Funeral Cost have doubled in last 10 years

Mark

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7,924
Georgia
I want to talk about the cost of funerals these days. It is something that we all need to talk to our clients about.

I found this from the Wall Street Journal in 1996. This was the avg cost of a funeral in 1996.

COST OF FUNERAL
$1,025 Professional Service Charge
$343 Embalming
$129 Other Prep (Cosmetology)
$292 Viewing
$125 Transfer to Funeral Home
$155 Hearse
$76 Service Car
$25 Acknowledgement Cards
$2,146 Casket
$497 Burial Vault
$689 Single Cemetry Plot
$462 Grave Digging and Refilling
$5,964 was the total for the funeral home. This does not include things like the flowers and other things. Just the Funeral Home bill.

I just lost a family member about 6 months ago, and it was a simple funeral. She didn't want anything other then the cheapest funeral she could have. That was her wishes. The funeral ended up being around $13,000 with the head stone. I'm not including any extra's like flowers which were $550 bucks. She had a 10,000 life insurance policy that she had bought in the 1970's which should have been enough, so she thought back then.

The point I want to make, is the cost of funerals have really doubled in the last 10 years. I bet by 2020 a funeral will cost $20,000. Most clients are not buying enough insurance.

I think this is a good door opener. I'm going to make up a survey and let the client fill in the blanks to what they think a funeral cost, and then show them, what an avg funeral does really cost in 2008.

These days it seems to be a secret that the funeral homes don't want to share with anyone. One reason why our clients need to pre arrange their funerals before they die and while no one is emotional.

Does anyone have a current break down of what an avg funeral cost today? Please Share.

It is very easy to start talking to anyone about the cost of funerals these days, and I think this can be used to prospect new clients.

Mark Rosenthal
www.realfastservice.com
 
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You have to go by what things cost where the people live. Right here in my county, a really nice funeral costs $8,000. That same funeral home will do a budget funeral for $5500.

I just went to a funeral today for a good friend's Mom. It was at a different funeral home than the one I already quoted. It was very nice, but not splashy funeral. The friend said it was costing about $6000.

I'm not sure what the cost at either place would have been 10 years ago, but, today my clients don'treally care if a funeral costs $13,000 in the big city. They want to know what it costs here.
 
You have to go by what things cost where the people live. Right here in my county, a really nice funeral costs $8,000. That same funeral home will do a budget funeral for $5500.

I just went to a funeral today for a good friend's Mom. It was at a different funeral home than the one I already quoted. It was very nice, but not splashy funeral. The friend said it was costing about $6000.

I'm not sure what the cost at either place would have been 10 years ago, but, today my clients don'treally care if a funeral costs $13,000 in the big city. They want to know what it costs here.

Does that include the burial plot and/or the grave stones?
 
You're both right. Funerals cost $3,995 and funerals cost $15,000.

funeral prices are just like hotel prices, most are at the higher or lower end of the range, few are in the middle of what the statistics call average.

There is a funeral home in our area that will do a complete service for $3,995 and gets less than 25 calls a year.

Most of them around here are closer to $10,000 and they do from 200 to 350 calls per year.

Prices haven't just raised in the last 10-years. They have raised an average of 5% every year for the last 50-years. That should ALWAYS be figured into every final expense presentation.

a funeral that is $6,000 today would be expected to cost $15,919 in 20 years and $25,931 in 30-years. And would have cost only $1,400 30-years ago.
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I want to talk about the cost of funerals these days. It is something that we all need to talk to our clients about.

I found this from the Wall Street Journal in 1996. This was the avg cost of a funeral in 1996.

COST OF FUNERAL
$1,025 Professional Service Charge
$343 Embalming
$129 Other Prep (Cosmetology)
$292 Viewing
$125 Transfer to Funeral Home
$155 Hearse
$76 Service Car
$25 Acknowledgement Cards
$2,146 Casket
$497 Burial Vault
$689 Single Cemetry Plot
$462 Grave Digging and Refilling
$5,964 was the total for the funeral home. This does not include things like the flowers and other things. Just the Funeral Home bill.

I just lost a family member about 6 months ago, and it was a simple funeral. She didn't want anything other then the cheapest funeral she could have. That was her wishes. The funeral ended up being around $13,000 with the head stone. I'm not including any extra's like flowers which were $550 bucks. She had a 10,000 life insurance policy that she had bought in the 1970's which should have been enough, so she thought back then.

The point I want to make, is the cost of funerals have really doubled in the last 10 years. I bet by 2020 a funeral will cost $20,000. Most clients are not buying enough insurance.

I think this is a good door opener. I'm going to make up a survey and let the client fill in the blanks to what they think a funeral cost, and then show them, what an avg funeral does really cost in 2008.

These days it seems to be a secret that the funeral homes don't want to share with anyone. One reason why our clients need to pre arrange their funerals before they die and while no one is emotional.

Does anyone have a current break down of what an avg funeral cost today? Please Share.

It is very easy to start talking to anyone about the cost of funerals these days, and I think this can be used to prospect new clients.

Mark Rosenthal
www.realfastservice.com

If $13,000 was the lowest price you could find on a funeral, you didn't look far enough. You can ALWAYS find funerals for way under that if you want to.

You are mixing some cemetery items in with the funeral total though. A monument, cemetery space and even a burial vault are not really funeral items. They are cemetery items.

A common thing that will force a price up is large people. If someone is too large, they will need an oversized casket which will force an oversized burial vault and that will force two cemetery spaces rather than one. The oversizing alone can add $3,000 extra to the total cost easily. And if they had a mausoleum space but need to go with an oversized casket, they have a whole other problem. These are things that FE agents should think about and understand when they are on appointments along with inflation.

