Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Directors Raise Funeral Cost-The apprentice

The Funeral Cost of a Funeral Director is about 20 to 26 USD a hour in 2008. It is a large factor in the average cost of a funeral.

The funeral home owner cost is much more. If you use the traditional funeral home engage the funeral owner’s (or manager )services—- you certainly are paying for the service. Here are two of the Tricks funeral home owners employ is to raise funeral cost.

1. use apprentices to lower their cost

demand a licensed person!

2. limit the time that funeral directors spend with you without lowering your cost.

take as much time as you need!

A simple tip to lower funeral cost is to ask for a green funeral, green burial and information on the average cost of a funeral. Remember it is best to be your own funeral advocate.

More information on what is involved with a funeral and Average Funeral Cost here in two books.

Two books have contributed to the Funeral cost reduction situation.

Mark Harris’s “Grave Matters”:

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial by Mark Harris

And “Rest in Peace” by R. Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak.

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

Both these books creatively examine the issues around green funerals and burials and funeral costs.

More information on this can be found at the Funeral Consumer Alliance, Green Burial Council and the AARP

in this article:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/consumersmarts/archives/141653.asp

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Your Funeral Guy: Call Funeral Directors to honesty on Funeral Cost

Your Funeral Guy: Call Funeral Directors to honesty on Funeral Cost

Recently I thanked a Funeral Director on another blog for his honesty on Funeral Cost.

Here is what I said it is worth repeating here:

“Thank you for your honesty.

we share a trust level well short of that of mechanics, stockbrokers, real estate and insurance agents. This information should be a wake up call.

Only a few in our profession are this honest and candid. On another blog on this site I have mentioned & commented on some scandals. They are the result of the sins of more than a few. Let it be known that inspite of some blogs and comments that are tough, I have withheld information from the media on these events. Instead I have called on Leaders in the Funeral Industry to be honest. You sir are a part of the city set on the hill.

Your ethics are appreciated. I love helping families and for that reason I wrote a new book called Rest in Peace. In this work I declare that there are honest ethical funeral directors like yourself who are willing to embrace the changes that are to come!”

It is my hope that the ILLINOIS FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION (IFDA )will embrace ethics and honesty.

Right now I just find myself too busy helping folks lower the cost of their funerals…to keep up with this.

The IFDA knows the changes that are coming.

To the IFDA I Wish you the best.

There will be blogs here from time to time as things become public on the IFDA Funeral cost issue and the “IFDA Preneed Trust.”

The IFDA has had it’s wake up call.

Earlier this year it came out that the IFDA- had mis managed 40 Million Dollars of the folks “IFDA Preneed Trust” money in Illinois.

Beware of organizations like the IFDA in keeping Funeral Directors Honest and keeping your lower cost funeral Specific State Senator Randall Hulfgren refused to take action on this along with hultgrenfh. Hultgren Funeral Home is not the only culprit. Trimble Funeral Homes www.trimblefuneralhomes.com had family on the IFDA committees and has refused comment on the IFDA Preneed Trust situation inspite of positve press from…Quad-City Dispatch

More information on keeping funeral directors honest can be found here including average funeral cost:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book. This book is published by Morgan James Publishing.

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

Your Funeral Guy:Green Burial, Green Funeral –Lower Funeral Cost

Your Funeral Guy:Green Burial, Green Funeral does not always mean Lower Funeral Cost. Seattle, Maine, North Carolina, San Francisco all have places that are starting to become in this new trend.It has been happening in England. Just like any funeral you get what you pay for and you should pay less funeral cost and still get great service.

Two books have contributed to the Green Burial Situation.

Mark Harris’s “Grave Matters”:

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial by Mark Harris

And “Rest in Peace” by R. Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak.

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

Both these books creatively examine the issues around green funerals and burials.

