Losing someone you love can be one of the most difficult experiences you have to go through. Planning their funeral is an important, emotional requirement that can seem especially overwhelming. However, to help you navigate this process, it’s worth taking the time to understand the legal aspects involved in funeral planning.

By having this knowledge, you will know what to do and when. Thus enabling you to carry out everything that you need to while honouring the person you cared about.

Read more: Swedish death cleaning and preparing for your own afterlife

Understanding the legal side of funerals

Planning a funeral involves meeting several legal requirements. These are designed to ensure that the process is smooth and in accordance with the law.

As well as understanding the legal process, it’s important to be aware of changes and developments. For instance, in the last few years we’ve seen changes in the way the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates pre-paid funeral plans. This type of update can help you to understand the rules and your rights around funerals.

Here’s a guide to some of the key legal aspects:

1. Death registration

It is a legal obligation to register a death within a specific timeframe. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this must be done within five days. In Scotland, you have eight days.

To register the death, you’ll need to provide certain documents, including the medical certificate of the cause of death and, if available, the deceased’s birth certificate, marriage or civil partnership certificate, and NHS medical card.

Once you’ve registered their death, you’ll receive a death certificate and a ‘green form’, which is the Certificate for Burial or Cremation, from the registrar. This permits the funeral to proceed, and you’ll need to give the form to the funeral director.

2. Executor’s responsibilities

The executor, who is named in the deceased person’s will, holds the legal authority to manage the estate, which includes arranging the funeral.

Their duties include organising the funeral so that it’s in line with the known wishes of the deceased. They also must manage funeral costs and ensure all legal requirements are met. It’s important to note that while the executor is responsible for funeral arrangements, they must also settle the associated expenses from the estate’s assets.

3. Funeral arrangements

Legally, there is no requirement to hold a funeral in the UK. However, the death must be registered, and the deceased must be buried or cremated. Also, there is no legal requirement to use a coffin for burial or cremation – a shroud or other appropriate covering is acceptable.

When opting for cremation, additional paperwork is necessary, including completing cremation application forms and obtaining medical certificates confirming the cause of death. This applies for all types of cremation services, including unattended cremations.

4. Financial considerations

The executor is legally responsible for ensuring that funeral costs are paid, typically using funds from the deceased’s estate. In cases where the estate lacks sufficient funds, family members may need to contribute to cover the costs.

If the deceased had a pre-paid funeral plan, it’s essential to verify that the provider is authorised by the FCA. This is a regulation that was introduced in 2022 that aims to protect consumers from potential misconduct and ensures that funeral funds are managed appropriately.

5. Disputes and legal challenges

Disagreements can occur among family members regarding funeral arrangements. This is a highly emotional time and it’s understandable that there may be some discord. Especially if the wishes of the person who has passed were not explicitly documented while they were alive.

While funeral wishes expressed in a will are not legally binding, they do provide clear guidance. So it’s typical to follow these wishes. Therefore, in situations where this has not happened and in the case of disputes that cannot be resolved amicably, it may be necessary to seek legal advice or court intervention to determine the appropriate course of action.

Understanding the legal aspects of funeral planning is essential. This ensures that all procedures are carried out lawfully and respectfully. By familiarising yourself with what’s legally required, you can work through the funeral arrangements effectively and focus on celebrating the life of the person you cared for.

silvermagazine

If you’d like to receive a regular mini-magazine direct to your inbox with a selection of editorial features to read at your leisure, please sign up for our newsletter. We also run the odd competition and offer and whatnot, and newsletter members get the heads-up first.

The post What are the legal aspects of funeral planning? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Dying with dignity on your own terms has historically usually meant a trip to Switzerland. But there is an alternative for those who want some control over their ending. Meet the ‘Living Will’.

To some, death can be a scary concept. However, for many people, the thought of being kept alive in a state where you are unable to move, communicate, and/or recognise yourself and loved ones can be equally or even more terrifying.

…if ending your days on this planet hooked up to a ventilator, feeding tube, or oxygen mask isn’t something you’d choose, there is something you can do about it

There are a number of conditions that can affect your brain and body, including dementia, degenerative diseases, or those that affect the central nervous system, such as motor neurone disease. People with terminal illnesses like cancer can also end up having their lives prolonged way past the point anybody would wish.

There are also traumas, such as a catastrophic brain injury, car accident and so on. You get the picture. Any or all of these could leave you in a state where life is never going to improve, but you’re kept alive because that’s the law.

