Affordable Cremation Urns

The funeral business has always been considered recession-proof. Everyone dies eventually, after all, guaranteeing an endless customer base. And, with the rapid aging of the ubiquitous baby boom generation, the demand for funeral goods and services is sure to rise in the coming years. But demand is only part of the equation; today, more and more families are opting out of the expensive frills that escalate funeral costs.

Only “the best” for your loved one
I was 25 when my father-in-law died suddenly, and although I had no experience in such matters, I was designated to make arrangements. I recall the funeral director steering toward a high-end casket and describing the $10,000 funeral that went with it. “Surely, you’ll want the best for your father?” he said.

A faint smile crossed my lips; not only was my name not Shirley, but this funeral director obviously didn’t know Jack (which happened to be the name of my father-in-law). Jack would drive halfway across town to save a penny on a gallon of gas. When I went shopping – for groceries, clothing, or whatever – Jack, who virtually lived with my family, would ask how much I paid for a given item, eagerly waiting for my reply before he gleefully told me what a sap I was and where I could have gotten it cheaper. A thrifty but lovable curmudgeon, that Jack.

“Can we see something more affordable, please?” I replied. “Best,” after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

Affordable Cremation Urns

Consumers demand flexible, lower-cost funerals
That was many years ago, long before the global recession of the early 21st century. Bargain shopping for funeral goods and services wasn’t yet in vogue, but the lessons I gleaned from that experience made it easier for me to assist my own parents in planning their funerals a decade later.

Today, many factors have influenced the shift in the way we approach funerals. The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule requires full price disclosure by providers of funeral goods and services, and allows families to choose only those items they want and need. And savvy, cash-strapped consumers are opting not only for “the best,” but also simplicity and cost savings.

Funeral service providers who get it are stepping up to offer discounted goods and services, and they’re thriving as a result. Take Newcomer Funeral Homes in Topeka, Kansas for example. Newcomer, where a casketed funeral costs just $4,000, saw a 10 percent increase in business in 2008. And Barton Family Funeral Service near Seattle charges just $695 for a cremation; they’ve watched their business double every year since 2005, to a point where they’re conducting around 140 funerals a month – more than some traditional funeral homes see in a year.

Practical suggestions for cutting funeral costs
Opting for cremation over burial is just one way families are reducing funeral expenses. Following are some suggestions we’ve heard for having “the best” funeral with the lowest cost:

• Let your fingers do the walking. Call around to funeral homes and ask for their price lists.
• Be wary of package pricing. Choose only the specific goods and services you want and need.
• Buy a casket from a discount supplier. The funeral home is obligated to use the casket you provide, and they can’t charge an added fee for doing so.
• Go natural. Embalming and leak-proof caskets are unnecessary expenses in most circumstances. “Green” funerals are friendly to the environment and the wallet.
• Let the funeral home conduct the burial or cremation, but hold a memorial service at home or in a peaceful outdoor setting.
• Ask friends and family to help with funeral details, from selecting a musical playlist to purchasing flowers to creating a program for guests. You’ll avoid extra charges for these services, and the funeral or memorial service will be far more personal and meaningful.

Like trimming the grocery budget or turning off extra lights in the house, consumers may look for ways to lower funeral costs, but the fact is, we all die eventually, and someone has to deal with the remains. Some funeral industry professionals are responding to the economic downturn by offering a wider range of goods and services to help people arrange their final exit in the style of their choosing.

One Funeral Director’s Response
Peter Moloney, whose family owns six funeral homes on Long Island, has made it his mission to help customers arrange unique funerals on behalf of themselves or their loved ones. From a hearse towed by a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to an ice-cream vendor in a Good Humor truck greeting mourners after a funeral, Moloney’s specialized services allow people to be remembered in ways as unique as they are. According to Moloney, 44, a fourth-generation funeral director: “You have to give people something special. If you’re not, someone else will be. That means adjusting to what people want today.”

