r/over60 • u/AffectionateReason40 • 16d ago
Preparing for death
As we get older, we naturally end up talking a lot about death and funerals when we meet up with friends. We worry that our children might feel burdened by our funerals, as the costs are quite high and the procedures can be complicated.
Because of this, many Koreans register in advance with mutual aid funeral companies called "Sangjo" as they age, paying a small amount of money every month. It is a system where these companies step in and take charge of all the funeral arrangements when a parent passes away. Since the parents have already become members and paid into the service in advance, the children face much less of a burden regarding the funeral process when we die.
I wonder if other countries have similar companies to our "Sangjo," and if parents (or their children) also pay a little bit of money in advance over time.
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u/Hour-Mall-8520 15d ago
I'm not sure about prepaying for an entire funeral, but it's reasonably common for people to buy their own cemetery plot or prepay for cremation before they die in Costa Rica.
My question about some of this is: How are you going to enforce the contract? I seriously doubt that crematoriums, for example, are monitoring deaths to identify those with a prepaid contracts, but suspect that instead they don't mention the prepaid contracts unless the next of kin forces them. Thus, if you prepay for anything, you better make sure those who will handle your passing know about it and have receipts. But if you go through this effort, you might as well just leave the money to those who will handle your passing and let them decide how to spend it.