But if ending your days on this planet hooked up to a ventilator, feeding tube, or oxygen mask isn’t something you’d choose, there is something you can do about it.

Read more: Swedish death cleaning – get your affairs in order before you die

Have you heard of a Living Will?

Many people are unaware of Living Wills. In fact, according to a  2020 report, only 13% of UK adults have a written Living Will.

It’s also a good idea to discuss your options with healthcare professionals

A Living Will, also known as an ‘advanced decision’, is a form that allows you to refuse medical treatment if you do not wish to have it in the future.

It is legally binding in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and allows you to outline your treatment choices to your family, carers, and health professionals if you don’t have the mental capacity or are unable to communicate your wishes yourself. You plan this in advance, when you’re still fit and able. And it’s logged, ready to be activated when you can no longer advocate for yourself.

This means today you could protect the future you from having to endure the indignity of being helpless whilst you genuinely just wait to die.

It might sound brutal, but people may opt for a Living Will for many reasons, including:

– Not wanting their life artificially prolonged
– Want to make it easier for their family
– Wanting to be prepared and in control of their own choice
– Been diagnosed with a serious illness

How does this all work?

Whilst there are several ways to set something like this in motion (ask your solicitor), Compassion in Dying is the UK’s most recommended and trustworthy Living Will service provider.

Their main goal is to improve the dying experience in the UK by allowing people to take charge of how they want to end their lives.

To be clear; this is NOT the same as euthanasia. The refusal of treatment is not the same as asking someone to help you end your life.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are the acts of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve their suffering. They are illegal under British law. However, creating a Living Will allows you to make your own choices ahead of time, and is perfectly legal.

How to set it up

With a step-by-step guide, Compassion in Dying has helpfully made it easy. You must be over the age of eighteen and have the mental capacity to make a Living Will.

Their service includes a card, which you carry with you, a bit like the old organ donor cards

What should I think about?

Consider the circumstances where you’d want to be able to opt out of living if you could. Getting diagnosed with a terminal illness, for example, being catastrophically injured and left helpless or catatonic. But think also about the lives of those who care about you. It’s a journey that you and the loved ones surrounding you will face together, so it’s important to discuss this with them too.

It’s also a good idea to discuss your options with healthcare professionals. Explore the risks and benefits of different treatments that are available in the future, and consider what refusing treatments can mean.

In the end, your decision is yours and should be respected. If you have the mental capacity to think about how you want to be treated or not, then you should have the right to do so.

“What matters most is ensuring my family don’t have to make hard decisions about me and my health.”
Compassion in Dying

Elena Harris

Elena is one of Silver’s interns. She has a love for illustrating, reading, and all things media-related. She is a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur who spends her free time in coffee shops sketching and journalling.

The post Dying with dignity: choosing your own exit strategy appeared first on Silver Magazine.

In March 2015 we were diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of prostate cancer. We were told we were too old at that age to have an operation to remove the prostate but should undergo radiation and hormonal therapy. We vaguely knew what radiation therapy was but not hormonal therapy. We soon learned that it is the equivalent of having your balls cut off. Prostate cancers apparently feed on testosterone, so if you eliminate testosterone the cancers theoretically starve to death. Of course, the man’s sexual desires also starve to death.

…the oncologist, a nice cheery man who seemed to be trying to make cancer seem the most entertaining thing since Barnum and Bailey

We told the oncologist that almost all of us preferred to keep our balls, but we’d do the radiation. He assured us that the radiation would kill all the cancer in the prostate but the cancer had probably already spread elsewhere. The oncologist used the word “metastasized” but that sounded too scary so we use “spread.” The meanings are the same.

But the oncologist, a nice cheery man who seemed to be trying to make cancer seem the most entertaining thing since Barnum and Bailey, then said that if he gave me a three-month shot of hormonal therapy it would help the radiation treatment kill or slow the cancer. When he assured me that there was a good chance that we would regain our manhood a few months after the hormonal therapy wore off, we reluctantly agreed to give it a go.

We underwent the painful radiation therapy and hormonal therapy and it all ended in early October 2015. Over the next four or five months we slowly returned to normal life. Our balls were resurrected.