More information on this can be found at the Funeral Consumer Alliance, Green Burial Council and the AARP

in this article:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/consumersmarts/archives/141653.asp

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Your Funeral Guy: Low Funeral Cost Cemetery Video and TV

Here is You tube video that shows why low funeral cost cemeteries are needed. The low cost funeral cemetery is a green cemetery. Update Nov 18, 2008 This link has been taken down by you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GGvaHFbJZY

try this link instead for a view of a low cost cemetery.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=92649&videoChannel=74

CSI, Donation to Science, Organ Donor, Green Funeral, Cremation, but not Funeral Cost–TV. Modern Marvels:Corpse Tech.
This was a very informative television program. From the decomposing of bodies, to the traditional funeral business. There was even a look inside cremation ovens.

The cemetery of the future was addressed. The focus was on the San Francisco Area. The Green Cemetery and the green funeral.
Funeral Cost that can be saved in cremation and green was not addressed,
The good news is that the series Modern Marvels: Corpse Tech continues to shown on the History channel.

The shows how the dead help the living.
Organ donation, tissue donation and research.
The newest and best cremation machines were featured.
Good Stuff.

The statistics given in the show were not entirely accurate coming from 2006.
Cremation rates are up. Funeral Cost is down.

More info with average Funeral Cost Information can be found here.

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book.

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

Getty Images RF

Your Funeral Guy: History Channel Special to run Cremation-Funeral Cost Special.-June 20th 2008

Do you want funeral cost lowered? Low cost cremation anyone? Green cremation anyone? Yes- the History Channel is to run a Funeral Cost Cremation -”Special on the TV show Modern Marvels on the History Channel- (June 20th 2008) If you miss it this it will be most likely re-aired.

It will also include information on medical organ donation.

Credit goes to The Funeral Insider Guys on this one:

“History Channel To Explore Death in Modern Marvels: Corpse Tech

“The History Channel will explore cremation, the role of the medical examiner, organ and tissue donation and more during a show to air at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 20th in MODERN MARVELS: CORPSE TECH.The show’s theme will be “Adventures of the Body After Life.”

In a news release, Facultatieve Technologies announced that a portion of the show would feature its cremation equipment.

Check your local listings to make sure you don’t miss the program.”

Here is a link to this quote:

http://www.katesboylston.com/fsx_jun13/fsxjun13b.html:

Here is a quote from the a company  featured in this special.

These below average  funeral cost options are addressed in

June 20th, 8.00 pm: Facultatieve Technologies on the History Channel
In America, the popular Modern Marvels programme is broadcast daily by the ‘History Channel’. Each programme deals with unusual stories behind a broad range of subjects; from simple tools and technical discoveries to human miracles. On 20 June 2008 (8.00 pm), it will dedicate an entire programme to cremation and its origins, with Facultatieve Technologies being invited as the expert opinion. This is to be expected, as Facultatieve Technologies leads the pack in the field of designing, constructing and maintaining cremation ovens, both in the US and across the globe. This international organisation has been active in the branch since 1908, endowing with it a vast repository of in-house experience and expertise. The programme meets the staff, and visits the main site with all its facilities. It will cover the history of cremation, but will chiefly focus on its future, discussing, for instance, the environmentally-friendly units made by Facultatieve Technologies in Medina. Would you like to know more, or watch previous Modern Marvels programmes? Then click here Here is the link:

http://www.facultatieve-technologies.com/webgen.aspx?p=992&o=7260

Your Funeral Guy gives credit where Credit is due.

More information can be found here:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book.

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

Your Funeral Guy: Social Network for the Dead with Funeral Cost

Funeral Cost dollars are now being shifted to Tributes.com with the Wall Street Journal the lead investor via the internet. Funeral cost may increase because there will be packages for funeral homes and families. Now trying to get your funeral cost dollar is the WSJ and the founder of Monster.com {Jeff Taylor started Monster.com and eons.com}

He has stated he has devoted his entire life to taking the Newspaper online. This time he is going for the obituary dollar and hopes to get the cooperation of the traditional funeral homes, bypassing you guessed it the local Newspaper.

The article is in the magazine Wired:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2008/05/tributes

This was predicted along with the rise of online obituaries

in my  book Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral “

These places are his competition: SweetMemoriesSite.com, ChristianMemorials.com and, PreciousMemoriesAndMore.com  as well as legacy.com

Not surprising there will be memorial packages for both funeral homes and people who have just had a death in their family.

