A funeral trust is an arrangement entered into with a provider of funeral or burial services. Prepaying funeral expenses may allow you to “lock in” costs for future funeral or burial services at an agreed-upon price. The funeral home sometimes serves as trustee (manager of trust assets), and you usually fund the trust with cash, bonds, or life insurance. A revocable funeral trust can be changed and revoked by you at any time. An irrevocable trust can’t be changed or revoked, and you generally can’t get your money out except to pay for funeral services.
Irrevocable funeral trusts may also help you qualify for long-term care benefits through Medicaid. For example, these trusts may be funded with assets that would otherwise be countable resources for Medicaid (i.e., included in determining Medicaid eligibility). They are often sold through insurance companies, in which case they are typically funded with life insurance. And you can fund the funeral trust right before entering the nursing home — there’s no “look-back” period for these transfers, unlike the case with certain other transfers that can cause a delay in the start of Medicaid benefits.
Another advantage of funding your trust with life insurance is that the trust will have no taxable income to report, because life insurance cash values grow tax deferred. Otherwise, income from trust assets may be taxed to you as the grantor of the trust, unless the trustee elects to treat the trust as a qualified funeral trust by filing Form 1041-QFT with the IRS, in which case trust income is taxed to the trust.
But what happens if you want to change funeral homes, or the facility you selected goes out of business? Does your irrevocable trust allow you to change beneficiaries (e.g., funeral homes)? Are trust funds protected from creditors of the funeral home? State laws regulating prepaid funeral trusts often require funeral homes to keep trust assets separate from their own business assets, keeping them safe from funeral home creditors. And most irrevocable trusts are transferable to another funeral home should the initial business fail or you change funeral homes.
There are expenses associated with the creation of a trust and the purchase of life insurance, and benefits are not guaranteed.
