Understanding Veterans’ Funeral and Burial Benefits
When a veteran dies, their family can encounter additional emotional and financial challenges. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers several different benefits to honor someone’s service and ease the burden on survivors. Part of our commitment includes helping families to understand these benefits, and to ensure that veterans and families receive the recognition they deserve. Whether your loved one’s death was in the line of duty or not, there may be options to assist with funeral and burial costs.
One significant benefit is burial in a national cemetery, provided at no cost to your family. This includes the gravesite, labor to open and close the grave, a gravestone, and perpetual care. Your family also receives a flag and we can help with requesting military honors at the funeral or memorial service. If the veteran will be buried in a private cemetery, the VA will still provide a headstone or marker, or a medallion to affix to an existing gravestone.
Another benefit includes direct financial assistance (you will need to visit the VA benefits website to confirm the current amount since it is always changing). This can help cover funeral expenses and often includes a separate allowance for the cemetery fees if the interment is not in a national cemetery. If the death was connected to the veteran’s service, the amount of reimbursement usually is higher.
We take great pride in recognizing members of our armed forces, and we will help you to fill out the needed documents to request the various benefits.
Since funeral pre-planning is very important, we encourage you to verify eligibility. It is helpful for us to have a copy of honorable discharge paperwork on hand so that we can request military honors and have the proper pieces of information in place. We are always here to answer questions, assist with paperwork, and coordinate with the VA on your family’s behalf. We will always do whatever we can to ensure that our veterans are laid to rest with dignity and respect.
