficult choices. Your actual funeral arrangements should be a reflection of your personal wishes, and your family and friends will find comfort in knowing that your wishes are being carried out. Without communicating your wishes, it could lead to disagreements between your loved ones when they discuss the painful decisions that they are trying to make on your behalf. Services such as those provided by a funeral home will often attempt to ease the burden by stepping in and offering choices of several different packages, with varied pricing, and the decisions can become even more difficult.

Funerals rank among the most expensive purchases many consumers will ever make. A traditional funeral, including a casket and vault, costs about $6,000, although "extras" like flowers, obituary notices, acknowledgment cards or limousines can add thousands of dollars to the bottom line. Many funerals run well over $10,000. Yet even if you're the kind of person who might haggle with a dozen dealers to get the best price on a new car, you're likely to feel uncomfortable comparing prices or negotiating over the details and cost of a funeral, pre-need or at need. Compounding this discomfort is the fact that some people "overspend" on a funeral or burial because they think of it as a reflection of their feelings for the deceased.

Hence, expressing your personal wishes for your own funeral arrangements is a thoughtful decision, showing consideration and easing the burden on your family. Going through the PartingWishes.com MyFuneral™ wizard will make you think about a number of issues that may never have occurred to you. You will find the wizard interesting, informative and engaging. You will be able to complete a plan that will be appropriate, affordable and that conforms to your wishes. You may have different religious beliefs to those around you, or perhaps you want a special type of service, or your favorite music to be played, or a special poem to be read, or a personal message to be communicated to those in attendance; a final chance to say goodbye. Every funeral should be as unique as every life. Remember, a funeral is sadly one of the few occasions that all of your loved ones will be gathered together. Would you like them to mourn respectfully, or throw a festive party in your honor?

I have specified my funeral wishes in my Will. Isn't that good enough?

Many people believe that their funeral wishes will be carried out if they document them in their Last Will and Testament. However, a Will is an inappropriate document in which to detail your funeral wishes, simply because it will usually be located and read long after the final arrangements have occurred. Hence, using a service such as the MyFuneral™ service here at PartingWishes.com will ensure that your wishes are heard, understood and followed when the time is right.

What kinds of questions will I need to answer?

You only need to answer the questions you feel comfortable answering. The MyFuneral™ wizard will step you through many questions regarding the style and cost of your funeral. It will also help you to make many decisions regarding your final arrangements, including:

whether you want any of your organs (or your whole body) to be donated

if you wish to be buried or cremated, or some other option

where you would like your service to be held

the type of casket or container in which you will be buried or cremated

if and where you would like an obituary placed, or any donations to be sent

where your remains will be buried, stored, or scattered

the details of your ceremony

details about any marker you want to show where your remains are buried or interred

any messages you would like to be read out during your service

what will happen after the funeral

You may want to step through the questions with your family to share in this planning. You could even take your documented wishes to a local funeral home and pre-pay for the services that you specify, relieving your family of the financial responsibility. Your funeral wishes are not legally binding, so it may be prudent to share these plans with family members who will be acting on your behalf. This document will reflect your personal preferences regarding your funeral arrangements, and those you leave behind will usually respect your written wishes.

How much does MyFuneral™ cost?

The MyFuneral™ service steps you through a simple question and answer wizard, formats your answers into a readable format, allows you to store your information securely online and allows you to make unlimited updates. You can then designate your own personal "Keyholders®", who with their unique ID can unlock your funeral wishes at the appropriate time.

These services are all available with the Bronze membership package, which is currently completely FREE for 1 year. See our Prices page for more details.

How will my funeral wishes be communicated?

After stepping through the MyFuneral™ question and answer wizard you will be able to store your preferences securely online here at PartingWishes.com. This information can only be unlocked by a personal Keyholder® designated by you, using their unique, randomly generated ID. After you have passed away, your Keyholder® will be able to access your funeral wishes from anywhere in the world by visiting the PartingWishes.com web site.

