Recession and Funeral Cost gains Media attention|Your Funeral Guy

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Recession and Funeral Cost are gaining attention -the attention of the Media. Today there was an interesting article in the Huffington Post On this subject.

Snippet:

In the past few recessionary years, most of us have gotten used to closely watching our expenses for everything from child rearing to college to retirement funding. Another important area where comparison shopping makes sense is funerals. Yes, funerals.

While it may not make for typical water cooler chatter, dying in America is expensive and the costs are often borne by grieving family members who are in no mood to haggle. Just as life insurance is meant to benefit family members of the deceased, planning funeral arrangements in advance can save survivors time and a significant amount of money.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

There have been other important articles on this subject in the New York Times and MSN  Money Central.

The Basic ways to save money on a Funeral are:

1. Shop around(Comparison Shopping)

2. Purchase your Casket on the Internet.

3. Choose cremation.

Funeral Industry| Funeral News Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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• Money tip: Cremation less traditional, but less expensive than burial (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Funeral Directors use Governments to Keep Prices High-Your Funeral Guy

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John Stossel of Fox News has pointed out that Funeral Directors use Government to keep prices high.

This is true because  in spite of Federal Law- called the Funeral Rule declaring free trade in the funeral industry- it does not happen in certain States, counties and cities. State and localLaw trumps free trade(Funeral Rule) in the funeral industry. This should not be.

In Certain localities the Funeral Rule is trumped by State Law. In other words competition is forced out by certain laws. In some places  you are forced to buy Caskets from a Funeral Director.

Monks in Louisiana have recently raised this issue and got libertarians to help them.

The funeral directors had managed to get their state to pass a law decreeing that only “licensed funeral directors” may sell “funeral merchandise” like caskets.

To sell caskets legally, the monks would have to obtain a funeral director’s license. That required a year-long apprenticeship, passing a funeral industry test and converting their monastery into a “funeral establishment” by installing embalming equipment, among other things.

The state board and the Louisiana Funeral Directors Association
– the profession’s lobbyist — say the law is designed to protect consumers. But that’s what established businesses always say about absurd regulations they demand. An unusually candid funeral director told The Wall Street Journal, “They’re cutting into our profit.” Well, yes, free competition does do that. That’s the point.

via www.foxnews.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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