Selling larger FE policies is not being greedy, it is being realistic.
 
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I went to 3 funeral homes in my area and asked for their price list. Now I know exactly what the average funeral cost is locally, and nationally. And that really helps during the presentation. A lot of people I talk to really had no idea it cost so much. They may have buried their mom 12 years ago and the funeral may have been $4,000 and they think it would still be about the same. It's really an eye opener.
 
I went to 3 funeral homes in my area and asked for their price list. Now I know exactly what the average funeral cost is locally, and nationally. And that really helps during the presentation. A lot of people I talk to really had no idea it cost so much. They may have buried their mom 12 years ago and the funeral may have been $4,000 and they think it would still be about the same. It's really an eye opener.

You have to go a step further than that to get what you need. A general price list is a government required form (similar to CMS) and is almost useless as such. It's a menu of separate prices for everything most of which you don't need for a funeral.

What you want to do is sit down with the funeral home's preplanner or a funeral director and have him quote 3-different priced funerals.

The most basic will be for a same day service (visitation and funeral in one day) with a 20-gage steel non-sealer casket. You want a minimal grave liner figured into this one (but people who have mausoleum or use a cemetery that doesn't require grave liners can leave that off.)

The middle quote should be a 2-day service, (one day visitation and next day funeral) 18-gage steel casket (the guage of steel really isn't the important part, they are just the much better looking caskets) and the minimal sealed burial vault (most funeral homes would use a Wilbert Monticello.)

The higher end quote should be for a 2-day service (same as above) but with a nicer wood casket (cherry, oak, or maple would be in the right price range) for the burial vault have them figure in a double-lined vault (most would use a Wilbert Triune)

If you get those three price quotes, you have realistically what people are paying for funerals in your area. They can do cheaper and higher groupings than these but in the real world these will cover 90% of what the public buys with I would say around 50% being closer to the middle package, 40% with the cheaper one and 10% the higher one.

Your families will also have additional costs that they pay for cash advanced items at the funeral home that the funeral homes doesn't make anything on but people usually pay them to the funeral home and the funeral home home forwards the money. These would usually include: certified death certificates ($6 to $15 each), casket flowers ($125 to $500), minister $100 to $200, musicians $50 to $100, hairdresser $35 to $50, cemetery opening/closing fee $350 to $1,500), death date added to existing monument $100.

It would be wise to have this information available and discuss it with the families you meet. Much more professional than just saying "the average funeral is $XXXX."

But, I would be VERY careful to not cross the line and represent what you're doing as funeral preplanning. Most states have VERY strict laws about that. To do a funeral preplan, you MUST be working in co-operation with a licensed funeral home. Even in states where you do not need to be a funeral director to sell preplanning, you must have a funeral director sign off on EVERY single sale that he will accept the contract. In some states you even have to set up an irrevocable trust for each and every preplan sold. They are all exempt from Medicaid with no lookback and regular final expense insurance is NOT a legal funeral preplan.

What you want to do is know what the realistic prices are for funerals in your area, present that information, also inform them about future inflation and show what 5% compounding inflation will do to the funeral price during their expected lifetime and then compare that to how much permanent life insurance coverage they currently have in force. Usually they will be WAY short of their goal even if they choose the cheapest funeral at the cheapest funeral home.

Then you want to make it very clear, that you are selling insurance, Not a prepaid funeral (unless you really are) to keep yourself legal and out of hot water.
 
Your families will also have additional costs that they pay for cash advanced items at the funeral home that the funeral homes doesn't make anything on but people usually pay them to the funeral home and the funeral home home forwards the money. These would usually include: certified death certificates ($6 to $15 each), casket flowers ($125 to $500), minister $100 to $200, musicians $50 to $100, hairdresser $35 to $50, cemetery opening/closing fee $350 to $1,500), death date added to existing monument $100.

.

Of course, it makes a difference whether the person already has a burial plot too.
 
Of course, it makes a difference whether the person already has a burial plot too.

A burial plot is never part of a funeral price. Cemetery is always separate. It could be a part of your final expense total but I would make sure families definitely understand they will have to pay the cemetery in full long before they will get any money from the insurance company (Forethought being the exception)
 
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I think instead of a policy to cover a "funeral" the key word should be "Final Expenses". What it would take to pay for a funeral and all expenses related. Yep, the costs do vary greatly from area to area.
 
I can actually speak from experience - my wife died suddenly at the age of 30 in 1997 due to sudden heart troubles.

She went to take a shower at 10pm on a Friday night and was dead at 12:07am.

Our funeral home took care of everything since I willing assigned my policy over to them. I was with NYL and my agent was there by my side the entire way.

To me, at that instance - pricing and funds were not an issue. All I wanted was my children and Gails parents to have no worries - to mourn in peace.

We were young - we did not have a plot or nothing.

They handled everything. We went to the florist and everyone picked out what they wanted - all the other accompaniments - the funeral home handled as well.

I had no worries. I knew I could spend up to $25k - and with 2 mausoleum plots or units and a superior funeral - we had money left over.

My only regret was that while I had millions on me - I only had $25k on Gail. The children could have used additional monies throughout their childhood lives.

In the case of Final Expense - most in our market, can only afford $10k to $20k. While $10k would certainly help - I doubt that it will do much in 2020 . . .

Of course - health conditions play a big part in affordability and coverage amounts . . .

Tom
 
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