Archive for Funeral Home

Funeral Home Services: what’s the difference between a funeral service and a memorial service?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Monday, June 17th, 2013

 Funeral homes provide different services depending on the needs and preferences of the decedent’s family.  While many people use the phrases “funeral service” and “memorial service” interchangeably, they are actually different services.

A “funeral service” is any official ceremony that takes place in the presence of a casketed body.  In other words, the body (inside a casket) is present during the ceremony.  The casket lid may be open or closed.

A “memorial service”, on the other hand, is any official ceremony that takes place without the casketed body being present.  For example, the ceremony might take place with just an urn containing cremated remains (i.e. “ashes”) serving as the focal point of the ceremony.  Alternatively, the focal point could be just a picture of the deceased displayed on an easel. 

Other than this distinction, both a funeral service and a memorial service are similar.  Both types of services last approximately 25 minutes and are usually accompanied by a eulogy delivered by a family member or clergy member.

Usually, a funeral home will charge the same amount for a memorial ceremony as they charge for a funeral ceremony (around $500).  Remember, the ceremony itself is just one component of overall funeral costs.  A typical funeral or memorial service can easily run more than $7,000.

There are many things you may want to consider when deciding between a funeral, memorial, or cremation service. 

Learn more about funeral and memorial options.

 

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What you need to know about funeral prices

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Saturday, June 8th, 2013

I’ll admit that gathering information about funeral prices is harder than it should be.  In addition, funeral homes and cemeteries are subject to different requirements when it comes to providing you with information about their prices and options. 

Funeral prices are not set in stone

If you only take away one thing from this article it should be this: funeral prices can vary greatly from one funeral home to the next.  This means a funeral service at one funeral home can cost thousands of dollars more than a similar service held at another funeral home right down the street….so it pays to shop around!

Why we don’t compare funeral prices

Unfortunately, most people do not compare prices between funeral homes.  This is understandable for a couple of reasons:

  • We don’t like to talk about or plan for death
  • Funeral plans often need to be made quickly – this can be especially burdensome when the death was unexpected
  • Most people simply do not know enough about funeral planning to even know what questions to ask or what items to compare
  • No one wants to be perceived as being cheap when it comes to making funeral arrangements for a loved one

However, you should approach the process of buying funeral goods and services just like you would any other major purchase – take the time to educate yourself as to the options and prices available in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, many funeral homes and cemeteries are reluctant to share their prices with you unless you use specific language when making your request.  They know they stand a much better chance of selling you an expensive funeral if they can first get you into their office before providing any information about funeral costs. 

The good news is that there are specific things you can say that will force the funeral home to give you their price information for FREE….and no funeral home would ever dare give you a sales pitch when you use this specific language.

An easier way to gather information about funeral prices

If you’re using the Funeral Saver’s Kit you’ll find a simple chart that clearly explains an easy (and low stress) way to collect pricing information from any funeral home in your area.  The kit tells you exactly what to say to ensure you get honest information at no cost to you.  You can use this to collect information from every funeral home in your area or just those that interest you.

 The best advice I can give you when it comes to collecting funeral price information is this: DON’T be afraid to pick up the phone and call it least three funeral homes in your area and ask them for a copy of their “general price list”.

Each funeral home’s general price list will describe services and merchandise in similar terms.  This makes it easy to compare relative prices between competing funeral homes.  Also, if a funeral home gives you a hard time about giving you information about their prices, forget them.  That’s a good clue they know their prices will not compare favorably to their competitors. 

Remember to compare your local price information to the actual price ranges included in the Funeral Saver’s Kit…so you can be certain you’re getting a fair deal.

Click for more detailed information about funeral prices.

 

 

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What makes up a “traditional” funeral?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

A “traditional” funeral involves the laying out of a casketed body for friends and family to pay respects.  The casket itself may be either “open” or “closed”.  An open casket is one in which the casket lid is left open so that the deceased is visible throughout the ceremony.  A closed casket ceremony means the ceremony is held in the presence of the casket, but the casket lid is closed.  The decedent’s family decides which option they prefer after considering the manner of death and condition of the body.

During a traditional funeral, some type of remembrance ceremony is held.  This ceremony gives friends an opportunity to “say goodbye” to the person who has died and comfort surviving family members.  The funeral ceremony may be open to anyone that wishes to come, or it may be restricted to invited friends and family members.

With a traditional funeral, the body is removed from the place of death and transported to the funeral home.  At the funeral home, the body is embalmed and cosmetically repaired (i.e. the hair is combed, cleaned, and set and makeup, if needed, is applied).  After the body is prepared, it is laid out in a casket. 

Usually, a viewing or visitation ceremony is held the night before the actual funeral service.  This gives friends and well-wishers an opportunity to pay their respects even if they can’t attend the actual funeral service (which is usually held during normal work hours).  If the casket lid is closed during this time, it’s called a “visitation” ceremony; if the casket lid remains open during the ceremony, it is known as a “viewing.”

The actual funeral ceremony is usually held the day after the viewing ceremony.  This is the formal ceremony in which the eulogy is given, often by a religious official.

Immediately following the funeral ceremony, the body is transported to its final resting place – usually a cemetery or mausoleum.  A committal service (i.e. separate service held at the grave side) may also be held right before the casketed body is buried or entombed.

Learn more about traditional funerals.

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Services offered by a funeral home

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Sunday, May 26th, 2013

Many people want to know what services are offered by a funeral home.  Funeral homes, cemeteries, and memorial dealers all play an important role in caring for a deceased family member.  However, funeral homes normally handle the actual funeral or memorial service. 

 

Different funeral home services

But not all funeral services are like.  In fact, funeral homes offer a range of services designed to accommodate different wishes and budgets. 

 

Here are the most common types of services offered at most funeral homes:

 

·        traditional funeral service

·        immediate burial

·        direct cremation

·        cremation with services

·        donation

·        memorial service

·        graveside service

·        private service

 

You should not finalize any funeral arrangements before you understand the goods, services, and costs associated with each option.  During the arrangement conference  you should ask the funeral director to explain his services and prices in easy-to-understand language so you can make the right decision for your family.  

 

Click to learn more about funeral home services and prices

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Save money on funeral costs by making arrangements at a low-priced funeral home and cemetery

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Saturday, May 11th, 2013

Many people don’t realize that prices can vary greatly between funeral homes.   Over just the last three years many family-run funeral homes (and local cemeteries) have been taken-over by big global corporations.  These big corporate funeral homes often keep the original owner’s family name on the door so they don’t scare away their old customers.  Unfortunately, these corporations often raise prices by 30% to 50%. 

This is why you should NOT automatically use the same funeral home you have used in the past UNTIL you check to see if they have SINCE become part of one of the big funeral corporations – as so many have!

Choosing a reasonably-priced local funeral home instead of one of the many corporate funeral homes can substantially reduce your out-of-pocket funeral expenses. …often reducing your overall funeral bill by $2,000 – to $4,000 for the same exact items.

This same principle applies to cemeteries.  These funeral corporations have also been buying up many of the older, better established cemeteries across the country.  They realize that if you already have a family history with a particular cemetery you are more likely to pay their larger fees just to be buried next to a deceased relative. 

So what can you do about all this?  Well, the first thing you should do is call a few funeral homes in your area and ask them if they are now owned by one of the big corporations.  If they’re still a family-run business they’ll be proud to tell you so.   

If you don’t feel comfortable calling and asking funeral homes about this, check out section 3 of the Funeral $aver’s Kit to learn a neat little trick that lets you to use your computer to find out each and every corporate funeral home in your area.  You can do it right from the comfort of you home in less than 5 minutes and it’s completely free. 

After eliminating the really expensive funeral homes, you’ll want to find out which funeral homes offer the most reasonable prices.  Again, you can do this simply by calling funeral homes in your area and requesting their price information. 

Although funeral homes are NOT required to send you price information when you ask for it over the phone, some are still willing to do this.

Unfortunately, a lot of families have trouble getting accurate price information from funeral homes….so the Funeral Saver’s Kit now includes detailed price estimates for all funeral, burial, and cremation goods and services….this makes it easier to know what to expect in terms of costs.

Once you get price information from several funeral homes, simply compare prices for each of the goods and services that interest you.  Families using the Funeral Saver’s Kit have access to both a computer spreadsheet and a simple paper form that can be completed with just a pencil and calculator.  These forms make it easy to see which funeral home in your area offers the lowest overall price for the type of service you want. 

You can repeat this same process for cemeteries in your area.  Once you have identified the funeral home and cemetery that offer the most reasonable prices, contact the funeral home and schedule an “arrangement” conference.

