Why I Bought a Purple Cross Plan

Death. Most people don't like to think about it. Young people think it won't strike them for many years to come, so there is no need to worry about it. One thing certain about death--it is in everyone's future. And the time to think about it is now--no matter if you're eighteen or eighty.

My whole attitude towards death changed when I was twenty years old and my dad died. He didn't have any money or much of anything else. And my brother and I had no idea what our father wanted us to do with his remains.

We spent a couple of hours working out the things we wanted for our dad. We chose the casket we wanted our dad buried in. We planned what type of ceremony we wanted him to have. The cemetery was the only "no brainer." We knew he would want to be buried in the same cemetery the rest of his family was buried in--that is if he wanted to be buried at all. For all we knew he could have wanted to be cremated. Not a choice neither my brother or I would have preferred, but Dad was dead so he couldn't tell us what he wanted. And, however silly it may sound, my brother and I figured Dad didn't have much in life, so he deserved the best in death--as if he would wake up someday and say, "Nice casket, boys! And very comfy, too."

When we were done with the planning, we had to get a loan to pay what the Veteran's Administration and Social Security didn't pay. I don't remember how much the loan was, just that one month I made the payment and the next, my brother made the payment. It took us about five years to pay off the loan. The payments weren't easy to make, especially when I was working my way through college. After that experience, I decided I didn't want anyone to struggle to pay my funeral expenses or to try to figure out what my wishes would be when it came to my funeral. So as soon as I felt financially able to pay something toward my funeral expenses, I contacted Purple Cross.

Purple Cross was one of only a handful of companies that offered "funeral insurance" at that time. The agent came to my house and we sat down and basically planned my funeral. I looked through a catalog of caskets and chose the one I wanted. I told the agent the cemetery where I wanted to be buried and the funeral home I wanted to take care of my remains. The cost of what my funeral expenses would be if I were to die at that moment, including my obituary, was figured out. Then the agent looked up the amount of insurance needed to cover the cost. Like most insurances the cost of the insurance was less than my actual funeral expenses. The agent then gave me a booklet to record all my wishes in--right down to the pallbearers I wanted--and I handed her a check for my first month's payment. The agent then told me I was covered. I could keel over dead in her lap and all my funeral expenses would be paid. That was nearly twenty years ago.

I am extremely happy I bought the Purple Cross Plan. What I have learned about the Purple Cross Plan is it is a form of life insurance. But, unlike most life insurance plans, premiums are only paid for a set amount of time. Most life insurance plans you have to pay up to the day you die. If something happens, like a loss of a job, and you can't pay the premiums, you loose everything you have paid into that policy. Of course, you have to pay the Purple Cross Plan's payment, but you don't pay the rest of your life. I made monthly payments for five years. I think I could have paid for it up front if I had the money at the time. I know they offered annual, semi-annual and quarterly, as well as monthly, payments. The Purple Cross Plan also pays a dividend back into the plan in order to keep up with funeral costs.

The thing I didn't know about the Purple Cross Plan at the time was, even though I told the agent every detail of my wishes for my funeral, that was just to calculate costs. At the time I thought Purple Cross recorded all my wishes and made sure the beneficiary followed my wishes. I later learned since the Purple Cross Plan is a life insurance, all the plan does is pay the money to the beneficiary to do as he or she wishes. If my beneficiary decides to have me cremated without any ceremony in order to save money so he can pocket the leftover money, there is nothing the Purple Cross Plan will or can do about it.

Still, I am happy to have the Purple Cross Plan and, knowing my beneficiary, I'm certain he will carry out my wishes.

(Note to brother: If you have me cremated in order to have money so you can visit a topical island, I will come back and haunt you the rest of your life. That's a promise!)