What are the advantages, disadvantages, and cost considerations when choosing an immediate burial?

Posted by on January 22, 2009

This article describes the benefits and costs of choosing an immediate burial instead of a traditional funeral.

Advantages of an immediate burial

The most obvious benefit of choosing an immediate burial is its lower cost.  An immediate burial often costs less than half what a typical traditional funeral costs.   

An immediate burial is simpler and more expedient than conducting a full-scale funeral service.  This lets you avoid pomp and unnecessary goods and services.

Choosing an immediate burial allows you to forgo many costs:

·        embalming

·        additional transportation fees (hearse, flower car, utility vehicle, etc.)

·        extra funeral home staff and service charges

·        cosmetic and hair dressing charges

·        funeral chapel or church fees

·        viewing / visitation charges

·        more expensive casket just to “look good”

Disadvantages of an immediate burial

Before choosing an immediate burial, you should be aware of other considerations. 

Even though an immediate burial can reduce the funeral home’s charges by a substantial amount, it usually has no impact on cemetery or headstone costs.  You will still need to purchase a grave site and headstone and pay to have the grave site dug. 

Some families find the pomp of a traditional funeral more soothing and therapeutic.  They are comforted when others pay their respects to the deceased.  Usually, an immediate burial does not give family and friends an opportunity to show support to the family.

Also, since there are no formal remembrance ceremonies at the funeral home, there is not much of an opportunity to celebrate the decedent’s life the way the family wants.  However, the family is free to arrange some type of remembrance service at their church or home.  You can get several ideas for planning a low cost remembrance service from the Funeral Saver’s Kit. 

Cost considerations of an immediate burial

While actual costs vary based on the selected funeral home, the average cost of an immediate burial is approximately $5,500.  This compares favorably to the nearly $10,000 cost associated with a traditional funeral service.  Total costs includes various goods and services: 

·        casket and the funeral home’s basic service fee: $2,700

·        miscellaneous (certificates, permits, obituary): $300

·        grave site (including fee to dig the hole): $1,250

·        headstone or grave marker: $1,250

Click here to learn more about an immediate burial.

What is an “immediate burial”?

Posted by on January 20, 2009

Choosing an “immediate burial” when making funeral arrangements can have a big impact on the total cost of a funeral.  This article will explain what the funeral home does when you choose an immediate burial instead of a traditional funeral.

What are the key elements of an immediate burial?

The funeral home does four things when you choose an immediate burial:

·        remove body from place of death to funeral home

·        obtain permits

·        transport body to a final resting place

·        bury or entomb the body upon arrival at the cemetery

What is an immediate burial?

With an immediate burial the body is taken directly from the place of death (or from the morgue) to the cemetery.  Normally, the body stops at the funeral home just long enough to secure the death certificate and burial permit – and for the family to buy the cemetery lot.  The body is then transported to the cemetery where it will be buried in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum crypt.

With an immediate burial there is no:

·        funeral ceremony

·        viewing or visitation ceremony

·        grave side ceremony

·        embalming or other body preparation

Although immediate burials do not include any type of formal ceremony, many families choose to hold a get-together at a relative’s house following the burial.  This allows the family to get a sense of closure without incurring additional expenses at the funeral home.    

Click here to find out how much an immediate burial costs.

Services offered by a funeral home

Posted by on January 5, 2009

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

Save money on funeral costs by choosing lower-priced options

Posted by on December 8, 2008

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.