MyFuneral™  -
Document Your Funeral Wishes

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 (£3,000), 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 (£5,000).  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 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 own selection of 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?

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 will ensure that your wishes are heard, understood and followed when the time is right.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Most of our services 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, Canada, England and Wales, we have worked extensively to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™ and MyLivingWill™ 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, 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, Rhode Island, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Yukon Territory.  Hence, these services can be used to generate legal documents in any state in the United States with the exception of Louisiana, and any Canadian province with the exception of Quebec, and in England and Wales in the United Kingdom.

Furthermore, the MyPowerOfAttorney™ service is available for all States in the United States except Louisiana, and for all Provinces in Canada except Quebec. In the UK, power of attorney forms are provided free of charge by the government.

Note that even in unsupported areas, there is value in stepping through the wizards provided in these services in preparation for a consultation with an attorney.  It is strongly recommended that residents outside of the above supported states/provinces/countries seek legal advice even after completing the wizards. Local laws in these unsupported areas have not been considered in the structure of the legal documents.

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.

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.