One of the major decisions to document in your funeral pre-plan is whether you wish to be cremated or have a full body burial. More people are soon expected to choose cremation over traditional burial. Here are four good reasons that you should consider cremation for the final disposition of your physical body.

1. You give your family more time to react to your death.

The funeral home has only a few days in which to do something with your physical body. This means that, while your family is recovering from the shock of your death, they must organize your funeral quickly. They will have a short window in which to get notices out, make arrangements for the funeral home service and coordinate with the people you wish to be present at your funeral.

When you are cremated shortly after death, your family can take their time to pull all of this together. It also gives people out of town time to plan and travel to your funeral.

2. You have better control over the costs of the funeral.

There are some mandatory costs associated with a traditional burial that you don't have to have when you are cremated. These include:

• purchase of a full-sized casket
• purchase of a concrete burial vault, if required by local regulations or the cemetery
• purchase of a standard cemetery plot

You can choose to have your cremains buried in a casket and vault, but you have other, less expensive choices, such as:

• use of an urn to store your cremains instead of a casket
• have your ashes scatter over a favorite spot, requiring no special container
• purchase of a much smaller cemetery plot in which to bury your cremains
• using a columbarium to store your cremains instead of a cemetery plot

3. You have additional eco-friendly options available to you.

If you wish to have little impact on the environment when you die, some of the options you have with cremation include:

• direct cremation shortly after you die so you skip the use of toxic embalming chemicals that may seep into the ground
• burial in a small urn or box so you need less space in the cemetery
• scattering your cremains over a favorite area so you won't require any space in the cemetery

4. You give your family less expensive options to get you home should you die while out of town.

If you travel frequently and die when away from home, your family will have to go through an expensive and complicated process to get your body back home. When you choose cremation, that can be done where you were when you died and have your cremains shipped back to your family by a regular delivery service.

For more information, contact Farone & Son Inc or a similar company.