Cut Funeral Costs by Planning Ahead

Shopping for the best deal on funeral services is the last thing anyone wants to do when grieving. That’s why you may want to spare loved ones this task by planning ahead, saving potentially thousands of dollars in the process.

Shop Ahead

To start the process, discuss with your family the type of services you want, realizing that funerals are as much for survivors as for the deceased. To compare apples to apples, decide how many days you will give friends and loved ones to pay last respects at a funeral home. Also compare prices on plots and gravestones, including engraving on the latter.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a funeral rule that gives consumers rights, including the right to learn of casket prices before seeing them, to refuse embalming, and to receive price information by phone and an itemized price list in person.

You also have a right, for example, to buy an urn or a casket elsewhere, including at warehouse shopping clubs, where these items are often less expensive.

Shop Now

If you have to plan a funeral in which arrangements were not made in advance, the FTC recommends that you compare the costs of at least two funeral homes and get an itemized price list from each. Know that you have a right to refuse items or services you don’t want.

The FTC offers this and other valuable information at www.consumer.ftc.gov. Also check out the Funeral Consumers Alliance at www.funerals.org and click on local FCA, where you can find contact information for an FCA in your area. The FCA offers tips and, in some locations, price surveys you can download.

Life Matters

Whether planning ahead or not, it is important to let loved ones know where they can access any life insurance policies and related contact information. Life insurance that has been in force at least two years is usually accepted as promise of payment for funeral home services via what’s known as a life insurance assignment. Don’t sign the policy over or divulge the benefit amount; the funeral home need only verify that the policy is big enough to pay funeral costs.