The title is a little self explanatory, but you absolutely can have an open bar at your funeral. Beyond that, you can require that there is one. Estate planning is incredibly personal, and it should reflect your wishes and no one else’s. Hell, you don’t even have to tell people what’s in your will if you don’t want. It can all be a surprise.
Money Concerns
Open bars are costly depending on how many people you’ll have in attendance. Any money spent on your open bar is money your heirs won’t get. If that’s a concern, or your estate won’t have enough money to cover an open bar at all, maybe you shouldn’t put it in. Also keep in mind that your executor can only spend money from your estate, money from their own pocket, or ask friends and relatives to pitch in. This is a practical consideration when you list putting an open bar in your funeral.
Can’t Make Anyone Drink
Your will cannot make anyone do anything. There are often choices you can put in like requiring your heirs to take a shot or they won’t inherit from you. However, there are still limitations on that because you can’t make anyone do anything illegal and certain immoral requests could get overturned by the court. For example, if you have a relative recovering from alcoholism or liver disease, they’d have a strong case for holding a drinking provision in your will as invalid.
Fun fact: you can put most any legal and morally fine restrictions in your will or other estate planning documents in order for someone (other than a spouse) to inherit from you.
Make Sure They Read Your Will Before Your Funeral
If you have an open bar in your will, you better make sure your executor and closest relatives know they’ll either need to do this or to read the will prior to your funeral. Many times people don’t get around to even finding the will until several weeks after the funeral. By that point, it would be too late.
Be Specific
An “open bar” is a pretty broad concept, so if you had a specific picture in mind, be sure you create a detailed description for your executor and heirs to carry out. For example, a friend of mine wants fireball shots at his wedding. Fireball is a fun part of our friend group, so he wanted to make sure he received the appropriate fireball toast.
If you want just beer, or wine, or certain types of liquor, it’s up to you to say so. If you don’t, it’s up to your executor to ensure your wishes are met to the best of your executor’s knowledge and ability. For example, if it were my funeral, I wouldn’t want my executor spending a ton of money on beer and liquor, so I’d probably make mine a BYOB funeral.
Some Places Don’t Allow Alcohol
Make sure your wishes don’t conflict. For example, if you want your funeral to happen in the cemetery, you better make sure alcohol is allowed in the cemetery. I highly doubt you can have an open bar there. You can always choose the place of your funeral. All you have to do is find a place that allows an open bar. Voila, that’s your new place for a funeral. However, keep in mind there may be a rental fee for that new location. Most places require a rental fee.