For the rich, funerals are becoming one last extravagant display of wealth

Live lavishly, go out extravagantly. For many of the rich and powerful, funerals are becoming the final opportunity to flaunt immense wealth, competing with weddings and birthdays as a rite of passage worthy of a small fortune. They’re choosing to be laid to rest in $60,000 gold-plated coffins and ferried by horse-drawn funeral carriages or Rolls-Royce hearses. Some are even flying friends and relatives to exotic locales for destination funerals.

A cottage industry of advisers is in place to meet the demand, and some wealth managers are encouraging clients to confront their own mortality and make advance plans — not only