making your final arrangements as a
topic many people are really not
comfortable thinking about even talking
about but it's certainly important to
plan ahead well and especially if you
think about what your loved ones will be
dealing with if you do choose to wait
Jeremie Ladner with dignity memorial is
here with some tips and advantages to
pre-planning your services and I think I
mean we just mentioned this but it's
worth underscoring that people are
oftentimes uncomfortable talking about
these things but they shouldn't be right
sure absolutely there's there's some
advantages to having this conversation
at a time both financial and emotional
you know you have the ability to lock in
the costs over what the costs are going
to be 10 20 30 years down the road but
more on the emotional side you're
answering all those questions that the
family is going to need to answer at
that time right you're kind of removing
any of the guesswork that could possibly
come up for the family and really taking
care of your family down the road what
kind of decisions are you looking for I
mean the obvious ones as we said you're
taking the guesswork out but diving a
little bit deeper into that what what
kind of decisions should we be looking
at sure so there are a number of
questions that our professionals will
take family through and it really all
derivatives is wanting we have
initiative called life well celebrated
that we rolled out a couple of years ago
and it's really about celebrating the
ones that we're there for well and also
it seems like planning ahead one of the
huge advantages Jeremy would be the fact
that you can make these decisions while
you're calm and while you're focused
rather they're not dealing with it while
you're grieving right right you're
exactly right that's one of the benefits
to thinking about this ahead of time you
can in a calm atmosphere sit back and
make some pertinent decisions about what
truly you would want to have for the
services for yourself and ultimately for
your family to experience at the time
and tough to kind of talk about but this
would also give you a chance ahead of
time to really lock in the rate can you
explain that you're right you do and I
alluded to it earlier you have the
ability to lock in the cost versus what
the costs are gonna be at the time say
10 20 30 years from now we have flexible
terms in regards to what you can do so
you know if you think about a family
experiencing death at the time there's a
lot of times having to come up with a
large sum of money all at once whereas
if you plan ahead you have some
flexibility to be able to to do this and
pay for it over time also what surprises
me is that you guys have a network of
more than 2,000 locations because I'm
sure a lot of people out there may say
well how can I plan ahead if I don't
exactly know if I'll be in Houston right
and this is a topic that comes up here
in Houston a lot because people come in
for work and are transferred back out
quite often and whether you're moving
out of convenience
to be closer to family or if it is
because of a job transfer the plans the
protections that you put in a place for
yourself here in Houston could
ultimately be transferred to a dignity
memorial location that's close to
wherever you move Wow and that's in the
US and in Canada as well that's super
cool by the way I was looking at your
website yesterday and I didn't realize
at first that it was you know so
interested right well and also that
people could customize their services I
mean it looked more I didn't feel like I
was looking at funeral services I felt
like I was looking at a celebration
that's people's lives based on based on
what I saw like this photo we're seeing
now yeah you're right there are a number
of services and really if you think
about services from
10 20 30 years ago they were pretty
solemn events with a lot of structure
around them and not very personal you
know we're looking at some pictures here
where an individual was very much into
Harley Davidsons and the family wanted
to find a way to incorporate that into
the service and it's an urn right there
on that on that red motorcycle right the
urn kind of been procession haunting to
the mausoleum so it was wonderful when
that's really looking at the life well
celebrated this person here loved
canoeing so really honoring what the
person enjoyed throughout their lives
absolutely and that's part of you know I
brought some brochures here if you guys
want to look at this this is a and B
imagine booklet and really what we when
we sit down first with a family we kind
of open this up and it really starts the
conversation and helps them to see
what's truly possible with the services
that were that we're overseeing for them
well there are a lot of things to
consider you guys also have a 24 hour
compassion outline I understand that's
right it's one of the services that are
provided to each and every family that
come through our doors it's available to
families 24 hours a day to reach out to
if they need assistance and to get some
tools to deal with the grief they can
reach out and speak with a professional
about it very nice yeah it doesn't have
to be a scary conversation I mean
ultimately we're all gonna die and I
think what we mentioned earlier about
you don't want to leave your family
guessing correct about what you want in
their time of grief correct it's one of
the biggest things about planning ahead
and having that conversation is you're
able to sit back again make those
decisions on behalf of the family and
really have a game plan for them to act
on when that time comes
Jamie Latner thank you so much for
stopping by thank you so much at
absolute if you all would like to learn
more about dignity memorial providers of
Houston and the services they provide
just log on to their website
dignity Houston calm and