The Memorial Business Journal (the NFDA’s weekly newsletter) has been drilling down into the NFDA’s 2024 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey.  With the FTC’s Funeral Rule amendment looming, the July 4th MBJ edition was of particular interest to us.  The Survey found that 92% of the survey respondents use Facebook, with most of those

A recent Guardian article offers excellent advice to caregivers for individuals with dementia.  The author, Cynthia Dearborn, shared her experiences about caring for a father with vascular dementia.  Cynthia described how her father’s short-term memory became severely impaired, along with his judgment and reasoning skills.  I am having a similar experience with a Transition Plans’

COVID is forcing American families to confront end-of-life planning.  There are numerous articles on the subject, but NPR published one during the summer of 2020 that made a recommendation that is often overlooked: creating an inventory.  My wife, the list maker, established our first inventory 30 years ago when our first child was born. 

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

Earlier this year, the New York Times ran a story that on funeral planning that raised several valid issues and recommendations.  We will use the next few blog posts to explore certain issues and recommendations in greater detail.   With this post we will start with the article’s discussion of prepaying for a preneed contract, and