In my experience as an ordained minister in the Church of England, so much pressure is
taken off the grieving family if they are able to arrange the ceremony exactly as their loved
one would have wanted it. A Letter of Wishes left with your Will can be updated from time
to time, perhaps as your thinking develops.
You may want to leave details of your preferred funeral directors. Perhaps you will have
appointed them beforehand. Funeral costs are traditionally horrendously expensive and many
people take out a funeral plan in advance.
And then there’s the reception afterwards: where and what form might it take? The good
news is that the costs, along with those of the funeral directors, are deductible for Inheritance
Tax purposes, so long as they are ‘reasonable’.
