It should be more than obvious that God is on the side of Family Funeral Cost.

To say that God is on the side of a Funeral Directors or the funeral industry is quite a stretch. It seems to be implied by many a funeral director. God is on the side of reducing funeral cost. To decided to reduce funeral cost is the basics of Funeral Planning 101. A low cost funeral and saving money for life is always best.

Yes many are honest and truly have the family interest at heart. I became a Funeral Director because I wanted to help families. Indeed the lights need to be paid and the books need to be balanced. However there are recent scandals often unreported by the press and blogs. In Illinois the IFDA, or the Illinois Funeral Directors Association lost 40 million dollars of the IFDA Preneed Trust fund. The IFDA’s license to manage the trust money was removed by the Comptroller of the State of Illinois. This was reported only in one statewide newspaper.

Nationally, NPS or National Prearranged Services, shut down this year because someome ran off with the folks money. A large amount of money. This was a large scale scandal that happened. Families need to be aware of these scams. Prearranged Services are suppose to save folks money, not cost.

Inspite of this Congress on April 29th Initiated after little debate the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Recognition day Day. Many times individual funeral Directors have run off with preneed funds. On April 29th 2008 The recognition day was passed by the House of Representatives with a voice vote.. Congress and the media have not investigated Funeral Director’s inability to keep themselves honest.

The public is not forewarned about dishonest folk in the funeral business. They are in many funeral homes. All Funeral homes are not honest as one may think.

The NFDA, National Funeral Directors Association, by it’s own admission is quite hypocritical on the Funeral Rule. In it’s May 2007 Issue, it admitted that it publicly supported the funeral rule in it’s magazine and at the same time worked against the funeral rule in Congress.

No God is not on the funeral director’s side but on the family’s side. And many families are quite capable of handling the details of a funeral that the funeral director does. Yes families need to pay funeral directors on some of the details of a funeral but they also have the right to handle many of the details of a funeral themselves when they are strong enough and willing to do so! An honest funeral director will keep the families interest first, often the line is blurred and this does not just happen. I have done funerals where nobody came. They deserve the same service as those where thousands showed up. I am not attacking any personal or funeral home’s goodness. The families need to be aware of funeral folks who are not good so they can save on funeral cost.

R.Brian Burkhardt. Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director State of Illinois, Author, Blogger, Funeral Advocate.

More helpful information can be found on funeral cost here:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak