Can I Include Funeral Instructions in My Will?

You can write funeral wishes into your will, but you probably should not rely on your will to carry them out, because by the time anyone reads it, the funeral is often already over.

The Timing Problem

A will is designed to distribute property, and property distribution happens over weeks and months, not days. Wills are frequently located and read after the funeral has taken place, sometimes well after, because families are focused first on immediate arrangements and only later on probate. That creates a practical mismatch. If your instructions about burial or cremation, a service, or the handling of your remains are locked inside a document no one opens until the estate is being administered, your wishes may never reach the people making decisions in real time. Even when a will is found quickly, it may need to be filed with the court and go through steps that take longer than the short window in which funeral choices must be made.

Where Funeral Wishes Belong Instead

Because of that timing gap, the better place for funeral and disposition instructions is in a separate, standalone document that your family can find and act on right away. Washington law specifically provides for this. Under RCW 68.50.160, a person has the right to control the disposition of his or her own remains without the consent of anyone else, and the statute states that a valid written document expressing the decedent's wishes about the place or method of disposition, signed by the person in the presence of a witness, is sufficient legal authorization for those procedures to be carried out. In other words, the law gives your own written, witnessed directive real authority, independent of your will and available immediately.

Who Controls the Arrangements

When someone has not left clear written directions, Washington sets an order of priority for who gets to make disposition decisions, and knowing that order helps explain why a written directive matters so much. RCW 68.50.160 lists the people in whom the right to control disposition vests, in order: a person designated on a military emergency data form for those who die in service, then a designated agent named in a signed and witnessed written document, then the surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner, then a majority of the surviving adult children, then the surviving parents, then a majority of the surviving siblings, and finally a court-appointed guardian. If you do nothing, the decision falls to whoever sits highest on that list, and if several people share the same rank, such as adult children, a majority must agree. That is how disagreements over a service turn into stalemates.

Naming a Designated Agent

One of the most useful tools in RCW 68.50.160 is the ability to name a designated agent through a written document that you sign and date in the presence of a witness. The statute provides that the direction of your designated agent is sufficient to direct the type, place, and method of disposition. This lets you place the authority in the hands of the specific person you trust, rather than leaving it to the default order. That can matter a great deal in blended families, or when the person best suited to honor your wishes is not the one who would otherwise rank first. Naming an agent also spares your family the burden of guessing, and it can prevent the painful situation where relatives of equal rank cannot reach a majority.

What About Prepaid Arrangements

Washington also recognizes prearrangements that are prepaid or filed with a licensed funeral establishment or cemetery authority. RCW 68.50.160 provides that such prearrangements are generally not subject to cancellation or substantial revision by survivors. For some families in Snohomish County, making and prepaying arrangements in advance is the surest way to see that specific wishes are honored and that loved ones are not left to make costly decisions during grief. Whether that fits you depends on your circumstances, but it is worth knowing the option carries statutory weight.

Coordinating Your Documents

None of this means your will is irrelevant to end-of-life matters. Your will still handles your property, and it can reference your funeral wishes so there is no doubt about your intentions. The key is not to make the will the only place those wishes appear. A sound approach is to sign a separate, witnessed disposition directive under RCW 68.50.160, name a designated agent if you have someone specific in mind, tell that person and your close family where the directive is kept, and then let your will do the job it is built for. When these pieces work together, the right person has clear authority at the moment it is needed, and your family is not left interpreting a document they have not yet found.

The Practical Takeaway

You can mention funeral instructions in your will, and there is no harm in doing so, but do not let that be your only step. The document that actually controls your remains under Washington law is a signed, witnessed directive that your family can act on immediately, and naming a designated agent gives you even more certainty. Handling it this way keeps your wishes from being discovered too late to matter.

If you want to make sure your funeral and disposition wishes are written down in a way that Washington law will honor, and coordinated with the rest of your estate plan, the Law Office of Chad Foster would be glad to help you put those documents in place.