02/02/2009: "Un-earthed - Why Funerals Cost So Much"

mood: Debt Prison

Doesn’t $8,000 for the cheapest funeral in one of the poorest
states in the Union seem a little excessive?  That’s what I thought.  Just this
past week a distant cousin passed away quite unexpectedly.  He had stopped
making payments on his burial policy about six months earlier, so the immediate
family had to perform a lot of leg work in arranging the funeral proceedings.
 For the casket, wake, burial, and housing the body for two days, would cost an
outrageous eight grand.  So I did a little research on why funerals are so
expensive.  I hope this information helps readers discover the many options
available in handling the loss of a loved one.  The problem with funerals is
that, like so many businesses, there are endless pages of laws protecting the
economic interests of established funeral homes.  Bear in mind that the laws
pertaining to funerals and caskets may vary from state to state.  For federal
laws that apply to all states click

here.

CLICK TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY

Funerals are as expensive as they are because funeral home organizations have
convinced communites that they have no other options but to purchase the ‘total
package’.  Although you may not like the idea, funeral arrangement is a
business transaction, and it should be treated like one.

Caskets

The state of Tennessee has a

law on the books since 1972 forbidding the selling of caskets unless you
have a funeral establishment or funeral director’s license.  This legislation
only exists to allow funeral homes to charge outrageous mark ups on caskets. 
A cheap metal casket can cost $300 to $500.  But after the funeral home slaps
their price gun to it the price may be $1,500 to $3,000.  Many states have this
same law.

In an ABC 20/20 investigation producer Mark Golden asked a funeral director
about purchasing a cheaper casket.  The director replied “To be perfectly frank
and honest with you, the metal casket is about one step above a Maxwell House
coffee can.”  To which my response would have been “Who cares!”  The purpose of
burial is to allow the body to decompose naturally, so it’s foolish to spend
extra money trying to preserve your loved ones body.  You want the body
to decompose.  These air tight caskets don’t allow the body to degenerate as it
should, causing the interior of the casket to become a much more repugnant
circumstance than it should naturally be.

During the investigation the funeral director tried to sell a protective
vault to place the casket in.  This is more ridiculous rhetoric designed to make
you feel like these upgrades are somehow beneficial to the decomposing body of
your loved one.  Researcher Karen Leonard describes the illogical promotion of
such upgrades “When you put a body in a protective casket, instead of the
natural process of decomposition, drying out and becoming a skeleton, instead
you get a slimy, moldy, much slower process and it’s much more gruesome.”

I just spent three minutes looking on the internet and already found a

20 gauge steel casket for $899 and that includes free shipping.  I found
this source to be
very informative about the legal?issues regarding casket sales.

Embalming

Normally embalming the body isn’t necessary unless you are going to have a
wake or transport the body out of state.  If you don’t plan on having a wake you
can leave the body in the funeral homes cooler instead of having it embalmed.
 The funeral home can then move the body into the casket for transport to the
burial site.  The funeral home will charge a stiff price for each day the body
remains in their possession.  The FTC has laws pertaining to funeral homes.  One
such law requires them to furnish a price list of services and products to
buyers.  To read about these laws click

here.

The Wake

If you decide to have a wake then embalming will, of course, become part of
the package.  But where you decide to have the wake can make a huge
difference in the over all price of the funeral.  In the case of my distant
cousin, the family saved $1,500 by moving the wake to a local church instead of
having it in the funeral home.  In this occurrence the body is moved into the
casket by the funeral home.  The casket is then transferred to the church by the
funeral home, where it will remain until the following day of burial.  On the
day of the burial the funeral home will return with the hearse and transport the
casket to the cemetery.

Other considerations

Some people are no longer using caskets at all.  In fact this doesn’t seem
like a bad idea because a coffin really isn’t even necessary.  In “Grave
Matters” author Mark Harris follows twelve families as they return their
loved ones to the earth in a more natural, less costly and traditional manner. 
Many loved ones are buried without embalming fluid, caskets, or wakes.  The
documentary examines this new green burial underground, leading you into natural
cemeteries and domestic graveyards, taking you aboard boats from which ashes and
memorial reef balls are cast into the sea. He follows a family that conducts a
home funeral and delivers a loved one to the crematory, another that hires a
carpenter to build a pine coffin. Mark reveals “The goal then and now is the
same: to allow the body at death to rejoin the elements it sprang from, to use
what remains of a life to regenerate new life, to return dust to dust.”

Cremation is also a less expensive option. In the 20/20 investigation a
funeral home director suggested the price of $3,300 for a cremation. Considering
that a cremation coffin can be purchased

online for $356, I would say that price was a little high. The total cost or
a cremation should not exceed $1,000. If the funeral home refuses to give you
accurate information report them to the FTC, contact your local newspaper, or
even local radio and t.v. stations.  MSN Money has an article about cremations “How
to Plan a Funeral for $800.”

Donating your body to science is probably the cheapest method.  Some
universities will “assume all costs involved in procuring the body upon
death, cremation of the remains, and returning the ashes to your family.  All
for free.” (Myths,
Lies, and Downright Stupidity - pg 161).

Although you want the passing of a loved one to be as respectful as possible,
it’s foolish to spend money simply for the sake of spending.  Wakes, embalming,
and expensive coffins are all part of an elaborate ceremony instilled in most
communities.  But these expensive practices give the deceased no more love or
protection than any other form of burial.  It’s what we do while our loved ones
are alive that matters.