Betty Wills grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and has spent her entire life in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She graduated from Fort Worth Technical High School as well as attending one year of college. She and her husband, Bob, have been married for 49 years and have four children: Bob, Jr., a full-time evangelist; Don, a Pastor at First Baptist Church of Fort Worth; Ron, owner of Roadrunner Charter Bus Company; and Angel, an architect with Carter-Burgess. She and Bob are also blessed with ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Betty’s family, “The Bob Wills Family,” has traveled in Music Evangelism for over 25 years. They are keeping a tradition alive that was established by their family, “The Singing Wills Family,” of Arlington in 1938, singing gospel music in churches and revivals all over the world. Betty’s new career began eleven years ago. Her driving force to become part of the funeral industry began with a personal experience. Her father’s funeral was not planned in advance, and the fiasco that followed sent her searching for a way to help families avoid a similar situation. It has become her passion and vocation to inform, educate, and assist people in realizing the value of prearranging. It was proven to her in a very personal way by her father’s death that prearranging is the most valuable gift that can be given to a family. Betty urges families that preplanning is an excellent way to save and prepare emotionally and financially during a very stressful time. Her objective is to always find the best way to help and serve our families’ needs.

A funeral provides family and friends a way to remember and celebrate their loved one. When you pre-plan you are able to evaluate all of your options and choose what best portrays who you are and how you want to be remembered. You are able to make a personal and informed decision about your funeral and cemetery arrangements as well as the form of memorial you prefer. You will gain peace of mind in knowing that you have relieved your loved ones of the emotional and financial burdens often associated with making funeral arrangements after a death has occurred. In addition, by prefunding your funeral and cemetery services, a guaranteed price contract will allow you to purchase at today’s prices, free from any inflationary pressures in the future.

It is important to keep in mind that prearrangement is a two-part transaction. The first is the funeral agreement between you and the funeral home and/or cemetery. That agreement is comprised mostly (sometimes completely, depending on your state laws) of elements that are guaranteed to be performed at no additional cost to your family once the funding is complete. The second is the actual funding of the agreement. Because the prearranger (in this case, Homestead Funeral Home) has already guaranteed that your agreement will be performed with no additional cost after funding, the prearranger takes great care to ensure that those funds will be available at death. For this reason, the prearranger will carefully consider the financial soundness of where funds set aside for funeral and cemetery prearrangement agreements will be placed.

If you have a prearranged funeral or burial agreement that is comprised of elements that are guaranteed to be performed by the funeral home or cemetery at no additional cost to you, the interest (or growth, if a life insurance policy) is retained by the funeral home/cemetery to offset the rising costs of those specified goods and services over time. In this way, you are able to purchase a funeral at today’s prices without worrying about the future cost.

Changes are generally possible, but be careful. When changes are made, they oftentimes affect the terms of guarantees that were created under the original agreement. In the event funds paid toward a funeral plan are excludable resources for purposes of receiving social services (SSI or Medicaid), changing the terms of that agreement could jeopardize one's qualification for assistance. It is not recommended that irrevocably assigned funeral plans be changed in any way.

Prior contractual agreements are not voided simply because a change of ownership occurs. The funeral planning agreement you have with the prior ownership is carried forward with successor owners as part of the purchase agreement.

While it’s not uncommon to have a small processing fee associated with an early payment, it should not be construed as a "penalty." In the long run, there is usually a good amount of money to be saved by paying off early. Of course, funding agreements vary. Please be sure to check the terms of your (or your proposed) funding agreement for details.

Social Services cannot take away your prearrangements, but they can challenge the amount being set aside for an expensive funeral. Funds set aside to pay for a reasonable funeral arrangement are not counted as assets as one qualifies for social services.