The New York Times article on funeral planning blurs the line between pre-paying and pre-funding. The savings accounts discussed by the article are one method of pre-funding funeral costs. But the POD savings account is far less secure than final expense trusts or final expense insurance policies. The concern many consumers have is that the
Preplanning
New York Times: What if I Move or Die Away from Home?
By Bill Stalter on
This section of the New York Time’s funeral planning article attempts to address two separate issues. The issue of what happens when the consumer moves away is one of portability and whether the preneed contract can be transferred to a new funeral home. As we discussed in our first post on the Times article, certain…
NY Times: But Mom said everything was taken care of
By Bill Stalter on
We’re back to that recent New York Times article about funeral planning. The reporter offers spot on advice about the ‘gaps’ of preneed arrangements. A surviving parent will frequently advise adult children that they need not worry about his (or her) funeral because they have purchased a preneed contract. As the article suggests, adult children…
Estate Planning and Funeral Arrangements: A Will will be too Late
By Bill Stalter on
Funeral and burial preplanning should be a part of every estate plan, but some web pages promoting estate planning can be misleading or impractical. The estate planning page sponsored by Lawyers.com suggests that funeral arrangement preferences can be incorporated into a will or health care power of attorney to alleviate the financial and emotional burdens…
NPR’s Stories on the Funeral Industry: On Line Shopping
By Bill Stalter on
NPR’s second story on the funeral industry suggests that preplanning a funeral will typically require visits to multiple funeral homes.
NPR led their story with a consumer attorney sharing his frustrations with getting price information from funeral homes near his father. To the attorney’s surprise, many of the funeral homes did not include general price…
The Ecclesiastical Preneed Funeral Plan: Exceptional Financial Security
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Churches/Ritual
The promotional website for the Ecclesiastical Preneed Funeral Plan could easily be mistaken for that of a funeral home. This church stresses to parishioners the need to not only plan their funeral, but to also make financial provisions for their eventual funeral expense. The website points out that funeral costs are rising, and funding a…
NPR’s Stories on the Funeral Industry: Crossing the Street can save Thousands
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Consumer Advocates, Preplanning
The take away from the recent NPR stories on the funeral industry is that consumers should preplan their funerals to control costs, and if the objective is to compare funeral homes and their prices then plan to visit each prospective funeral home.
The first story reports on a widow who spent more than $7,000 on…
Church and Funeral Directors in Partnership
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Churches/Ritual
We came across the Dioceses of Liverpool website some time ago when researching the income tax consequences of church sponsored preneed programs. We had found that preneed funeral programs in England, Canada and Australia were often established and operated independent of the funeral home. With a high cremation rate, English churches saw an opportunity to…
Talk of a Lifetime: Restarting the Prearrangment Process
By Bill Stalter on
One message that can be taken from the FAMIC’s Talk of a Lifetime campaign is that funeral directors need to re-think their prearrangement procedures. Perhaps too much emphasis has been given to preneed, and not enough to the planning process. Prearrangement marketing and procedures have often been crafted by the funeral home’s preneed funding agent. …
Preneed Contract Holders: the lonely 5%
By Bill Stalter on
The Memorial Business Journal recently reported on findings from the NFDA’s 2014 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study. Some of the findings may not come as much of a surprise to funeral directors, such as consumer demands are changing. But, findings regarding how many respondents have made efforts to prearrange, and prepay, for funerals were…