Administrator
The person appointed by the court to distribute your financial assets if you die without a will or living trust.
Agent
The person you’ve given power of attorney to manage your finances or your healthcare if you are unable to do so yourself. Also known as an Attorney in Fact.
Beneficiary
The person who will receive financial assets from your estate, either through a will or living trust, an insurance policy, or through the direct transfer of assets.
Burial Permit
In many locations you’ll need a permit to bury or cremate the body. Burial permits are generally issued by the county courthouse. A permit is not needed to scatter the cremains (ashes).
Casket
A container designed to hold the body for transport, burial or cremation. It’s usually made of wood, metal or fiberglass. An Alternative Container may often be used in place of a casket.
Celebration of Life
A non-traditional service designed by the person has died, or by their family and friends. As an alternative to a funeral or memorial service, the Celebration of Life offers more flexibility to create an event and choose a location that reflect the personality of the individual who died.
Cemetery
An property that is sub-divided into individual burial plots. The cemetery may also include a mausoleum with crypts, columbarium niches, and garden niches.
Closed Casket
The option of keeping the casket closed at a funeral or other family gathering. See Open Casket.
Columbarium
A building with multiple small spaces referred to as “niches.” Each niche can hold an urn containing an individual’s cremains (ashes).
Co-Insurance
With co-insurance you are required to pay a percentage of the total cost of a medical procedure. This is in addition to any co-payment that you make.
Co-Payment
The share of a medical bill that you are required to pay. The rest of the bill is paid by your health insurance company. The co-payment is due each time you receive a specific medical service.
Coverage Limits
The maximum amount that an insurance company will pay out on your behalf for a specific medical service.
Cremains
The remains of a body after it has been cremated. Cremains resemble a coarse grayish powder composed mainly of finely ground bones. They are also referred to as “ashes.”
Cremation
The process of burning the body in an enclosed chamber with intense heat. More recent alternatives to cremation include Resomation and Promession.
Crematory
A building with a special furnace used for cremation of the body.
Crypt
An individual chamber in a mausoleum that holds a casket. Some crypts are designed to hold a casket or an urn, or two caskets.
Death Certificate
A legal document, signed by a coroner or other health professional certifying the death of an individual. The death certificate is needed to settle the estate, to receive the money from a life insurance policy, and for other legal purposes.
Deductible
The total amount that you must pay first before your health insurance begins to cover a share of your medical bills.
Display Room
The room in a funeral home where you can view and select caskets and urns.
Embalming
The process of using chemicals to temporarily preserve the body of someone who has died. Embalming is usually not required by any state law. In some states, it may be required for a death from specific diseases.
Eulogy
A talk given at the funeral or memorial service which honors the person who has died.
Estate Tax
The federal and state taxes that must be paid on assets or property transferred to beneficiaries after a death.
Ethical Will
A personal statement that can include one’s values and beliefs, spiritual perspectives, life lessons learned, hopes and blessings for future generations, expressions of love, forgiving others and asking for forgiveness.
Exclusions
Any services that are not covered by your health insurance policy. You are responsible to pay the full cost of services that are not covered by your policy.
Executor/Executrix
The person you have designated to administer the distribution of your financial estate.
Funeral Director
A person who has been trained to prepare the body for burial, supervise the burial process, and take care of other details related to a death. Also referred to as a Mortician.
Funeral Home
A licensed business that receives the body after death, prepares it for burial, and supervises the burial process. Funeral homes sell caskets and urns, and often have a room for funerals and memorial services. Also known as a Mortuary.
Funeral Insurance
An insurance policy that helps pay for your funeral expenses.
Funeral Service
A ceremony with the body present to honor the life of the person who has died. Funerals are usually held in a house of worship or a funeral home. The casket may either be open or closed at a funeral.
Grave Liner
A rigid container placed in the grave to keep the ground from caving in from above if the casket deteriorates.
Green Burial
Green burial is an environmentally conscious process of burying the body, without embalming and using an Alternative Container. It may also include burial in a natural setting.
