What's a "burial plan"?

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One of my eldest sisters just informed me, that in case of my death, she has bought a "burial plan". I googled it, and it sounds like life insurance----but, I was wondering if someone knew something more, about it.....

Oops, I forgot I only have ONE older sister, now, so I don't have to say: "One of my eldest sisters.....", anymore----bummer.....

I think this might involve paying your funeral expenses in advance. Some people believe that to plan ahead for your final moments is important. She might have arranged that for herself, and felt like she wanted to do that for you, too.

It doesn't mean she thinks you'll die soon.

I don't think it always means you pay the total expense in advance, but rather that you pay in regular monthly premiums. It sounds ghoulish to say so, but if you die relatively soon, you 'win' with these sorts of plans, in that you've paid in less than you 'take out' in funeral expenses. Most people though live long enough to have been paying into one of these plans for many years, decades even (they're 'open-ended', I think), so that the insurer has taken in far more than he has to pay out. But that's just how the industry makes its profits.

You might also find that the plan won't pay out until you've been contributing to it for a certain length of time, which is a method the company uses to reduce the amount of any losses it could make on the policy.

On the funny side, maybe it's a plan to figure how you want to be buried.

But I do think it involves paying for your funeral costs so your loved/appreciated ones don't have exorbitant costs when you pass.

I dunno..... It doesn't seem likely it has to do with funeral arrangements----or, the box / hole to put me in----cuz we live in different states.....

I'm trying to decide what it is, without asking her (she's such a big, fat liar), cuz I'm just SURE she's up-to-something----like, taking-out an insurance policy on me, so that when I kick-the-bucket, she goes "ka-ching"! !

I dunno..... Can someone just take-out an insurance policy on someone, without their consent, or whatever? What if she's trying to declare me incompetent, or something? I guess that would only matter, on a "living matter"?

As to life insurance...I watch a lot of true crime TV when I'm winding down at night. According to those shows it seems pretty easy to take out life insurance on someone. Maybe there's a way you could find out if anyone has one on you? I don't know.

I'm in SW VA and it's fairly common for people here to have burial plans which consist of:
-pre-paid for cemetery plot
-coffin
-arrangements with a funeral home
-arrangements with a religious person to officiate

Families might do this in conjunction to make sure they are all in the same cemetery, on adjoining plots, and to make sure that the correct funeral home and religious person is doing the ceremony.

It could be that your sister is assuming that you have no close friends or family to take care of this for you should you suddenly pass away. And that if you became terminally ill you wouldn't have the sense to make these arrangements for yourself. A pushy kind of person might be trying to show their love for you by doing this. Sorry if she's not a pushy kind of person, but your reaction to this tells me that you felt that these were personal decisions that your sister shouldn't have been interjecting herself into.

Another thing that is true here in SW VA (I don't know if this carries over into other regions) is funeral planning in the same vein as marriage planning. You know, like teenaged girls might have a notebook with pages clipped out and pasted in about their fantasy wedding? Some older people daydream about fantasy funerals in the same way. Your sister could be entertaining herself by picking out things for your funeral. Kind of gross, but people do it here anyway.

I nearly got a job selling funeral plans but I f****d up because I swore during the interview.

Yes it is where you plan and pay for your funeral expenses in advance of the eventuality of death.

Quite a good idea if you ask me and it is becoming more and more popular as the cost of funerals are getting more and more expensive.

But then what I always say is "you don't see dead bodies lying lying in the street".