Wall Street Journal refered folks to NO FUNERAL PRENEED today.
5/2/09-Today the Wall Street Journal referred Americans to the no funeral preneed people, the Funeral Consumers Alliance. This is a good thing. IF YOU WANT TO COME IN UNDER THE AVERAGE COST OF A FUNERAL- It is best not to do funeral preneed or prepay a funeral.
In the article today “Planning for your Funeral here is a guide to smart shopping” the WSJ quoted Joshua Slocum.
“Go to funerals.org and click on the tab that says “find a local FCA.” Clicking on “funeral self-help — answers to frequent questions” under the main menu, then scrolling down and clicking on “funeral arrangements,” will pull up a list of publications including “Four-Step Funeral Planning: Where to Start When You Don’t Know How to Start!”
One of the biggest decisions you will face is whether to pay in advance for arrangements you make. Joshua Slocum, the alliance’s executive director, cautions against advance payments. He says many people don’t understand the fine print in their contracts, consumers could lose earnings on money being held in trust by a funeral home, and contracts can get lost.”
What has attracted people to preneed or prepaying a funeral for a generation has been the promise that one can lock in today’s prices for funeral and not have to pay more later.
In this economy this is simply not the case. It is my opinion that “any honest Funeral Director will not sell you Guaranteed Preneed” now. In this fragile economy investments can not be guaranteed now or in the near future.
They certainly cannot guarantee any investment or bank account 5-20 years out.
A Funeral is always a business contract.
As i have said before it is best for the funeral consumer to not do funeral preneed or prepay a funeral.
The two scandals mentioned at this blog the IFDA Preneed Trust mess (Illinois Funeral Directors Association) and the National Prearranged Services(NPS) scandal alone are reason enough not to prepay a funeral.
In the article the Wall Street Journal said a quiet “No” to funeral preneed.
Funeral industry|funeral blog by your funeral guy.
UPDATE: MAY 3rd 2009 This blog post encourages you to avoid guaranteed preneed, other non guaranteed approaches may be viable. Certainly reputable life insurance is an option.
Your Funeral guy is not affiliated with Joshua Slocum, and is simply pointing out here that the Wall Street Journal has quietly steered the folks away from preneed.
Wall Street Journal pic from flickr under the creative commons license from
