Archive for Funeral Saver’s Kit

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a traditional funeral service?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

 This article identifies a variety of considerations related to holding a traditional funeral service.  Reviewing these considerations will help you identify the type of funeral service that is most appropriate in your situation.  

 

Advantages of a traditional funeral service

A traditional funeral service is the most popular –and therefore, socially acceptable- type of funeral service in America.  The structured formality of the traditional funeral service may provide the family with a sense of comfort and closure not experienced in less formal service arrangements.

 

The traditional funeral affords ample time for friends and extended family to attend and support the surviving family members.  A traditional funeral usually includes some type of viewing ceremony held one or two nights before the actual funeral.  Since the funeral ceremony itself is almost always held during the daytime, this nighttime visitation allows friends to pay their respects, even if they work during the day.  Also, by scheduling the traditional funeral three to six days after the death, extended family members have time to make travel arrangements, if necessary.

 

The traditional funeral provides many ways to celebrate the life of the deceased.  Although the traditional funeral can be a fairly structured event, it also provides maximum flexibility in terms of casket choice, religious readings, flower arrangements, and eulogies.

 

Lastly, the expenses associated with a traditional funeral service leave plenty of room for negotiating a big discount.  Using a resource like the Funeral Saver’s Kit to plan your funeral can often slash several thousands dollars from the funeral home’s bill.

Disadvantages of the traditional funeral service

The main disadvantage of the traditional funeral service is its cost.  The traditional funeral service is the most expensive option in terms of service, disposition, and memorial costs.  The average traditional funeral costs nearly $7,500 and often exceeds $10,000. 

 

Many people also feel that traditional funeral services lack meaning.  This is often the case when the family fails to personalize a highly-structured traditional funeral service.  (The Funeral Savers Kit provides many useful tips that show you how to personalize the traditional funeral service for free.)

 

Holding a viewing during the evening, followed by the actual funeral service the next day, forces family and friends to make multiple trips to the funeral home (separate trips for viewing and funeral ceremonies).  This may be an inconvenience for family members that are ill, disabled, or have to travel great distances.  The traditional funeral also requires the greatest time commitment from the immediate family in terms of planning and attending ceremonies.

 

Unfortunately, the traditional funeral service is subject to the greatest amount of sales pressure from funeral home employees.  Because there are many funeral goods and services associated with a traditional funeral, there are a lot of opportunities for the funeral home to sell overpriced (and often unnecessary) items under the guise of “tradition.”

 

The traditional funeral service, like any other type of funeral service, has both advantages and disadvantages.  Considering both the benefits and costs associated with a traditional service allows you to make an appropriate choice for your family. 

You can learn more about traditional funeral services with the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

 

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What you must know before planning a funeral

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Saturday, April 14th, 2012

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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What are the benefits of planning a funeral using the Funeral Saver’s Kit?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Thursday, April 5th, 2012

People purchase the Funeral Saver’s Kit either because someone they care about has died, is expected to die, or because they need help planning their own funeral. I created this kit after experiencing much of the same anxiety, frustration, and sadness that goes hand-in-hand with planning any funeral.

This kit is designed to guide you quickly and easily through the decisions that need to be made regarding funeral arrangements. Special emphasis is placed on reducing expenses and ensuring the arrangements are meaningful to you and your family.

You can be confident that this information is objective, practical, and easy to understand and use. I have helped many people arrange funerals over the last 10 years – and I know the information in this kit really does work!

Benefits of using the Funeral Saver’s Kit
By following the simple directions outlined in this kit you will experience many benefits:

• You will realize substantial savings in overall funeral expenses
• You will spend less time making funeral arrangements
• You will experience less stress when making funeral arrangements
• You will learn enough to allow you to make appropriate and satisfying decisions
• You will eliminate sales pressure from funeral home employees
• You will have access to a wider selection of goods, services, and options from which to choose

The Funeral Saver’s Kit has worked for many families just like yours…and it can work for you too.  Click to learn more about the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

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How to use the Funeral Saver’s Kit

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Since I don’t know your exact circumstances, I am going to make a couple of assumptions:

 

1.     you don’t want to become a funeral “expert” – you just need basic, reliable information that will save you money and allow you to make good decisions.

 

2.     you don’t have a lot of time to spend on learning this information – possibly because a death has already occurred – so you prefer to learn what you need to as quickly as possible.

 

….with these considerations in mind, here is how I recommend you use the Funeral Saver’s Kit:

 

1.     Listen to the short audio message

 

2.     Read all of section 1 – it’s brief and to the point

 

3.     Read all of section 2 – you can get through this material quickly and it will help you choose the right funeral arrangements based on your preferences and budget.

 

4.     Make the following decisions (you will have enough knowledge to make these decisions after reading section 2):

a.     What type of services and goods do you want?

b.     How do you want to dispose of the body?

c.     What type of memorial (if any) do you need?

 

5.     Read the brief “introduction” to section 3 to learn how to get actual prices from funeral homes in your area.  

 

6.     Compare funeral prices using the simple “Cost Comparison” form and choose a reasonably-priced funeral home. 

  

7.     Use money-saving tips from section 3 of the kit to lower the funeral home’s bill by up to 70%.

 

8.     Make an appointment with the lowest-priced funeral home and finalize your arrangements.

 

Click to get a copy of the Funeral Saver’s Kit now.

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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)
Saturday, March 24th, 2012

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

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Thursday, March 8th, 2012

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 need to know about funeral prices

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Friday, March 2nd, 2012

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 is included in the Funeral Saver’s Kit?

By Mike Testa · Comments (0)
Saturday, February 4th, 2012

The Funeral Saver’s Kit has 5 main sections:

Section 1 – provides an overview of what’s included in the kit and how to best use the information.  It also provides simple guidance for determining which pieces of the kit are applicable to your needs.  Realizing you may need to make decisions quickly, this will allow you to use the information in this kit efficiently without getting bogged down in a bunch of unnecessary details.

Section 2 – this section provides you with a basic “funeral education”.  It explains the various options available to you.  After reading this section you will be able to confidently select funeral arrangements based on your preferences and budget. 

Section 3 – this section details the financial “nuts and bolts” of saving money on funeral arrangements.  It explains dozens of things you can do to significantly reduce the cost of your funeral arrangements.

Section 4 – this section provides numerous ideas that show you how to make funeral arrangements that are meaningful and satisfying to your family.  Most of these ideas are things you can do for free or at very little cost.

Section 5 – this section provides information and resources pertaining to alternative sources for funeral goods and services as well as grief-related articles.  It’s also where you will find forms and worksheets that will help you organize your wishes and estimate your costs.

The kit also includes a quick-start audio message that makes it easy to get started right away.  It’s made for people that know very little about funeral planning.  

Click to order the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

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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)
Friday, December 2nd, 2011

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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