Funeral Counselor Bob's FREE Tips (from his pre-host life)

Bob in his Official Funeral Attire ($600 suit)

Tragic deaths, no funeral plans, grieving families being taken advantage of.... I've seen it all.
After years of working with people and seeing the funeral business from the inside out... I have to share tips to help family members get the best possible treatment when that time of loss comes. I want to see you being treated fairly!

Here's Bob's free Guide to Pre-planning Funeral Services: It is such an emotional time, infused with a high level of confusion, that a lot of advance thinking on the subject is needed to help make things go as well as they can at the time of need. I would like to start out with a few important points of understanding that will be of help to you while facing the responsibility of taking care of a deceased loved one. The last thing that should happen to you is to be taken by the Funeral Business.

1. Funerals are for the living, not the dead. If you are anticipating a death, take care of the details in advance with the funeral home. If you have had an unexpected death and have to deal with a funeral home, read and study the next expense tips with extra care.

2. Understand that the mark-up on caskets is between 200% and 350% in most cases, and with casket discounters the mark-up drops to around 35% to 70%. Tip........ when given the the casket price at a funeral home tell them that in order to get your business they will have to drop their prices to match the outside-of-funeral-home open market prices... If they start telling you that your loved one deserves a higher quality casket and that the higher price reflects quality and more padding and added water protection, you will need to change your selection of a business to work with. Yes, there are some differences with quality, but not to the degree that you would pay $3000 more for the same unit elsewhere. Most casket lines start at the low end at around $1000 and go into the high end at up to $10,000. The $10,000 dollar casket might only cost the firm $1650 in some cases. In almost all cases the outside appearance of cheaper discounted caskets is good looking and offers similar construction. Get a better price on the casket.

3. Do not get caught up in the vault upgrade. Vaults are mostly made of concrete and choices are advertised as "regular" and "water resistant". Some have copper linings and some have plastic. Tip...... For a long time you would hear the funeral director say something like, "This vault will keep your loved one dry and out of the water". The Federal Trade Commission has now mandated that the industry can only say, "water resistant", meaning that all vaults will eventually allow water to seep in. The wholesale cost (to the company) of the regular vault is currently around $150 to $225. The more expensive "sealed" or water resistant vaults cost the company $350 to $450. Knowing these numbers will help guide you in your purchase.

4. "Professional Services" covers embalming, cosmetics, transporting remains to a chapel for service, transporting flowers, and set up at location and transport to graveside for burial. Tip...... The big decision here is whether to have a graveside funeral or a chapel service. Both have their pluses and minuses, but the thing to remember at this point is the cost. Funeral director expenses need to be earned and paid--they have to make some money to be in business. The thing to keep in mind is that I have seen these expenses vary by 2 to 3 thousand dollars. Call around before you need to in order to select where you want to do business. Ask the question: "How much are professional services?"

5. Cemetery Costs - The main expense of the cemetery, which may be considered a separate cost from the funeral home if the cemetery does not own the funeral home, is opening and closing of the grave site. Other costs would be the vault setting fee and the marker. Tip......Markers can be purchased outside the funeral home or in the funeral home. A significant savings can be had by using an outside source. Cemeteries make a fortune on opening and closing fees...often times becoming abusive with their charges. It takes about 25 minutes for a well-trained worker to prepare a grave site. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for two workers to cover it over and replace the grass. The cemetery is probably paying a total of $40 for wages and about $100 for rental on the back hoe, so this can be a guide for estimating the actual cost.

6. Limo upgrades, cards and programs to hand out at the funeral, and death certificates. The company makes high profit on these options. Depending on how you are handling everything, you may do the funeral service program and/or cards on your word processor and have it printed off at a fraction of what you would be charged. Death certificates are important to get, and the price is regulated by the state you live in. Usually 4-8 of these will do the job. You will need them for insurance companies and Social Security notification. They generally cost from 5 to 10 dollars a piece.

7. Obituaries have gotten out of hand as far as expense is concerned. The funeral home gets a small kick back from the newspaper when they put an obit in for you. About 20 years ago newspaper companies did this for free but have discovered a huge profit in charging. Tip....... The service a funeral home provides to handle the obituary is a good one. People want to be notified of the death and informed of any services. But the time to say all of those nice things about the deceased is before they die, so they can benefit from your kind words. Generally, the shorter the better and also the less expensive. Try not to go on and on...just so it "looks good" or the deceased seems "important". It is an emotional time, but any regrets you may have cannot be redeemed by throwing money at the funeral. The extra money you will save will provide a good family get together after the services and meaningful memories.

By looking this page over and using it as a guide you will be ready to do business and take care of matters. Please feel free to post your encounters so others can learn. I can try to answer questions if you email me at camphost.white@gmail.com . Generally the people who work in the funeral business are good people, but they are being pushed very hard to upgrade and capture the business.

Remember, if you say, "Look... if you want my business, you will have to work with me or else I will go somewhere else," you should be protected from any salesman who tries to take advantage of your emotional need to "do the best you can" for the deceased. Funerals really are not for the deceased.

Get to know Bob, retired from the funeral business, but feeling obligated to help family members get fair treatment when that time of loss comes.