The Federal Trade Commission relays that a funeral is the third most expensive purchase most people make in their lives. It might seem counterintuitive that so much money would be spent on death, but the costs of a funeral are much like the costs of a wedding when you think of all of the corresponding parts. Most people don’t mentally break down the expenses associated with a funeral, which can include the funeral event itself, a casket, vault, flowers, food, obituary notices, acknowledgement cards, and limousines. There are also service fees paid out to the funeral director which cover a myriad of necessary details, including funeral planning, obtaining permits and copies of death certificates, preparing the notices, housing the remains, and coordinating the arrangements with the cemetery, crematory or other third parties. It’s already a rough time for everyone involved without adding a financial burden to the scenario.
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average price for a funeral in the United States is $6,500, without factoring in the additional expenses associated with the burial itself and the headstone. The industry rakes in a staggering $11 million per year.
Financial Breakdown
A Pasadena Weekly article highlights the perpetually increasing cost of funerals, interviewing some key figures in the industry. According to Daniel M. Isard, president and founder of the Foresight Companies of Phoenix, Arizona, which provide financial and management consulting services to funeral home owners, increases in funeral costs result from funeral directors raising their prices while consumers choose increased services and merchandise. The costs of funerals generally climb about seven percent per year.
The Federal Trade Commission enacted the Funeral Law to protect citizens from being scammed at a funeral home via inflated prices, overcharges, double charges or unnecessary services. The law requires funeral directors to give you itemized prices in person or over the phone, preventing funeral companies from taking advantage of their clients. They are also required to tell you about their other goods and services, and may not sell you items in a package that you don’t want. If you bought a casket elsewhere, the funeral director may not charge you an extraneous fee or refuse to handle the foreign casket. The Funeral Law should eliminate some of the stress that is piled onto already grieving family members of the deceased.
The Federal Trade Commission‘s website helps break down some of the funeral costs for inquiring consumers. A casket costs anywhere between $2,000 and $10,000 depending on the material and style chosen. A standard pine casket will be cheaper than a mahogany, bronze, or copper casket. A funeral director may not have the cheapest options on display and will be inclined to show you the more expensive options first. However, if you ask to see something within your price range, the Funeral Law requires that they comply and show you the more affordable caskets. You may choose to embalm your loved one, but if the funeral takes place shortly after the death, it isn’t necessary. The funeral provider may tell you that embalming helps preserve the body, but nothing — not even an air-tight casket made of steel — can infinitely preserve human remains. If you don’t embalm, you’ll still be acquire costs associated with dressing the body and applying cosmetics for the wake and funeral showing.
The cemetery plot is where the coffin itself will be buried, and is more expensive the closer it is to a major city. There may be an extra fee associated with maintaining the plot, which should be discussed prior to burial to avoid unwanted charges, and not all cemeteries allow you to decorate the plots with flowers. You should do some research to find a plot that meets your criteria, including religious needs. Another expense is accrued from the burial vault or grave liner. While state laws do not require a vault or liner, cemeteries often do because it helps keep the ground from sinking or caving in over time. The grave liner or burial vault provides an infrastructure around the coffin itself, typically made of concrete. The vault is more substantial than the liner, encompassing the entire coffin while the liner only reinforces the sides, but both will accomplish means to the same end. Purchasing a vault or liner from the funeral provider typically costs more than purchasing through a third party service. Likewise, burying your loved one in a mausoleum or columbarium will come in tandem with opening and closing fees, endowment care, and other services.
The wake and funeral ceremony both require you to use the facilities and staff, which come with their costs. You should also factor in the use of a hearse or limousine to transport the body and guests to the memorial site. At the funeral ceremony, food is often served in the way of cheeses and cold cuts, an extra expense. Flower arrangements can also be expensive. Should you opt for cremation, the cost may be significantly cheaper, as the container can be fashioned much more cheaply than a casket. After the funeral is over, obituary notices for the newspaper will tack on another expense. When all is said and done, a funeral can easily leave one in financial duress. However, with a little planning beforehand, you can minimize the costs and ease some of the difficulties that would result from having to make budget decisions in a time of mourning.