Many Funeral Homes have their own memorial websites, This will probably be a great success because there will be an easy search of the Social Security Data Base. This is also the ultimate in social networking. This will make it possible for these folks to knock the competition dead. It is all quite scary.

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book. This book is published by Morgan James Publishing.

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

Your Funeral Guy: IFDA Will Not say Where $40,000,000 Went!

In spite of pressure from the press the IFDA (Illinois Funeral Directors Association) refuses to say where 40 Million Dollars of funeral cost money went. The people of the State of Illinois and participants in the deserve to know where their “Lower Cost Funeral Money” went. Participants in the IFDA Preneed Trust are forced to continue to trust the IFDA in spite of clear mismanagement of 40 Million Dollars.

This is simply part of a larger problem. Many Funeral Directors (as is true of the IFDA) do not want to be accountable. If the Funeral Directors Association cannot be held accountable who is there to hold funeral directors, funeral homes, funeral home owners accountable.

The only answer is the general public. Here is the IFDA’s non accountability answer to the IFDA Preneed Trust $40,000,000.00 deficit.

This comes directly from the IFDA website:

IFDA ISSUES A RESPONSE TO STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER ARTICLE

Families can be reassured that funeral benefits for participants of the IFDA Preneed Trust are still being paid in full at the time of death-as they have always been. Now IFDA is working with Regions Morgan Keegan Trust as trustee to move forward.

So….Hospitals have their patient advocates. Who will be your Funeral cost Advocate?

The answer is here:

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

Here are the folks you can hold accountable for the $40,000,000 IFDA Preneed Trust.

President: Geoffrey W. Hurd CFSP Hurd Hendricks Funeral Home and Crematory 120 S.Public Square Knoxville, IL 61448 1-309-289-4129 Fax 1-309-289-4123 gwhurd@grics.net

President Elect: James D.Boma, CFSP, Bosma-Renkes Funeral Homes LTD 404 Lincolnway East Morrison, Illinois 61270 1-815 -772-2322 fax1 815-772-4202 jim@bosmarenkes.com

VicePresident: Chris Woodbridge, CFSP, Targehetta & Woodridge Funeral Homes, Inc. 501 W. Center St. P.o Box 715 Brighton, IL 62012 618-372-3712 Fax 618-372-3311 ifda15@sbcglobal.net

Secretary/Treasurer: David M McReynolds, CFSP, Wilson-McReynolds Funeral Home PO Box 370 900 N.Court St Marion, IL 62959 618-993-2131, Fax 618-993-3143 davemcreynolds@mchsi.com

These are some other folks on the IFDA TRUST Committee.

Charles S. Childs, Jr CFSP AARaynor and Sons, 318 E.71st St, Chicago, IL 60619, 773–846-8415 fax 773-846- 8415 CChildsAARaynor@aol.com

Dennis R Davidson, Dawson and Wikoff, 515 West Wood 217-429-4421, fax 217-429-3153 ddavidson@dawson-wikoff.com

Please ask these folks where the $40,000,000 USD Went.

Your Funeral Guy, Author, Funeral Director, State of Illinois, Commonwealth of Virginia,

R.Brian Burkhardt

Your Funeral Guy: NFDA pretends to have the Support of the AARP.

I received this in the mail from the NFDA,

“AARP.org Focus on Personalization

Just as the CBS Early Show featured a series of stories on personalization, AARP is looking at the unique ways we memorialize our loved ones. The association’s Website, AARP.org, recently published an article titled “The 50+ Go Out With a Boom”. NFDA was once again a sought-after source as the author developed the story. Comments from NFDA Spokespersons Debora Kellom, CFSP, and Pat Lanigan, CFSP, were included in the story.”

The NFDA is pro personalized funeral. That is a good. Yes Your funeral should be personalized. Being Pro personalization sells funerals. The comment above seems to say that the aarp sought help from the nfda.

An AARP article is not always the opinion of the AARP. The problem is the National Funeral Directors Association policies are exact opposites on many a funeral policy, not just at the aarp.

Have you been ripped off?

“The AARP The Magazine article “R.I.P. Off”

If you do not want to be ripped off be sure to Rest in Peace and purchase Rest in Peace by R.Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak.

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

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