All of the necessary instructions for creating and notifying your Keyholders® of their responsibilities are provided for you as a member of PartingWishes.com. If you wish, you can even send them a personalized wallet card to store in a safe place, containing all of the information they need to login and view your funeral wishes when the time is right.

How do I ensure that my Keyholders® do not view the information prematurely?

Your Keyholders® are selected by yourself and should be trusted friends, family members or loved ones. Even so, there are security mechanisms in place to help prevent premature access to your wishes. In particular, your Keyholders® will each be given a unique, randomly generated ID, which will allow them to request access to your information. At that time, you will be sent an email notifying you of this request, and you will have an opportunity to refuse this request if you feel that access should not be granted. If you do not respond to this email within a period of time designated by yourself, then the information will be unlocked and the Keyholder® will be able to view your funeral wishes.

Is this a legal document?

Your funeral wishes are an expression of your desires surrounding your funeral, organ donation, cremation, burial, and any related services. As with any funeral planning, these wishes do not constitute a legally binding document. The ultimate decisions rest with your next of kin. Typically, your next of kin will welcome and be very grateful for the efforts that you have made to express your funeral wishes and will honor your requests.

How long will it take to complete the wizard?

The wizard can be completed in about 10 minutes, after which you will have a formatted document reflecting your desires for your funeral arrangements. However, it is likely that many of the questions contained within the wizard will get you thinking about issues that you haven't previously considered. Some of the questions may make you want to investigate your options further, such as your choice of funeral home. Or there may be some questions that you would like to discuss further with your loved ones.

The wizard does not need to be completed in one sitting. You can answer a couple of questions and then store these wishes securely online here at PartingWishes.com until you have a few more minutes to answer additional questions. If you prefer, you can spend many weeks or months making unlimited updates until you are happy with your final results.

How secure is my information? Can it get destroyed or lost?

All of our data is securely stored in a highly encrypted format on database servers in the USA. To protect against catastrophic data loss, daily backups are performed on each of our servers to locations in Canada and the U.S. Hence, if any one of our servers experienced technical difficulties, the data would not be at risk.

Furthermore, physical protection of our primary systems includes:

	Fire detection and fire suppression systems with dry pipe pre-action sprinkler systems
	N + 1 redundant power supplies, providing dual power feeds and backup batteries, water coolant systems and generators
	N + 1 redundant climate control, providing primary and backup chiller units, cooling towers, and water storage
	Local network operations center (NOC) for monitoring all data center operations
	24x7 monitoring and support of network connection and server availability
	24x7 uniformed guard service with interior and exterior closed-circuit television surveillance
	Electronic access at all data center entrances, including biometric hand scanners
	Electronic key management systems and individually keyed cabinets

As you can see, we take the security and privacy of all of our member information very seriously.

What countries, states and provinces do you support?

All of our services here at PartingWishes.com are completely international. They can be used by anyone in any country in the world.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyMessages™, MyLife™ and MyMemorials™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. In the US and Canada, we have worked extensively to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™ and MyPowerOfAttorney™ services are up to date with the laws in all of the states in the United States and the provinces in Canada, including: Alabama, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Rhode Island, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Yukon Territory. The MyLivingWill™ service is available for all States in the United States except Louisiana, and for all Provinces in Canada except Quebec. Nevertheless, if you have any doubts about the legal standing of any documents in your jurisdiction, feel free to seek legal counsel in your area to have your documents reviewed.

How can I get more information?

There is a considerable amount of information included in the on-line help of the MyFuneral™ wizard. This will answer most of the common questions regarding the steps included in planning your own funeral.

For information about the other services available, or about PartingWishes.com in general, you can browse this web site or send an email to support@partingwishes.com. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Document your Funeral Wishes for FREE right now using the MyFuneral™ wizard

How does it work?

Join PartingWishes.com for FREE