Funeral wishes and arranging in advance

What a funeral testament means

A funeral testament is not a legal will but a written description of the kind of funeral you wish for yourself. It transfers no property and needs no witnesses. Its weight comes from the Burial Act: under the law, the deceased's own conviction and wishes must be respected in burial, cremation and the handling of the ashes. The law also says that if the deceased explicitly wished a certain person to handle the arrangements, that wish comes first; otherwise the spouse or cohabiting partner and the closest heirs take care of them. A written wish therefore gives your family a clear instruction and a basis for it. It can be made at any age and changed whenever you like. Through Tyyni, wishes can be recorded online at your own pace.

Why it is worth writing wishes down

When the wishes are on paper, your family does not have to guess. After a death, decisions are made quickly: the cremation is usually arranged within 1-2 weeks, and the form of burial, the farewell and the placing of the ashes have to be settled in that time. Without a recorded wish, relatives may disagree about what the deceased would have wanted, and under the Burial Act such disputes are ultimately settled by the district court of the home municipality. A recorded wish ends the guessing. It also makes the costs easier to grasp in advance: once you know whether you wish for direct cremation, a blessing or a coffin burial, you also know the order of magnitude of the price. Many people record their wishes at the same time as they make a legal will or sort out their other papers. The wishes do not bind you: you can change them at any time.

What to write down

The wishes do not have to be complete. The most important things are the form of burial and who handles the arrangements. The other points can be left open or noted only in outline; your family fills them in when the time comes. Also write down if something does not matter to you: that too is an instruction that spares your family from wondering. These are worth thinking about:

• Form of burial: direct cremation, cremation with a blessing, or coffin burial
• Farewell: a private farewell moment, a blessing in a chapel, or no ceremony
• Placing the ashes: urn grave, memorial grove, scattering area, columbarium or family grave
• Memorial gathering: whether to hold one, where, and whom to invite
• Music, clothing and flowers, if they matter to you
• A newspaper death notice: yes or no, and what it should say
• The contact person who handles the arrangements, and a deputy
• Church membership and whether you wish for a pastor's blessing

Form of burial and prices

The form of burial is the most important point in the wishes, because it decides nearly everything else. Tyyni's packages have fixed prices, and the parish invoices its fees for placing the ashes or for the grave separately. Direct cremation is the simplest form, not the only right one: a blessing or a memorial gathering can always be added, and the blessing can also be held at the urn. Current prices for a Helsinki resident:

• Direct cremation 950 euros: collection, cremation coffin, dressing, documents and cremation
• Direct cremation with urn handover 1,150 euros: adds the Sävyisä urn and handover at an agreed time
• Cremation with a blessing 1,950 euros: adds a chapel blessing, the chapel booking, an officiant or speaker and bearers
• Coffin burial 1,890 euros: birch coffin, chapel blessing and burial arrangements with the parish
• Placing the ashes in Helsinki: memorial grove or scattering area 90 euros, urn grave 180 euros, columbarium 300 euros, plus burial of the ashes 150 euros

No prepayment is needed

Nothing is paid to Tyyni in advance. Recording your wishes is free of charge and binds neither you nor your family to anything. Prices are confirmed only when the arrangement is made: the price list in force at that time is shown before anything binds, and we confirm the whole by phone. The invoice is sent after the cremation, with 14 days to pay. The bank usually pays the funeral invoice from the deceased's account against the invoice, and funeral costs are deducted in the estate inventory. If you want to make sure there is money for the funeral, you can keep funds for it in your own account and note in your wishes that they are meant for funeral costs; no separate product or prepayment is needed. If funds are not enough, social assistance for funeral costs can be applied for from the wellbeing services county's social services.

Tell your family and name a contact person

Wishes are useful only if someone knows about them. Tell at least one close person that the wishes have been recorded and where they are. Name a contact person who will handle the arrangements, and preferably a deputy as well. Under the Burial Act, the deceased's explicit wish about who handles the arrangements comes before others; without such a wish, the spouse or cohabiting partner and the closest heirs take care of them. This matters especially if you want a friend or a cohabiting partner, rather than a relative, to handle the arrangements. The conversation is often easier than expected: many relatives are relieved once it has been agreed. Say at the same time what you would like from the memorial gathering and whom you would like to be invited.

Where to keep the wishes

Keep the wishes somewhere they can be found quickly: at home among your important papers, and give a copy to the contact person. A legal will is often read only after the funeral, so funeral wishes should be kept as a separate paper and not only inside the will. If you record the wishes online on Tyyni's form, keep the summary yourself as well and tell the contact person that the wishes have been recorded online, so that they can mention it when they contact us. Update the wishes when your life situation changes: moving to another municipality affects the cremation fee and the right to a grave, and leaving the church affects the chapel fee. An outdated wish is better than none at all, but an up-to-date one spares your family from sorting things out.

When the time comes

When the death occurs, the contact person calls us or starts online and says that wishes have been recorded. We go through the wishes together with them and place the order accordingly; if a wish is no longer possible, for example because of the grave, we suggest the closest alternative. We confirm everything by phone before anything binds. After that we handle collection, the burial permit and other documents, the crematorium booking and the urn. The cremation is usually arranged within 1-2 weeks, and the ashes are placed within a year. This is how it goes:

• The contact person gets in touch and mentions the recorded wishes
• We go through the wishes and place the order accordingly
• We confirm the package and the price by phone
• Collection, documents, cremation and urn as wished
• Invoice after the cremation, 14 days to pay

The next step

Recording wishes needs no meeting. You can fill in the form online at your own pace or call us and go through the points by phone. Recording is free and binds nothing; nothing is binding until your family, when the time comes, confirms the arrangements with us by phone. If you are recording wishes on someone else's behalf, for example with an elderly parent, do it together with them: the law respects the deceased's own wishes, not the family's wishes on their behalf. If you first want to know what the different options cost, see the guide The price of direct cremation: what 950 euros includes. Call us or start online; nothing is binding until we confirm the arrangements by phone.

Frequently asked questions