Even in Recession, Many Opt to Go in Style
As funerals trend more toward cremation and home funerals and away from elaborate caskets with all the trimmings, consumers are driving the recession home to the funeral industry. One of the ways innovative funeral directors like Moloney are responding is by catering to individual wants and needs. For example, services for environmentally and cost-conscious families may include renting coffins and minimizing the use of chemicals, while custom amenities such as 14-karat gold mementos and personalized coffins and cremation urns appeal to people who prefer to go in style.

Growing Market
One thing funeral directors and others in the funeral industry can count on, even in economic hard times, is an endless stream of clients. And while consumer funeral spending may be on the decline, the rising number of deaths each year ensures a certain level of growth in funeral goods and services. (The annual death rate will continue to grow at about 1 percent per year through the early 2020s, corresponding to the aging of the baby boomers.)

In other words, while the recession is forcing funeral industry professionals to reconsider the goods and services they will offer and how they will deliver them, those who are prepared to adapt and evolve will continue to prosper.

Even the most exclusive cemeteries offer affordable basic plots, with prices starting as low as $1,500, compared to the average cost of a burial plot in the U.S. (currently around $1,000). True, the cost of a private mausoleum can soar upwards of $1.5 million in the high-rent district, but in between there are many plots whose prices are well within reach.

Get to Know Your Neighbors
When you’re considering where you want to spend eternity, it helps to know who your neighbors will be. Following are some of the most expensive cemeteries in America and some of their noteworthy residents, according to Forbes magazine:

• Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California  – Stan Laurel, Lucille Ball, Gene Autry, Bette Davis, Liberace and John Ritter.
• Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, TX – Actress Gene Tierney, naturalist and author Royal Dixon, Texaco founder Joseph Cullinan and other Texas oilmen.
• Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas, TX – Mickey Mantle, Tom Landry, U.S. Senator John Tower, and oilman H.L. Hunt.
• Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY – Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Miles Davis and F.W. Woolworth.
• Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY – Danny Kaye, Tommy Dorsey, and Lou Gehrig.
• Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY – Leonard Bernstein, Joey Gallo, Albert Anastasia and other prominent mob figures.
• Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA – Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Cabot Lodge.

And there’s an added bonus when you choose a plot in one of these burial grounds: you don’t have to worry about the neighborhood deteriorating. Even in recessionary times, owners of plots in prestigious cemeteries are more inclined to hold onto their property rather than sell it for some quick cash.

In Northern California, owners of Skylawn Memorial Park informed workers they would consider selling the San Mateo County cemetery with a magnificent ocean view.

In Littleton, Massachusetts, city officials and residents are at odds regarding how to balance the Westlawn Cemetery budget.

Scenarios like these are unfolding in communities across the country – cemeteries fighting for their lives against numerous financial threats.

In many cases, the grim financial outlook cemeteries face is attributed to one or more the following:

• More people – up to 70 percent in some western regions – are opting for cremation rather than burial, and many people who choose cremation do not buy a plot to bury a cremation urn. With fewer gravesites, per-site maintenance costs escalate.
• Pre-need sales are in decline as consumers reserve cash for current needs.
• Costs of labor, maintenance, water, etc. continue to rise as revenue sources shrivel.
• Endowment funds have dwindled due to collapsing stock prices, leaving cemeteries in a quandary as to how they will cover future maintenance costs.
• Local governments, facing their own financial crises, lack the resources to cover cemetery budget shortfalls. Government-owned cemeteries that can’t be made self-sufficient are vulnerable to sale or service outsourcing.

Cemetery funding: common problem, no clear solution
Cemetery boards, owners and local governments are working hard to come up with creative solutions to preserve and maintain cemeteries. Some talk about adding cremation services to keep up with market demand and provide consumers with “one-stop shopping,” While others encourage green burials, which result in lower costs for both the consumer and the cemetery.

