By Jerry R. Guy
Making funeral plans can be a very stressful event. Many things must be considered and decisions made. This usually comes at a time when most people are at their worst, mentally.
Today, it is not uncommon for traditional funeral and burial costs to be well over $10,000+ in many areas of the United States, and these costs continue to rise fast! This is due in large part, to the rapid increase in cremation rates over the past few years. As a result, many families are finding it difficult to pay these expenses. This makes an already difficult time much harder for the family.
As an active licensed funeral director with over 28 years funeral service experience, I have personally assisted thousands of families in making funeral plans for a loved one. While some were prepared, unfortunately in my experiences, most were not and finances was usually the key issue.
One way to avoid this problem is to consider prearranging funeral services. Many funeral homes and cemeteries now offer programs that allow you to preplan funeral and burial arrangements. In some cases, they will even freeze your costs for these services. As a funeral director, I strongly urge anyone to consider looking into these options at your facility of choice. This one thing alone could potentially save you thousands of dollars as funeral prices continue to escalate.
Another way is to become educated about the process of funeral planning. There is an abundance of material available on this subject and much of it is free for the asking. Contact your funeral facility of choice, most will be happy to send you educational material that could possibly save you thousands of dollars when the time of need arises and hopefully make that time less stressful.
Jerry R. Guy is an active licensed funeral director and author. More information on how to save money planning funeral services can be found at his sites: http://www.integritypreneedsolutions.com/ or http://www.beforeplanningafuneral.com/
2 comments:
I just found your blog. Thank you so much for trying to educate people on these issues. It would help so much if people were prepared for how much funerals cost before they are faced with them, and if they had some idea of what decisions they were going to need to make. We need to get better about openly discussing these topics in advance so they don't come as such a surprise after a loved one dies, which is a very stressful time anyway.
Jessica,
I read your profile and am quite interested in your pursuit of open discussion about the end of life.
You may be interested in a planning feature that we are working on that may enhance your message.
Feel free to contact me.
Todd Epping
tepping@cfl.rr.com
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