If you need to save money on funeral costs, check out the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

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Instead of buying everything from the funeral home, you can often plan a more affordable funeral by buying certain items from alternate sources

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Friday, April 26th, 2013

Sometimes it makes more sense to buy certain funeral items from someone other than the funeral home handling your service.  These other suppliers usually offer more reasonable prices than the typical funeral home.   

Make an effort to locate other sources that sell funeral merchandise and see what they charge for the items you’re thinking about buying.  Even if you don’t buy from someone else, just knowing that less-expensive options exist can often get your funeral home to give you a big discount to remain competitive. 

Savvy families do this all the time and end up saving hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of dollars on caskets, urns, and headstones.

I give my clients a simple chart that shows them where to find various merchants that may be worth considering.  I also give them a handy “grade sheet” that compares each of the popular Internet suppliers of funeral merchandise.  This grade sheet makes it easy to locate lower-priced merchants and determine how the competition stacks up in terms of prices, selection, and quality. 

When you use this information you’ll be able to make sure you get a GREAT deal on everything you are forced to buy. 

You get both the list of recommended merchants and the handy grade sheet for free as part of the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

 

 

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Save money on funeral costs by choosing lower-priced options

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013

 Choosing certain types of funeral or cremation arrangements can eliminate many unnecessary funeral costs.  Choosing wisely will prevent you from being charged for lots of “extras” no one told you about. 

 

Since most families do not plan funerals very often, they usually don’t realize what’s included (or excluded) in the decisions they make.  All too often a family simply agrees to the funeral director’s recommendations – only to end up surprised when their final bill is 30% higher than expected.

 

Even though many of the goods and services offered by a funeral home are priced on an individual basis, certain selections you make will automatically trigger additional costs.  Unfortunately, most families don’t find out about these additional costs until after the service is over and they get the funeral director’s bill.

 

Here’s an example of how this works:

 

When meeting with the funeral director he might suggest a “traditional” funeral priced at $500.  You agree….thinking $500 isn’t too bad.  However, what you didn’t realize (and what the funeral director failed to mention) is that a “traditional” funeral also means that you will need:

•             embalming (another $500)

•             casket ($1,500)

•             viewing or visitation ($500)

•             cemetery space ($1,000)

•             open & closing the grave site ($750)

•             outer burial container ($1,000)

•             headstone ($1,500)

•             announcing the funeral in a newspaper ($250)

•             use of a hearse ($200)

 

….so when the funeral director said the “traditional” funeral service costs $500 – he meant it would cost $500 to hold the actual 45 minute funeral service.  But, by choosing a “traditional” funeral service, you were also agreeing to purchase all of the other things that are required to conduct a traditional funeral.

 

In this case your total cost would be closer to $7,700.  This is a realistic example (the average traditional funeral costs nearly $8,000).  Simply understanding what’s included in the decisions you make can help you avoid such a nasty financial surprise. 

 

You can use a resource like the Funeral $aver’s Kit to learn about the types of funeral, burial, and cremation arrangements from which you can choose.  Section 2 of the kit identifies costs associated with each service and clearly shows which expenses will be included (or excluded) based on the choices you make. 

 

Generally, your least expensive options (in order of increasing price) are:

•             medical donation

•             direct cremation

•             immediate burial

•             cremation with service

•             traditional funeral

 

Click to learn more about the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

 

 

 

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If you need help paying funeral costs, request or negotiate a discount from the funeral home and cemetery

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Contrary to popular belief, most funeral directors are willing to give discounts to families that ask in an appropriate manner.  Many goods and services provided by a funeral home can easily be discounted by several hundred (or even several thousand) dollars before the funeral home starts to lose money.  Since most funeral homes buy their merchandise from the same few suppliers, they should be able to sell their goods and services for a similar price. 

However, if you come across a particular funeral home that is selling its merchandise for considerably more than other funeral homes in the area, they may be a good candidate for negotiating a lower price on funeral costs. 

If you don’t want to do the legwork yourself you can use a resource like the Funeral $aver’s Kit to quickly gauge which items are negotiable and how much of a discount is realistic.  The kit also shows you the proper way to discuss and negotiate a discount with the funeral director.  This simple, non-confrontational method has been proven to increase your chances of getting a fair deal.    

Click here to learn more about negotiating a funeral discount.

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What you must know before planning a funeral

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Saturday, March 30th, 2013

Before planning a funeral you should know that death care in America is a business.  There are service providers (e.g. funeral homes, cemeteries, and headstone dealers) and there are consumers (people like you and me who need to make funeral arrangements). 

