Cremation vs Burial: The Pros and Cons You Need to Know to Make an Informed Decision

In this article, I’m going to talk about the pros and cons of cremation versus burial.

Cremation

So let’s just take those in order. The first thing I’m going to discuss is cremation. And the thing you need to know about cremation is that it makes your agent’s jobs a lot simpler. You may not know this but you can actually easily send someone through the mail if they’ve been cremated. You can’t do that with a body (you have to buy the cadaver a plane ticket). So cremation really simplifies the logistics of transporting a body or the cremated remains of your loved one particularly if you’re going to be going across state lines.

Now, I have had to transport a body across state lines when I had a guardianship client who passed away. The gentleman was not particularly affluent and so there were limited funds available for the burial and cremation. He was from South Carolina so I had to transport his body from Virginia down to South Carolina. And that cost a significant amount of money. Just getting him a plane ticket cost $1200 and so then all the other burial expenses are on top of that.

Plus, it’s just a massively challenging scenario, getting the body from the funeral home to the airport and then at the other end of the travel destination as well; from the airport to another funeral home or straight to the cemetery. And so just keep in mind that if you are going to be cremated, it’s much simpler for your family to transport you to wherever your final destination is going to be.

Cremation Cuts Down Costs

Another advantage of cremation is that it’s much cheaper. The burial urn for a cremated body is going to cost between $600 and $1000 (if you’re not going to go the coffee can route). This is much cheaper than a burial where the casket is going to cost anywhere from $1500 to $6000. There’s no real ceiling on how much a casket can cost. It can be as expensive as you want it to be but in general, the burial is going to cost a lot more if you’re going to be buried versus cremated.

Additionally, cremated remains require a smaller spot at the cemetery which is also going to be a lot cheaper because it takes up less room. So you can be put in a columbarium, which is a wall of cremated remains. That’s going to be a lot cheaper than a burial plot because there are the opening and closing costs (digging the hole) in addition to the casket and ceremony, versus a columbarium where you are placed in a prefabricated nook. Another possible spot for cremated remains is in a crematory garden where you are interred in the ground in a small plot.

Burial cost are typically in the realm of $5000 – $7000. Cremation can be a lot cheaper than that. You can cremate and inter a body for under $3000. The cost could be even cheaper depending on how you manage things, what you negotiate and where you live.

Cremation Gives You Options

And so that takes me to other options for cremation. Cremation gives you the option to be scattered on your favorite golf course or in the ocean or in a river or on a farm. Your ashes can be scattered more or less anywhere as long as you obtain the landowner’s permission.

You don’t get the same freedom with a burial. I had to tell that to a client who requested a Tibetan Sky Burial. A Tibetan Sky Burial is when they leave your body out on the side of the mountain and the vultures consume your body, it’s a return to nature thing. This type of burial is not legal in Virginia. So while burial options are somewhat more limited, with cremation you can be scattered wherever you want.

Important Cremation Considerations

A couple considerations for scattering. Number one, most important, if you’re going to ask to be scattered at sea, i.e. on a cruise ship, make sure you tell them ahead of time.

Cruise ship companies do not like a surprise scatterings off the side of the deck because it tends to blow back or blow onto unexpected places. If you tell them ahead of time, 9 times out of 10, they’re going to give you a designated place to scatter the remains off the stern of the ship. It will be a lot cleaner, they’ll even provide a chaplain sometimes. It’s going to be a lot better and you’re not going to have to be secretive about carrying your burial urn aboard. It’s much more dignified to tell them ahead of time.

Another thing to keep in mind if you’re going to be scattering your ashes, sometimes people want to be scattered in a bunch of different places. For example someone may want a little bit at the family farm in Maine, a little bit in Florida, a little bit in Colorado. If that is your desire you may not realize that it could be really time consuming and expensive for your agents and since you’re not around to enforce your wishes so your agents might ignore your wishes. That’s why it’s important to make your wishes for scattering reasonable. Scattering your ashes at sea or on the farm, any of that kind of thing is reasonable but when you want multiple places it can start to get logistically challenging.

Burial

Now I’m going to talk a little bit about burial. Typically, we see people specifically requesting burial when they have religious reasons to do so or maybe they had an experience where they really wanted to say goodbye to their loved one who passed away unexpectedly and so there was an open casket funeral. Those are just some of the reasons to buried versus cremated. Just keep in mind that if you’re going to be buried and especially for the open casket, you’re going to have to be embalmed.

Is Embalming Dignified?

Now embalming is when they inject your body full of chemicals and that’s kind of undignified to have that happen to your corpse. Make sure you know what you’re getting into. If that doesn’t bother you because you’re gone then that’s completely fine.

Cost and Availability of Burial Space

Another consideration to keep in mind for burial is the cost and the availability of space at the cemetery where you want to be buried.

So if you have a family burial plot somewhere, you’re going to want to ensure that there’s room if you’re going to buried there. If there’s no room there for you, then your wishes are going to be defeated and you wouldn’t have to say where you’re buried at all. One solution to that is to make burial contracts with cemeteries where you pay them upfront and lock in your plot of land ahead of time.

Now, one of the trends in burials is to request a burial pod, and I’ve actually done this in my wishes in my burial power of attorney. I’ve specifically requested to be turned into a tree on the side of a trout stream because fishing is important to me, and I want to be on a trout stream. However, I’m probably going to be changing my wishes because it’s really hard to bury someone on the side of a trout stream because you can’t be buried on public land. Again, that’s illegal. You can’t just bury a body out in the woods. So I’m going to be changing my wishes so that I’m cremated and then turned into a tree. You can scatter ashes in the soil and then plant a tree on top of it. That’s no problem.

It’s important to note that there aren’t many laws on point for burial pods. There’s a new law in Oregon that allows you to be turned into a burial pod into a tree. There are new methods across the world where you can be turned into soil by mushrooms. Those are cutting edge options for burial wishes. And so that’s something to monitor going forward if you want to return to nature. If you want your energy to return to nature, then those are some of the options that are available to you right now.

Talk to an Attorney About Your Wishes

Have you decided on whether or not you want to be buried or cremated? Don’t worry, it’s not a decision you have to make right away. But talking to an attorney about your wishes is important if you want to make sure it’s carried out the way you want. Get started on the process today by setting up a consultation with Misha Gill by calling him at (703) 553-2577 or sending an email to [email protected].