Unless a family has arranged a funeral in recent years, they are unlikely to know how much a funeral will cost. Where you, as a funeral home, can help educate your community, they will know more about the entire funeral process and the expenses that will be incurred. Where they are unlikely to have those finances set aside, they can meet with you to talk about funeral expense assistance to ensure that the funeral is more about the grief than the worry of paying for it.
What Happens After Someone Dies?
Part of educating families in your community is to help them understand what happens after somebody dies. Depending on the reason for the death, there may be an autopsy on the body or the funeral home may collect the body shortly after the death.
This forms part of the overall cost of the funeral and the service. Some family members may wish to view the deceased. The deceased may have preferred a cremation or burial, with cremations becoming more popular in recent years because of the higher cost of purchasing a burial lot.
The service, whether religious or not, will include the payment of an individual to manage the service, after having delivered close family to the location of the service with or without limousines.
The cost of the cremation or burial is just one of the expenses along with the purchase of flowers, service programs, a choir, the headstone dealer, the casket, the funeral director’s fees and the provision for viewing, which will include fees for embalming and body preparation where necessary.
A grave will need to be dug and completed afterward. You can quickly see why families may need funeral expense assistance in both understanding the content of the funeral and how it must be paid for.
Funeral expense assistance can often be planned for ahead of time by assigning a life insurance policy to the funeral home so that the funeral is paid for within a few days of a valid death certificate being provided. This brings comfort to the family and the funeral home, and everyone can concentrate on the grieving process and delivery of a suitable funeral.