An attempt by the Cemetery Commission overseeing Westlawn Cemetery to allow construction of a cell phone tower on cemetery property – a move that would have added $1600 per month to the cemetery’s coffers – died under backlash from residents. And when the Littleton Town Administrator suggested working “in common within our other public works departments” to help lower costs, one Commissioner retorted: “We’re not open to the highway department taking over the cemetery. You have to have people who know how to run the cemetery. Digging a grave is not plowing a street or digging a sewer hole. It is an art. It’s not just the action of the physical hole. It’s a process.”

Short of a bailout, finding a solution could take awhile.

Kinder, gentler bill collectors
DCM Services of Minneapolis is a collection agency that works exclusively on deceased accounts, according to the company’s website. Abandoning the aggression and intimidation often associated with collection agencies, DCM Services trains its staff to use empathic listening and effective communication techniques to recover payments from bereaved survivors. Agencies like DCM Services are often successful in collecting from survivors, largely due to goodwill and a desire on the part of the family to “do the right thing.”

In most states, under most circumstances, a survivor has no legal obligation to pay the debts of a deceased spouse, parent or child. A reputable agency won’t deliberately mislead survivors, but the agency is under no obligation to tell the family they don’t have to pay. And not all collection calls come from legitimate, reputable agencies.

Scam alert: preying on the bereaved
In Mississippi, scam artists posing as bill collectors recently tried to strong-arm grieving families into paying non-existent debts on behalf of their deceased loved ones. This wave of fraudulent collection attempts resulted in several calls to the Better Business Bureau of Mississippi; in 2002, a similar scam targeted families in at least 14 states.

Should you receive a call from someone seeking payment on a debt owed by a deceased loved one, remember:

• If you haven’t been a cosigner on credit accounts with the deceased, you are not obligated to pay. If you’re unsure of your obligation, talk to a lawyer.
• Get the name, address and telephone number of the collection agency, and check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure the company is legitimate.
• Ask the caller to provide written proof of the debt – who is the creditor, how much is owed, and why the caller is turning to you for payment.
• Do not give the caller your Social Security or bank account numbers or other personal information. If the debt is legitimate, the creditor should follow proper court procedures to file a claim against the deceased’s estate.
• If you can’t verify the identity of the caller, or if you’ve fallen victim to a scam, contact your state’s attorney general.

In prosperous times, most people have enough cash to meet expenses and even put aside something for a rainy day. They hold onto their assets or sell them for major, one-time wants or needs, like funding a year of college or a luxury vacation.

But now the rainy day has come, and for many it’s turning into a torrential downpour. Financially squeezed families are looking to cut costs any way they can, and funerals are one area they target, foregoing limousine rides, expensive caskets and elaborate tombstones in favor of simpler and less costly services and merchandise, according to funeral experts. With bills piling up, “luxuries” like burial insurance premiums tend to land on the bottom of the stack, and that tiny piece of real estate in the cemetery suddenly represents a mortgage payment or food on the table for a month or two.

If you’re thinking of selling burial plots for some quick cash, though, keep in mind that while the proceeds from the sale of cemetery real estate may keep the lights and telephone on for a few more months, selling a burial plot is definitely not a money-making proposition. As in the broader real estate market, many sellers and few buyers have driven down prices, creating a buyer’s market for cemetery plots. And according to  Ken Brant – marketing director for GraveSolutions, a multi-listing website for the sale of cemetery property – sales can be slow, with plots taking up to 15 months to move.

In the case of funerals, there is no “make do” – death, like life, happens. Even in the realm of funerals, however, people are looking for ways to cut costs, and cremation is an increasingly popular and easy way to do that: most estimates put the cost of cremation at roughly $4,500 below the cost of a traditional burial, on average.

According to Cindy Hsu of WCBS-TV, New York is one place where the number of cremations is skyrocketing, due in large part to the faltering economy. In fact, experts estimate that the rate of cremations in New York will rise from the current 27 percent to over 50 percent by 2025.

A similar increase can be seen nationwide, and all those cremations may be contributing to yet another trend ­- the growing number of people who use eBay and other methods to sell burial plots. Some cash-strapped owners are unloading their cemetery real estate at up to 30 percent below cost, according to an ABC News report.