After another few months the oncologist had us take a Cat Scan of our abdomen and a bone scan of our pelvic bones. He assured me happily that the cancer had probably already spread and seemed disappointed when the scans showed no signs of it spreading. He assured me it was there but we just couldn’t see it yet. A year later he did two more scans and still no signs of its spreading.

Parts of me felt guilty continually disappointing my oncologist, but other mes began to feel immortal. When I’d originally been diagnosed with the virulent cancer two years earlier I’d thought if I could just get two more good years of life I’d be quite satisfied. And I’d gotten those two years.

…prostate cancer spreading to the lymph nodes and bones does ultimately kill you, unless you manage to die of something else first

Those mes who felt immortal experienced a jolt when our PSA, the measure of whether the prostate cancer is spreading, went from 0.35 to 4.65 and then soared to 88. The cancer was apparently roaring ahead some place at full gallop. We had the two scans done again and, with a sigh of relief, the oncologist was able to report that the cancer had spread to both our lymph nodes and our bones and there were even some specks in our lungs. We were going to die.

The oncologist didn’t say “You’re going to die,” but rather it was those of us who’d begun to think we were immortal who said it.

Now most of my mes are pretty even keel sort of beings and none of us were particularly distressed at this prospect. Our father died of cancer at the age of 41. For us, all the years after that age seemed an undeserved bonus. And here it was fall of 2017 and we still felt fine, scan results or no scan results.

Now prostate cancer spreading to the lymph nodes and bones does ultimately kill you, unless you manage to die of something else first. So we could say with some truthfulness that we had a fatal disease, that we were dying.

It took us only a day or two to realize that this state of dying had a lot of possible hidden benefits. In fact most of us began grinning in anticipation of taking advantage of these benefits.

For one thing, if you’re dying of ‘x’, then there’s no longer any reason to be taking preventative measures hoping to avoid dying of ‘y.’ Who cares about a few more pounds that theoretically endanger your heart when that danger will probably have no effect for more years than you’re going to live. Brownies, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, red meat: they’re not going to kill us; we’ll already be dead! Ha!

And all the chores we’d been doing for years… can a dying man really be expected to continue to do these things? Thinking of all this had me grinning.

And if we’re dying, people have to do for us things that normally they might expect us to do. Now we’d already been milking our old age for all it was worth, but if we could now add on having a fatal disease we could probably get our wife and sons and friends to do just about anything. If we just sort of struggle to get up out of a chair then “Go get George that thing he needs” will soon be heard from all corners of the room or at least from any person seeing the poor dying George trying to get out of a chair.

And all the chores we’d been doing for years—washing dishes, emptying garbage and trash, weeding gardens, feeding the giant boiler in the basement its wood meals four times a day: can a dying man really be expected to continue to do these things? Thinking of all this had me grinning.

And spending money. All our lives we’d hated spending money on material things, part of our long battle against our happiness-killing consumer culture. Even after we became somewhat rich we hated spending money. But now we were dying. Now it wasn’t my money we were spending it was our sons’ and grandsons’! So if such-and-such of something is way overpriced and even though we want it we don’t want to pay that much, now that we’re dying, who cares!? It’s son Corby’s inheritance that will be reduced $13.76, and Pow’s and Chris’s and Tyler’s, and Kanaan’s, and all the beloved family members. And they’ll never notice!

An old man is boring, but a dying man is interesting

And then there was email: we get more email then we feel like dealing with. We get people continually recommending books for us to read. We get manuscripts sent to us that someone is begging us to critique. Now we can’t tell people ‘We’re old and tired and decrepit and just can’t get around to it.” But if we could announce that we’re dying: who can object to our saying we’re sorry, but we can’t do it?

And this made us realize what a huge gap there is between society’s image of an old man and a dying man. An old man is someone undoubtedly stuck in all sorts of uninteresting ruts. And usually struggling to get out of low chairs and couches and how pathetic.

But a dying man! There was drama. An old man is boring, but a dying man is interesting. How is the dying man taking it? How is his family taking it? When will he finally kick the bucket?

Yes, being a dying man was clearly a major step up from our pathetic level of being an old man. It has huge advantages.

We plan to use every one of them.

Luke Rhinehart

silvermagazine

If you’d like to receive a regular mini-magazine direct to your inbox with a selection of editorial features to read at your leisure, please sign up for our newsletter. We also run the odd competition and offer and whatnot, and newsletter members get the heads-up first.

The post Luke Rhinehart on the advantages of dying appeared first on Silver Magazine.