 

Like any business, funeral homes and cemeteries should provide their goods and services on an honest and fair basis.  Unfortunately, this rarely happens as several characteristics unique to the funeral industry place the consumer at a significant disadvantage when making funeral arrangements. 

 

Unique characteristics inherent in planning a funeral:

 

·        disorientation caused by bereavement

·        infrequency of purchase

·        lack of objective information

·        the need to make decisions quickly

·        social taboos surrounding death

·        lack of standards by which to judge funeral goods & services

·        the fact that most people:

o       fail to view funeral arrangements as a business transaction

o       are ignorant of the law as it pertains to disposal of the dead

o       know very little about how a funeral home operates

 

Together these characteristics place consumers at a significant disadvantage when making funeral arrangements.  Funeral homes are staffed by experienced salesmen who deal with the business of death every day.  These professional salespeople square off against emotionally distraught families forced to act hastily with little or no information about legal requirements and available options.

 

The profit-obsessed nature of the funeral industry creates a conflict of interest between the desire for sales and the consumer’s need for meaning and affordability.  The funeral home can make substantially more money if they can manipulate a family into buying unnecessary and overpriced items.  In this unbalanced and highly charged environment, purchase decisions are often based on what the funeral home offers to sell instead of what the family wants (or can afford) to purchase.  This increases consumer costs and decreases consumer satisfaction with the goods and services received. 

 

This website and the Funeral Saver’s Kit ”level the playing field”.  Together they give you, the consumer, objective information and tools needed to understand, evaluate, and make satisfying and affordable funeral arrangements. 

 

A major assumption that lies behind modern funeral practices is that “nothing is too good for the dead”….but you are NOT being disrespectful to the deceased by being practical regarding the arrangements.

 

Most people want to avoid looking cheap when making funeral arrangements.  They want to arrange “a nice, decent funeral”, but they have no idea what a nice, decent funeral looks like.  And everybody is concerned about price – so don’t feel guilty about wanting or needing to make less expensive arrangements.  Did you know that when President John F. Kennedy died, even his family didn’t want to overpay?  The Kennedy family’s accountant was hired to review the funeral home’s bill and identify unnecessary charges.  In the end, the accountant was able to save the family a substantial amount of money.

 

There will be a temptation to just throw up your hands and let the funeral director make all the decisions because of time pressures, uncomfortable decisions, and the emotional stress of dealing with all the pertinent details, but that can be an expensive and unnecessary mistake. 

 

Next to a house and car, a funeral is the third most expensive purchase the average American citizen makes during his lifetime.  Just as you are careful when buying a car or house, being careful when making funeral arrangements can result in tremendous financial savings.

 

The Funeral Saver’s Kit, along with this website, gives you honest advice regarding choices and prices…after all, you have to live the rest of your life with the decisions you make in an hour or two; if you waste money now, it’s gone forever.

 

The key to feeling comfortable and saving money is knowing the available alternatives and asking for them – and that’s what you’ll learn using the help you find here. 

 

Remember, stripped to its simplest form a funeral is merely saying goodbye and disposing of the remains…all else is really unnecessary.

 

Click here to learn more about planning a funeral.

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Funeral Costs: How much does an average funeral cost?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Many times you’ll people say that the average funeral costs around $6,000.  However, that estimate is based on a price survey taken several years ago.  Funeral prices, like everything else, have increased with inflation.

Today, the average North American traditional funeral costs between $7,000 and $10,000.  This price range includes the services at the funeral home, burial in a cemetery, and the installation of a headstone.  While cremation is gaining in popularity, the traditional funeral is still the most popular manner for disposing of the deceased.

Although funeral prices vary considerably between funeral homes and geographic areas of the country, here is a reasonable “ballpark” estimate of the main costs that are involved:

  • fee for the funeral director’s services: $1,500
  • cost for a casket: $2,300
  • embalming: $500
  • cost for using the funeral home for the actual funeral service: $500
  • cost of a grave site: $1,000
  • cost to dig the grave: $600
  • cost of a grave liner or outer burial container: $1,000
  • cost of a headstone: $1,500

In this example, total costs would approximate $9,000….and that’s just for the “main” items.  There could be additional charges for things like placing the obituary in the newspaper and buying flowers.

Fortunately, there are many things you can do to reduce the cost of funeral services to a more reasonable level.  Learn more about reducing funeral costs.

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