Planning Ahead

Taking steps to plan a loved ones funeral an cemetery needs feels daunting and that is completely understandable. This thoughtful act shows immense care for those left behind. By planning ahead we help you ease the stress and financial worries during a difficult time allowing you to focus on honoring and celebrating life, knowing that you do so according to the wishes of our loved ones.

Why Plan?

Why planning makes sense for you and your loved ones

Purchasing Pre-Need

Acquire an Interment Lot

Last Expenses Cover

Don’t leave loved ones with a financial burden

Planning FAQ’s

Everything you need to know and want to ask about planning

We provide premium interment and memorialisation options with perpetual maintenance in settings of unforgettable serenity.

FAQs

While there are many reasons to pre-plan, the most notable is the easing of often tricky decisions relating to your own wishes on family members. Planning ahead will give you peace of mind, knowing that your requests will be honoured. And, for those who pre-purchase, you’ll have protection against future price increases, while reducing the burden that often falls on family members during an emotional time.

At the Gates of Pearl memorial parks, a “Grantee” is issued a Right of Interment which gives exclusive right to have themselves or any other person that they nominate buried in the specific interment lot.

A Right of Interment is not a title deed to the interment lot as some may believe. The Grantee’s entitlements are limited to use of the interment lot only for burial.

When an interment lot or memorial site is purchased, with it comes the right of interment – the right to decide who is buried there, and what kind of memorial they will have. The HRI is the person who holds this right and may either be the purchaser, or a person/people assigned by the purchaser to be interred in the lot. Each memorial park retains records showing the HRI’s of each interment lot.

You can transfer a Right of Interment to someone else. Please contact us for more details on how this can be done as it is different for different circumstances.

The Right of Interment is considered to part of the Grantee’s estate, to be administered by his or her Executor.

All graves at the Gates of Pearl Memorial Parks allow for the in-ground burial of a single body only. However, the Grantee is also given the right to inter 2 sets of cremated remains in the interment lot once the lot has been used for an in-ground burial.

Sections of some memorial parks may allow for in-ground burial of 2 bodies (but only for married persons or blood relatives). Please contact customer care to find out if your preferred memorial park provides this option.

There are single, double and family cremation lots, and scatter gardens (with memorialisation) available at the Gates of Pearl memorial parks. Please contact customer care to discuss the range of options available at your preferred memorial park.

Gates of Pearl advises, and actively encourages, the reservation of interment and cremation lots as this enables members of the same family to secure lots adjacent to each other. We have provided attractive layout options as well as payment plans giving you maximum flexibility in your preplanning arrangements.

No. All memorials components for the Gates of Pearl memorial parks must be ordered through the memorial park office so as to retain the ambience of a dignified park-like setting offering serenity and grandeur worthy of an eternal resting place..

Gates of Pearl is responsible for the maintenance of its memorial parks and the interment and cremation lots and memorialisation prices are inclusive of contributions to a perpetual care trust that funds the maintenance of our memorial parks.

Perpetual care usually refers to an endowment that provides permanent care of a memorial park. Part of the purchase price for interment or cremation lots and memorials is deposited into an endowment that funds the maintenance of the grounds, roads, and buildings of the memorial park.

No. The planting and maintenance of plants, trees, shrubs etc are the responsibility of Gates of Pearl.

When a new grave is prepared, the soil that is replaced into the grave after a person has been interred is more aerated than the surrounding soil. Grave subsidence, or grave sinking, is a natural process that occurs when this freshly-excavated soil begins to slowly settle, causing the surface to sink over time.

It is not possible to safely compact the soil immediately after a burial has taken place, so grave sinking is unfortunately an unavoidable process. Certain weather conditions can also play a role.

Our interment teams conduct routine maintenance that includes backfilling of graves to counteract the effects of grave sinking. If you ever have any concerns about the appearance of a grave, please contact us.

We have created an online tool to help quickly locate specific graves and memorials within the cemeteries under our management. Please click here to Find a Loved One interred at any of our memorial parks. If you are unable to locate a record, please contact us for assistance.

All funerals must be arranged through our Funeral Director partners who will then contact the memorial park to make the necessary arrangements.

In most cases we are able to assist with an immediate burial requirement. Our customer care team can help guide you through the steps involved with arranging a burial, funeral or after-service function. We also provide hospitality and florist services for convenience and complete peace of mind.

Please contact us as soon as possible and note our office hours.

Yes, we have extended payment terms that are interest free. For more information on options available, please contact our customer care team.