(ThyBlackMan.com) Do you know what the third most expensive purchase in life a person will likely make, after a house and an automobile? If your answer was a “Funeral” you where correct.
When you buy a house, you have help from a licensed Real Estate professional who finds appropriate properties that are in your budget range for you to choose, a licensed Real Estate Appraiser that verifies the property 
so a lender can make you a loan. When you buy an Auto you can find the same car at many independent dealers so you can compare prices. The manufactures suggested retail price is displayed on the window to give you a basis to compare prices. When we look at making funeral arrangements, know that a horse of a different color.
Funeral, n. “A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead, by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens the groans and doubles our tears.”
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1881-1911)
Undertakers (funeral directors) are enriched alright. And they should be, for what they do for a grieving family. But how many of us know or care how they do it. Most funeral directors I know are decent, ethical people, who have the family’s best interest at hearth and in mind. I only know one personally, and he is in Columbus, Ohio. How many funeral directors do you know personally? If you want to know one before it becomes necessary you can find them attending the largest church in town (but provides all churches with those great church fans free of charge) , active in community organizations and a member of a leading fraternal organization. There is a good chance the funeral director’s family has been in the funeral business for decades.
Let’s just picture the scene when a grieving Family steps into the funeral directors office. You might see a picture of Jesus above the Directors head or a crucifix off to the side of the picture. There might be other religious symbols on the desk. The décor is subtle with well thought out nuances intended to put in your mind that you are in a scared place and forget that you are in a business office about to make perhaps the third most expensive purchase in your life.
A family needs to be very well-prepared and logical, because they are in a distinct disadvantage on the funeral directors turf. The professionals are armed with decades of market research and annually polish their skills at seminars and trade shows geared to pad that bottom line. Some families bring along a trusted friend, pastor or someone who is not as emotionally attached to the deceased, who can bring a business perspective to the arrangements on the side of the family.
The Interfaith Funeral Information Committee released a study of the funeral industry in 1994 that addressed this subject. It concluded that some members of the clergy may have relationships with funeral directors that involve what can be described as bribery, gifts, gratuities, and inflated funeral service honoraria for making referrals to certain mortuaries. There is a lot of pertinent information that needs to be exchanged, mostly from the consumer to the funeral director. Be prepared to give the Social Security number for the death certificate, the number of certificates indicate more than one insurance policies and the more money available for the funeral. Military status can indicate money from the V.A. Be prepared to answer question about: Use of facilities, staff for viewing, funeral ceremony, memorial service number of Limousines, cost of casket, cemetery charges, Grave, Headstone etc; etc; etc.
Please understand that funeral directors truly believe they know what a family wants and works off of certain assumptions:
- That you are not interested in knowledge. The think you are best served by them selling you what you want without benefit of information needed to help make informed decisions.
- That you want to have the body protected from the elements and perpetuate the myth of protection as they sell you sealing caskets and vaults.
- You want to buy your way into the heart of a loved one by spending as much as you can possibly afford (and more).
- You will feel better and deal better with grief if you buy the most expensive casket and services and the most expensive burial plot.
- You want to buy the best and most expensive funeral to show families and friends how much you cared for the deceased loved one.
These assumptions have been carried on for generations. The majority of funeral directors truly believe these assumptions. Most want to do what is right and serve the families as best they can. But there is a conflict with the business axiom: to increase sales and maximize profits. This is not wrong it is what every business operator must do to sell more products at the highest prices for the maximum profits possible. After all this is a business. The Funeral Industry has not gone unnoticed by the government; in 1984 the Federal Trade Commission enacted a law called the “Funeral Rule” in hopes of providing consumers with information and the tools to make informed decisions and allow them to buy certain goods elsewhere other than the funeral home and Cemetery.
Staff Writer; Nicholas McNeal
For Caskets & Urns for your deceased love ones visit this authors website; SavonCaskets.
Also may email brother McNeal at; mcnatejr@aol.com
or call (206) 390-3797