Pre-plan your funeral
Start the conversation now about your funeral
The best time to talk about your funeral is well before it’s needed. Our friendly team can guide you through the process of planning your funeral and answer any questions you might have. We can also help you determine the right amount of funds to put aside for it.
We recommend you involve your family in this process, allowing your loved ones to contribute ideas and plans. While your funeral will be a reflection of who you are, and a celebration of your life, it will also be an important step in the grieving process for those closest to you.
The Bethel Funerals’ difference
Not-for-profit
Our organisation was established to help others. We feel called to support families through the difficult process of arranging a funeral. We’re also committed to regular, ongoing financial support to those in need – which is why we give our surplus funds away.
Over 25 years’ experience
We have the experience and the empathy to guide people through the funeral planning process. Over the past 25 years, we’ve helped thousands of families just like yours plan the perfect tribute to their loved ones.
Genuine compassion
We’re committed to caring for you and your family during this difficult time. You can count on our emotional and practical support with whatever you need.
Christ-like care
Bethel Funerals is built upon the principles of Christian love and compassion. We seek to offer peace to the families we minister to and hope to those who endure hardship. We conduct funerals for people of all, or no, faith backgrounds.
Choose how you’d like to be remembered
Pre-planning your funeral gives you a chance to think about how you’d like to be remembered and celebrated. You can choose between burial or cremation, select an urn or casket that best reflects your personality, and determine floral arrangements, music and other parts of the service.
How much will it cost?
Funerals generally range from $4,000-$15,000. The final price depends on whether you opt for burial or cremation, as well as the other types of services and items you choose. For peace of mind, we recommend you start putting money aside for your funeral now. The FAQs below provide further guidance on how to do this.
Here’s how we help
We meet with you now to discuss arrangements
Our experienced team will take you through everything you need to know about planning for a funeral. We’ll help explain options for the service and discuss burial or cremation choices.
You can trust us to create a meaningful funeral
We provide you a way to record your preferences and recommend you also share these with your family. When the time comes, you can trust us to work with your family to create a meaningful service.
We’ll take care of your family
Our dedicated and compassionate team will support your family during and after the funeral.
Frequently asked questions
All you need to do is contact our office and we will walk you through the funeral planning process and answer any questions you might have. We can help you plan each step, including whether you’d like to be buried or cremated and what you want your service to look like.
A great way to get your thoughts in order is to download and complete our free Personal Preference Record. This will help you identify your preferences for your funeral and how you’d like to be remembered.
We recommend you put money into a securely invested funeral bond and assign it to Bethel Funerals. Our staff will provide you with an idea of what your funeral will cost so that you can consider how much you might wish to invest. You can make a one-off lump sum payment into a funeral bond or set up regular installments. Payments can be debited directly from a bank account of your choosing.
Staff will also discuss cemetery and crematorium costs with you.
Funeral bonds are managed investments that earn interest. The purpose of a funeral bond is to set aside funds to assist with funeral expenses when needed. The funds can only be used after your death to pay for your funeral.
If the bond is worth more than the cost of your funeral, the excess funds will be returned to your estate. On the other hand, if there isn’t enough in the bond, then your family will have to cover the remaining amount.
Funeral bonds can help protect your family as it means they won’t have to raise substantial funds at relatively short notice.
Centrelink will not count (as an assessable asset) any funds up to $14,000 that are paid into a funeral bond*. This can allow you to maximise any Centrelink benefits. Please check with Services Australia to confirm the latest information and your eligibility.
* As at 1 July 2022. See servicesaustralia.gov.au to learn more.
Pre-planning your funeral, and setting funds aside now, takes the burden off your family later. You can have peace of mind knowing that your wishes will be carried out and your family will have the finances to pay for your funeral.
A funeral bond accumulates interest over the life of the deposit. It is in place to be applied towards the actual cost of the funeral when it’s provided. If there are excess funds after all funeral costs are covered, the remainder of the funeral bond investment will be returned to your estate. Any outstanding amount, not covered by the funeral bond, will need to be paid by your family.
With funeral insurance, you pay either fixed or increasing premiums for as long as you wish to be covered – to one day cover the costs of your funeral. But because you must keep paying to be covered, it’s possible you may end up paying more in premiums than the value of the funeral itself. We recommend you take time to calculate how much you may pay in funeral insurance and decide whether you are better off securely investing those amounts into a funeral bond instead.
Bethel Funerals has been caring for families like yours since 1997, so it is extremely unlikely we’d go out of business. However, in the event that this were to happen, you would simply re-assign your funeral bond to another funeral director.
We have beautiful chapels located across Brisbane and Melbourne, and can easily provide our services throughout both Queensland and Victoria.
If you were to move to another state or territory, we can simply re-assign your funeral bond over to them.
If death occurs while you’re outside of our service area, we can arrange for your body to be transported back to a Bethel Funeral home. However, this will incur additional transportation fees.
If you’re travelling overseas and have taken out travel insurance, you may have included ‘repatriation of the body of the deceased’ coverage. If so, this can normally be used to offset any incurred costs.