In-Network Provider
A medical provider that your insurance company has an agreement with to provide medical services to its clients, usually at a discount.
Internment
Placing a casket with the body in a cemetery plot or mausoleum crypt.
Intestate
Dying without a legal will or living trust that designates how your financial estate should be distributed. If you die intestate, a judge in the county where you reside will appoint someone to distribute your assets according to the laws of your state.
Inurnment
Placing the cremated remains (cremains or ashes) in an urn. The urn can then be placed in a cemetery plot, mausoleum crypt, a columbarium or garden niche, or kept at home.
Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS)
Joint ownership of a financial asset such as a bank account that allows the property to automatically pass to the surviving joint owner when one owner dies. JTWROS allows the asset to be transferred outside of the will or living trust. All owners have the right to manage the assets in the account.
Liabilities
Outstanding loans, credit card debts, mortgages, and other money owed by an individual or their estate.
Living Trust
A legal entity that you set up while you are living, into which you transfer most of your financial assets. You remain in control of the assets as the trustee. A living trust can greatly simplify the transfer of your estate when you die.
Living Will
A legal document that establishes which medical procedures you do or don’t want performed when you are dying. More commonly called a healthcare directives.
Mausoleum
A building where caskets are placed in individual chambers called crypts. Mausoleums offer an above-ground option to burial in a cemetery plot.
Mortuary
A licensed business that receives the body after death, prepares it for burial, and supervises the burial process. Funeral homes sell caskets and urns, and often have a room for funerals and memorial services. Also known as a Funeral Home.
Niche
An individual chamber in a columbarium or a garden wall, where an urn holding the cremains (ashes) can be placed.
Opening and Closing Fees
The cost of the digging a grave, and then refilling it after the casket has been placed in the grave.
Out-of-Pocket Maximum
A limit on the total amount you are required to pay for a specific medical service, or for all medical services that your receive during a one-year period. Once your out-of-pocket maximum is reached, the health insurer will pay all additional covered costs up to a specified limit.
Pallbearers
The individuals who carry the casket at a funeral and at the grave site or mausoleum. Pallbearers may be family members, friends, or individuals who are hired to perform this task.
Personalized Funeral or Memorial Service
A non-traditional service designed by the person has died, or by their family and friends. Also referred to as a Celebration of Life.
Premium
The monthly or quarterly payment that you make to an insurance company to receive life insurance, health insurance, or long-term care insurance.
Pre-Planning
Reviewing the options and making end-of-life decisions about your finances, healthcare, care of the body, and funeral or memorial service. Pre-planning can also include building an emotional support team that includes family, friends and professional service providers.
Prior Authorization
The requirement by an insurance company that they authorize a specific medical service before you receive it.
Probate
The process of submitting a will to the county court so that the assets of the estate can be distributed.
Promession
A newer alternative to cremation. Promession reduces the body to a fine powder by submerging it in liquid nitrogen and pulverizing the remains.
Resomation
A newer alternative to cremation. Resomation uses a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide, heated to a high temperature at a high pressure, to dissolve the body into its chemical components and ash.
Right of Survivorship
Joint ownership of a financial asset such as a bank account that allows the property to automatically pass to the surviving joint owner when one owner dies. Right of Survivorship allows the asset to be transferred outside of the will or living trust. All owners have the right to manage the assets in the account.
Urn
A small container designed to holding the cremains (ashes). Urns are often made of metal, wood or ceramic.
Vault
A container that can be sealed which is placed in the grave to protect the casket and keep the ground from caving in from above if the casket deteriorates.
Viewing
A scheduled time when the body is on display, allowing friends and family to pay their respects and visit with each other. Viewing can take place at the funeral home or in a private home.
Visitation
A gathering of family and friends without the body present, offering a chance to talk, listen, and share memories about the person who has died.
Wake
A gathering of family members and close friends who sit together in the presence of the body after a death.
Will
A legal document that describes who will receive the financial assets of a person who has died. It can also address distribution of belongings and other personal matters.
