What Is FCGS+ and What Can It Do for End-of-Life Planning?

FCGS+ is a standalone digital platform from Funeral Consumer Guardian Society (FCGS) that lets you plan and store your end-of-life wishes yourself, rather than leaving those decisions to your family under pressure. It is designed for people who want to document their preferences in advance, keep related documents and funding information in one secure place, and give their family clear instructions when the time comes. It is a separate product from an FCGS membership, so you can use it on its own.

What FCGS+ Is

According to FCGS, FCGS+ is a "comprehensive digital platform that puts you in control of your end-of-life planning." The organization positions it as a standalone product — distinct from its traditional membership — built around three functions:

• Creating secure final wishes in a personal profile
• Accessing funeral pricing from FCGS's database
• Leaving your family everything they need so they aren't making decisions blind

The underlying idea is to move end-of-life planning from a reactive, crisis-driven process to something you complete on your own schedule.

What You Can Do With It

Build a final wishes profile

The profile is the core of the platform. Per FCGS, it holds:

• All of your end-of-life wishes
• Important documents
• Possible funding information
• "Much more"

In practical terms, this is where you record what you want to happen — burial or cremation, service preferences, and the practical details your family would otherwise have to guess at — and attach the paperwork that supports it.

Look up funeral and cremation prices

FCGS states it maintains "the largest database of funeral and cremation prices in the US," and FCGS+ gives you access to funeral pricing from that database. This matters because price transparency is the main lever consumers have when comparing providers. If you can see what funeral homes and cremation services actually charge before anyone is grieving, you can make a cost-informed choice instead of accepting the first quote you're handed.

Leave your family a clear record

The stated purpose of storing all of this in one place is that your family "has everything they need during life's most difficult moments." The value here is decision relief: instead of your relatives reconstructing your preferences, hunting for documents, and locating funds while arranging a funeral, they follow what you already set out.

Who It's For

FCGS+ fits you if:

• You want to pre-plan your own funeral or cremation arrangements rather than leave it to family
• You want price information before committing to a provider
• You want your wishes, documents, and funding details in one accessible place
• You prefer a self-directed digital tool over relying on a membership service to handle arrangements

It is less suited to someone who wants a third party to actively negotiate, review contracts, and pay funeral bills on their behalf — that is the role FCGS describes for its membership, not the standalone platform.

FCGS+ vs. an FCGS Membership

FCGS describes its membership as reversing "the traditional funeral model" by putting the consumer back in control, with advocates handling tasks from finding a funeral home and reviewing contracts to paying the funeral bill from an insurance policy. FCGS+ is the self-service digital layer: you build the plan and hold the information.

If your goal is simply to get your wishes and pricing research organized, FCGS+ covers that. If you want someone to step in and manage the arrangements and payment when the time comes, that is what the membership is described as doing.

A Practical Example

Say you've decided you want a direct cremation and a small gathering rather than a full service. With FCGS+, you would record that preference in your profile, check cremation prices in your area through the database so your family knows what a fair price looks like, and store the relevant documents and any funding information alongside it. When the time comes, your family opens the profile and works from your instructions instead of starting from zero — and they have a price reference so they aren't overpaying under time pressure.

What to Verify Before You Sign Up

The source material describes what FCGS+ does but does not list pricing, subscription terms, or login requirements for the platform. Before committing, check directly with FCGS on:

• Cost and billing terms for FCGS+ as a standalone product
• What "secure" means in practice — how your documents and funding information are stored and who can access them
• Whether support is included or whether 24/7 advocate access requires a separate membership
• How your family accesses the profile after your death, and what steps they need to take

Those are the details that determine whether the platform works the way you need it to when it actually matters.