Planning and Paying for a Funeral

The number one thing that an insurance agent will bring up as a reason to purchase Life Insurance is the cost of your funeral.Both because I am only 25, and because thankfully I have not had any of my immediate family members pass away, I have never had to plan and execute a funeral. I have realized that many people have never had to be involved in planning a funeral, and therefore would not know how much it costs and what kinds of decisions have to be made at that difficult time. I did a little research and I wanted to share what I learned: Planning a funeral sounds awful, and I plan to write into my will that I want to be immediately cremated with no frills or viewing. I'm sorry for those who want to pay their respects to my embalmed corpse, but I would rather spare my family the effort in planning a "traditional" funeral. With that said, let's go over the List of Funeral Fees and Options.

First, there are the basic services fees, fees that can't really be avoided. These fees include paying a funeral home to plan the funeral, permits to hold a funeral at a cemetery, copies of death certificates, preparing notices for the funeral, sheltering the remains(its kind of like renting a bed at the morgue), and coordinating the funeral with the cemetery or crematory. Theses fees are generally lumped together on your invoice as one fee.

Second, there are fees related more specifically to the funeral. These other services include transporting the body from where they passed away to the funeral home and then to the grave site. Embalming is done to preserve the body, but it is not a requirement unless you plan on doing a viewing or visitation. If you do an immediate burial then sometimes you can avoid the embalming if you wish. If you are having a viewing or memorial service at the funeral home, then there will be fees to rent the facility. Any staff or equipment(like a tent and chairs) used for the funeral or graveside service will appear on your invoice also. You will also pay for a hearse to carry the body and for the family ride a limousine. One of the more obvious charges related to a funeral is the casket. The average cost of a casket is a little over $2000 depending on the materials. The cheaper caskets are made of pine, and they are soft and will break down more quickly. More expensive casts are designed to preserve the body longer and are more ornate. Caskets can cost upwards of $10,000 depending on what the family chooses. Something I learned while doing this research was about the outer burial container, or grave liner. While the law may not require you to bury the casket in a cement grave liner, most cemeteries will require a grave liner so that the ground will not cave in and sink around the body as the casket breaks down. Another, more expensive option is a grave vault in which the casket is entirely encased in cement or another material. While we are at it, if you don't already own a plot of land for the body to be buried in, then you will have to pay for that, and a headstone to cap it off. If you choose to have to have the body cremated rather than buried intact, you will be billed for the cremation. Again, a funeral home usually packages these sorts of services together, but you can obtain some of these things, like a casket, from a third party seller. It is possible to find a cheaper casket or grave liner elsewhere, and the funeral home will be required to use those things without any additional fee.

Other things that the funeral home can handle for you are things like flowers, obituary notices, hiring pallbearers, a clergyman to officiate the service, and organists and/or soloists to perform at the service. These services are labeled as "cash advances" because they are purchased from outside vendors for you. Some funeral homes charge you exactly what they pay for theses services, but some may charge service fees for arranging the services.

If you were ignorant of all that goes into a funeral, like me, then you are probably as shocked as I was at all that goes into planning and executing a funeral. Fortunately, funeral homes are used to these things and they do package everything together so that you don't have to make every little decision while you are coping with the loss of your loved one. At the same time, though, it seems like you probably could get a lot of unnecessary services in those packages. Funeral homes, after all, are businesses. It's easier for me to understand now why funerals can cost well over $10,000. Based on this (for me) new information, life insurance is an absolute necessity. No one wants their family to go into debt just to pay for a funeral, on top of any other debts and bills you may leave behind at your departure. I strongly encourage everyone to evaluate whether you can afford NOT to have a life insurance policy in force. The younger you are when you purchase, the lower you can lock in your rate, and you will gain comfort of knowing that, should something happen, your loved ones will not have to wonder how they are going to pay for the funeral. They can skip the terrible task of itemizing every little detail involved in a burial. Let them take advantage of the services that funeral homes offer without digging through the invoice to save every penny, by leaving them the money to fall back on. If you would like to talk to Dan Zeller about your options for life insurance, give us a call at 336-342-4438.