Planning Ahead and Life Insurance
It might seem macabre to begin making funerary arrangements before your loved one has passed on, but planning can be highly beneficial for those that have the foresight to do it. Planning ahead for a funeral means making arrangements with a clear head while remaining aware of what your budget can afford. If you wait until your loved one has passed, you are prone to make emotional decisions without thinking them through in a logical, methodical way. You may be inclined to get the best and most expensive casket and service provided because you can only imagine the best for them after they have passed. However, it’s important to remember that, while you want to honor the dead, a fancier casket will not preserve them more effectively and only serves as a receptacle for remains. The most important thing is to celebrate their life, preferably taking into consideration how much allocated funds you have to do so.
Likewise, if you’re not already wrought with emotion and plan out the funeral before a death has occurred, you may have a keener sense of when a funeral provider is trying to take advantage of you. While the Funeral Law protects you to some extent, they are salesmen first and foremost, and will not necessarily advertise cheaper options for funerary services unless you inquire about them. Furthermore, not all funeral homes respect the law. The Federal Trade Commission reported last month that its undercover inspectors found that 23 of the 102 funeral homes they visited last year violated the Funeral Law. You should shop around for the best deal, given that prices vary dramatically between different funeral homes and cemeteries.
If you have life insurance, most funeral homes will allow for an insurance assignment to cover funerary expenses. As each funeral provider differs in policy, it is important to find out beforehand if they accept your insurance policy to be applied toward the kind of service you’re looking for. Generally, the funeral home will forward the death certificate along with the cost of the funeral to the life insurance company. The life insurance company will write the funeral home a check for the required amount and then the balance remaining from the policy will be given to the beneficiaries.
Aside from life insurance, you may plan ahead by obtaining a funeral trust fund. The Internal Revenue Service defines a funeral trust as a “pooled income fund set up by a funeral home or cemetery to which a person transfers property to cover future funeral and burial costs.” Typically, a funeral trust is set up exclusively between you and the funeral home, without involvement from an insurance firm, although some allow you to fund the trust using your insurance. The negative aspect of working directly with a specific funeral home is that many have limitations. For example, you might not be able to take the trust money with you if you move. If you relocate to a different state, it makes no sense to have a trust set up elsewhere where your family members can’t access it in the event of your death. Like all other arrangements, you should confirm the details of the trust with the funeral home in mind prior to utilizing this option.
Veterans Burial
According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, deceased veterans are eligible for a gravesite in a national cemetery, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, a government headstone or marker, a burial flag, and a Presidential Memorial Certificate with no financial burden to the family. Spouses and dependents may also receive burial benefits and can be buried alongside the veteran with their name, birth date, and death date recorded on the veteran’s tombstone, even if they pass away before the veteran.
Affordable Alternatives
If the idea of paying thousands of dollars just to be buried in the ground sounds absurd to you, there are several alternatives that are less costly and some that can help benefit research and future generations. For example, you may opt to donate your body to science. Donna Goyette is director of community relations for Science Care, a nationally accredited tissue bank. If you’re considering donating your body to science after you die, you should start by locating an accredited tissue bank which would organize the donation. Goyette notes how important tissue sampling is for discovering medical innovations. “If we want to advance medicine and if we want cures for cancer and neurological disorders, we can’t do that using plastic or synthetic materials, you need human tissue. If we tripled the amount of bodies we received, we still wouldn’t have enough tissue to satisfy all of the requests we get,” she stated for Fox News. Once the tissue has been collected, the remains may be returned to the family in the form of cremated ashes.
You may also consider a “green burial,” a trend that is taking hold in eco-conscious circles. Compared to the typical $6,500 funeral, green funerals often cost a few thousand or less, according to an article presented by National Public Radio. In a green burial, formaldehyde-based embalming and concrete burial vaults are forgone. Biodegradable caskets are used on request, although you can go even greener by opting to be buried in only a shroud. Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, points out the toll of embalming dead bodies, a process that succeeds only in preserving the remains for a short while before they decompose like anything else. “We bury enough embalming fluid to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools, enough metal to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and so much reinforced concrete in burial vaults that we could build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit,” Sehee said. In green burial practice, the bodies can be preserved for up to four days using dry ice or a cooler so the wake and funeral ceremony can occur.
Lastly, cremation can be a cheaper alternative to conventional burial, especially if the remains are scattered somewhere instead of having to pay for a dedicated mausoleum or burial plot for the urn. CBS42 News broadcasted a story about the cost of burial and cremation, noting that the cremation cost can be anywhere between $1,000 and $13,000, so it isn’t always a more affordable option depending on the services used.
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