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Reprinted with Permission
from SmartMoney.com
10 Things
Your Funeral Director Won't Tell You
By
Erika Rasmusson Janes
Published: March 17, 2005
Page 1 of 2
Important-Make Sure you Read #1.
1. "You don't have to buy
your casket here."
One of the biggest funeral expenses, in fact, is the casket
itself. The average price is around $2,000, but some models can
easily surpass $10,000. Funeral directors are required by law to
provide a list of prices for every casket they sell before showing
them, but they don't always have all models available on display.
If you don't see inexpensive models when you're shown the
selection, ask about them.
In fact, you needn't purchase the
casket from the funeral home at all. Third-party dealers selling
reduced-cost caskets have sprung up in the past decade; caskets
are now available for purchase over the Internet, at funeral
supply stores and even at some Costco stores. Funeral directors
are required by law to accept caskets purchased from these
outlets, and they cannot legally charge you a fee for doing so.
But that doesn't mean some funeral
directors don't try to discourage it. When Patricia Anzelmo, a
bookkeeper from Stow, Mass., purchased an $1,800 casket for her
stepson from [National Casket Gallery], she says her funeral
director advised against it. "He tried to put a fear into me that
I wasn't going to be happy with it and that it was going to be
cheap," she says. "But the casket was gorgeous."
2. "Business is slow, but
my prices are high."
Americans haven't been kind to the funeral industry of late. The
reason? U.S. life expectancies are at an all-time high, and the
number of deaths is estimated to be flat, at best. The result:
Funeral homes are struggling to find new areas for growth.
In most industries, that would mean
price wars. Less so in the funeral industry, where consumers often
choose providers based on just three criteria — location, family
history and personal recommendations. Funeral directors know many
customers don't shop around, and they charge accordingly. The
average cost of a funeral as of July 2004 was $6,500, according to
the National Funeral Directors Association.
To protect consumers, in 1984 the
Federal Trade Commission put in place the Funeral Rule, which
requires all funeral homes to provide a written price list that
itemizes fees. But some funeral homes don't provide it — or else
they exclude simple options such as direct cremation or burial, or
bundle things that consumers aren't required to buy, like vaults
or transportation services.
The best defense? Shop around. Call
and request price lists (ask to have them mailed to you) from
several funeral homes in your area.
3.
"Cremation is killing my profits — and you're going to pick up the
slack."
According to the Cremation Association of North America, cremation
rates in the U.S. increased 31 percent from 1996 to 2002, to 28
percent of all deaths. By 2025 that number is projected to reach
nearly 43 percent. Since cremation can cost about a third of what
an average funeral brings in, this is bad news for funeral
directors.
To make up for lost revenue, many
homes promote extra products and services. While grieving families
are often relieved to hear that cremation can include such
traditional funeral elements as a viewing and memorial service,
some of the add-ons can be unnecessary or even downright
deceptive. You aren't obligated to have a casket for a cremation;
funeral directors who offer the most basic type of cremation are
required to disclose your right to buy an unfinished wood box or
an alternative container — and to make such a container available.
If you're having a viewing before
the cremation and want a casket, ask about renting one from the
funeral home. While it may be an unsettling concept, it can save
you money as long as the rental price doesn't exceed the cost of
an inexpensive casket (it often can).
4.
"We'll play your heartstrings like a harp."
When Erin Strout's grandmother died in 1998, Strout's normally
frugal grandfather purchased a $14,000 package that was packed
with extras, including the release of a live dove at the burial
site. "Neither my grandmother nor my grandfather is really a
release-a-dove kind of person," she says.
Other common pitches include
everything from "protective caskets," metal caskets that claim to
delay the penetration of moisture and can add $1,000 to the cost,
to extras like journals and photo frames. Forest Lawn Funeral Home
in Goodlettsville, Tenn., offers a silver-plated picture frame,
crystal pen and access to a "grief management library" as part of
its $13,099 "Platinum" package.
Even worse are questionable
marketing practices. It's common for a funeral home to stamp the
words "temporary container" on the cardboard box cremated remains
are returned in, so the family will want to buy an expensive urn.
Another trick: marketing things like transportation or steel
caskets as part of a "traditional" service. "A lot of people are
cowed [by that]," says Joshua Slocum, executive director of the
Funeral Consumers Alliance.
5.
"Embalming is optional."
Most people think embalming, the
process of chemically preserving a body, is a necessary or even
legally required part of the undertaking process (after all,
that's what they do in all those scenes in the basement of the
Fisher house on HBO's Six Feet Under). Not true: Embalming is
almost never necessary in the first 24 hours and is not required
at all in many cases — when you choose cremation or immediate
burial, for example, or when plain old refrigeration is available.
If you're holding a public viewing,
the funeral home itself may have an embalming policy, but that's
different from a law. "The funeral industry stresses the notion
that in order for anybody to come to terms with death they must
see embalmed bodies. That's malarkey," Slocum says. Funeral
directors promote it, he says, not only for the embalming fee
itself, but also because if you're paying for the embalming and
beautifying of the body — which can cost up to $1,000 — it's
easier to sell you a fancier casket. If your funeral home has such
a policy and you're opposed, ask if it will hold a private viewing
for family members without embalming instead. The bottom line?
"Don't feel obligated just because it's [considered] normal," says
Slocum.
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