Funeral Planning Guide How to Save Money on a Funeral Without Looking Cheap
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ObituariesHelp.org’s Funeral Planning Guide How to Save Money on a Funeral Without Looking Cheap Save up to 50% on funeral costs hen a loved one dies, funeral costs are the last thing you’ll be thinking about, but when the funeral is over, funeral costs are the one thing you’ll wish you had been thinking about. The funeral industry is full of hidden fees and overpriced goods andW services that most people could really do without. Every day thousands of people are overpaying for unnecessary funeral items. The funeral industry itself has invented services that aren’t necessary and funeral directors are manipulating people who are too emotional to make rational decisions. The one thing that you can do right now to save on funeral costs is to make a funeral plan. With this eBook you’ll make a plan based on proven money saving tips for a loving, tasteful, yet cost effective final farewell. ObituariesHelp.org 1 Contents Introduction: How to Save Money on a Funeral Without Looking Cheap 1 Chapter 1: How to make funeral purchase decisions during this emotional time? 3 Chapter 2: What is a Traditional Funeral? 8 Chapter 3: What is a Home Funeral? 13 Chapter 4: The Funeral Rule: Who Does it Protect? 27 Chapter 5: Funeral Homes and Funeral Directors: What Do You Need to Know? 33 Chapter 6: How to Choose a Funeral Director or Funeral Home? 38 Chapter 7: Paying for the Funeral: What Is The Best Way To Pay For A Funeral? 47 Chapter 8: Visitation, Private Viewing, Public Viewing: Which One Do You Choose? 60 Chapter 9: Funeral and Memorial Services: 4 Steps to Planning a Personal Tribute 66 Chapter 10: Disposition Ceremonies: What Are Your Options? 74 Chapter 11: Embalming: Read This Before You Agree to Embalm Your Loved One 82 Chapter 12: Everything You Need to Know About Buying a Casket 88 Chapter 13: Body Donation: Reducing Funeral Costs by Donating Your Loved One’s Body 96 Chapter 14: Green Funerals: Save Money and the Environment 102 Chapter 15: The Top 19 Money Saving Funeral Tips 108 ObituariesHelp.org 2 Funeral Planning Guide How to make funeral purchase decisions during this emotional time? Chapter 1 hether you are planning a funeral for a recently passed loved one or thinking ahead to plan your own funeral, I am confident that you will find the assistance you need in the pages of this eBook. The funeral should be Was unique and special as the person. This eBook will assist you in planning a loving tribute that honors and captures the spirit of such a unique life while helping you save money on the funeral costs. If you are planning a funeral for a loved one, let me start ObituariesHelp.org 3 by saying that I am truly sorry for your loss. You are experiencing first hand that it is very difficult to plan a funeral when going through the grieving process. Take the time to go through this eBook carefully because it is filled with practical advice, money saving tips and the answers to your funeral questions. How to Use This eBook? Each chapter covers a different aspect of funeral planning to help you make your decisions. The summary at the end of the chapter highlights important points. Of course I would love for you to read every word of this book to get the full details of funeral planning, and if you have the time, you will find it worth it to read every word. If you are planning a funeral for a loved one that has just passed away and you have little time and you don’t know where to start or what to do, there are three options: 1. Start by reading the Summary at the end of each chapter. This will give you an overview of the chapters and highlight the important points. After you read each summary, you may wish to read the whole chapter. Then you may want to move on to the Funeral Planning Checklist. 2. Or you can start with the cheat sheet in Chapter 15, The Top 19 Money Saving Funeral Planning Tips. This is the ultimate summary of ways to save money on funerals. These are the best tips put together in one list for you to read through before you begin your funeral planning. 3. The third option is to start by reading through the Funeral Planning Checklist. This is the section that simply gives you a no- nonsense step-by-step guide to saving money and planning a funeral without all the explanations and details. In this section, you will also find a cost comparison chart where you can enter the costs of ObituariesHelp.org 4 funeral goods and services and decide what you truly want for your loved one’s funeral. How to Avoid Common Pitfalls When Planning a Funeral There have been many stories in the media about unethical funeral homes and funeral directors that have done some unspeakable things to the deceased and to the grieving family just to make a few dollars. This eBook will show you how to spot those unethical funeral homes and directors. The two most important chapters in this book that I strongly urge you to read from beginning to end are: Funeral Homes and Funeral Directors: What You Need To Know How to Choose a Funeral Director or Funeral Home? These two sections are very important for avoiding common pitfalls that cost big money when making funeral arrangements with a funeral director. Why I wrote this eBook? I decided to write this book because I had been doing some research for an article on the cost of funerals. I found so much conflicting information and read so many really sad stories of how people lost their houses to pay for a loved one’s funeral. I was horrified. Then I started researching the industry itself. That’s when I got angry. Really angry. The funeral industry is big business and while funeral directors themselves might be nice men and women, it is common for them to make 300% - 1000% profit on goods you can get cheaper from other sources. Statistics say that the average funeral costs $8000.00, but I’m not sure where they did their research. Most of the people I surveyed and many of the funeral homes I spoke to said funerals were well above $8000.00. In fact, according to my calculations, the average I found that people paid was over $12,000.00! ObituariesHelp.org 5 When I discovered this, I knew there had to be a better way for people to get a proper funeral that includes all the funeral customs that they want, for far less. As a matter of fact, I’ve discovered ways to cut funeral costs by 50% (more if you decide to go green or plan a home funeral, but I’ll talk about those later) There are many decisions to be made and documents to be gathered and forms to be completed and signed. There is so much to do that most people end up leaving it all to the funeral director. Which is a fine idea if you have a lot of money and if you don’t mind leaving important decisions to other people. Funeral directors are more than willing to help you out at your time of need, often providing premium services and the finest merchandise they have to offer, at a huge price tag. For most of us, though, that kind of disposable income for a funeral is not available. When it Comes to Planning Funerals, Buyer Beware Tip You had the good sense to purchase this book, now The funeral industry counts on you making emotional decisions and use it to get the best prices spending way too much money on goods and services. Just imagine from competing funerals but NEVER mention the paying for a small car without first knowing what kind of car you want business names of the and how much it’s going to cost. That’s what it’s like paying for a competing funeral homes to each other. Unethical funeral; you don’t know what you are paying for and you don’t know funeral homes will slander if all those expenses are really worth it. There are even specific sales their competitors to secure your business. Make your tactics funeral directors will pull on you to get you to spend more decision based on price money. and the way they treat you. The first thing they do is assess your financial situation. When you call them and they get your name and address, they know from where you live, how much money you likely make and they can estimate how much they can charge you. If they come to your house to meet with ObituariesHelp.org 6 you or to pick up the deceased from your home, watch out! You’d better put the family heirlooms away and hide the expensive things in your house. They do a quick assessment of your wealth when they walk in the door. And it doesn’t stop there, if you sign over a funeral or burial insurance policy to them to pay for the funeral, you can bet that they will use every penny of that policy on an overpriced casket and premium services. In the funeral industry, it is very much a buyer beware situation, in the pages that follow, I will show you how to choose a funeral director, or how to become the funeral director for your loved one’s funeral as well as how to save money by knowing your options.