Pre-Needs
Once you have purchased your space(s), you may want to consider getting a pre-need for your burial. This way, the burial expense is taken care of, freeing your family from having to come up with funds at the time of burial. When you buy a pre-need, you buy it at the current price at time of purchase. Even if or when prices go up, your price is locked in and your family doesn't pay anything additional, unless they change a weekday burial to Saturday or have to pay a winter charge and it wasn't included in the original pre-need.
Pre-needs in Illinois are held by a third-party trust company, and the cemetery can't collect the money until after the interment. The fund company sends out a letter once a year to remind the pre-need holder that they are still holding the money.