Preneed Insurance could pay two funerals instead of one|YourFuneralGuy

A Preneed Funeral Arrangement is a contract, it is not wise to participate

Funerals .org has outlined a funeral complaint about preneed insurance. Incredibly insurance premiums total more than twice the cost of a funeral. The Funeral industry needs to stand up and take note of this complaint.

This presents us with a concrete example of the Dangers of funeral preneed. Your Funeral Guy has seen first hand the horrors of the preneed company mentioned below and has refused to work for this  funeral preneed firm  firm

Another example of the financial dangers of prepaid funerals. This Iowa couple was shocked to discover they’d have to pay almost $28,000 in insurance premiums for funerals that would cost only $14,000. Read their complaint-

After sending more than $11,000 to Homesteaders Insurance over the past four years, we recently decided to see what the exact balance due would be. The funeral home told us to call the insurance company. We were shocked to learn from Homesteaders that we hadbeen locked into a 10-year payment plan at the rate of $230.83 a month. At that rate, we would have to pay $27,699.60, about double of what the actual funerals would cost.

via www.funerals.org

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

Once Again Funeral Spin in the Media-YourFuneralGuy

At http://www.southcoasttoday.com an article makes two leaps that often happens in the media and at  funeral blogs.

Connecting Directors has been Funeral Spining with an In lieu of flowers article an another saying prepaid funerals are popular

Prepaying  funerals are on the rise and is a good thing. Prepaid funerals are on the rise? This not the case according  to funeral industry stats and  is only  funeral  director hype. The South Coast today article quotes no statistical studies  on the matter- only an informal survey of the newspaper’s funeral homes. Now Preplaning is a must but prepaying is not.

The article implies that the AARP supports prepaying. Officially the organization does not support prepaid funerals  and  definitely not Joshua Slocum.

The big lie comes next with Funeral Packages Save you money. Even Casual industry observers can quickly see this is not the case.

Snippet:

Although buying a whole funeral package through the funeral home is far more convenient and often less expensive, the Federal Trade Commission has ruled that no one is obliged to buy caskets, burial containers or any other products in-house.

via www.southcoasttoday.com

This article is pure funeral spin. It is being promoted at the funeral spin site- Connecting Directors.com Info on the other  Funeral Spin article is here.

Funeral Industry | Funeral news | Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Funeral packages an prepaying will not help you come in under the average cost of a funeral.

Websites like connecting directors have an interest in Funeral Spin because they receive funds from funeral corporations, Newspapers receive funds from funeral homes through the paid obituary.

Who own’s Preneed Trust Funds|no clear answer-YourFuneralGuy

National Prearranged Services pulled off their frauds with Life Insurance policies.

Who own’s funeral preneed? Is it the bank that own’s the trust fund? The insurance company?  The Funeral corporation?The funeral director? The policy holder?The answer is not in plain sight. This makes repaying a funeral not a good idea.

Because the laws are different in each State, each may have a different answer. Because each contract is different clearly the Managers of the IFDA Trust(through IFDA services)thought the money was theirs when they robbed it. The funeral corporations list the money as theirs on the balance sheet(this is true for SCI, Big Death, Service Corporation International and other funeral corporations).

Funeral Directors count on the preneed money being there, for themselves and their funeral home.

NPS, National Prearranged Services saw the preneed  insurance money in their contracts and they took it.(preneed insurance is different from life insurance)The consumer who purchases the preneed contract often walks away thinking the money  is their own. Sadly that is never the case.

Funeral industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

 

Life Insurers offer Funeral Biz Services-Your Funeral Guy.

Wall Street Journal points out life insurers are entering the funeral biz.

According to the Wall Street Journal several Life insurance Companies are now offering funeral industry related services. This was made apparent Monday when immediately after receiving a federal bailout the Hartford Insurance Company announced it was teaming up with EVEREST -a  funeral concierge and planning service.

Snippet: from the  May 19th Wall Street Journal Article:“Legal help for probate and professional help for funeral planning are among the services being bundled into group-coverage packages by a growing number of companies. Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.; Prudential Financial Inc.; ING Employee Benefits, a subsidiary of ING Groep NV; and MetLife Inc. are among those joining the trend.”

There is a new emerging funeral industry as the traditional funeral business is buckling under economic pressures and life insurance companies  are taking a role in funerals is just a small part of this. Many time times the life insurance company refers to this as end of life services.

Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Sources:

Details are at the Wall Street Journal online. The life insurance companies always have been closely associated with the funeral industry in that cashing in a life insurance policy is how many funerals are paid for. More information on the Hartford-Everest team up  can be found here.

Wall Street Journal pic from flickr under the creative commons license from

Enrico Fuente’s photostream

Wall Street Journal says a quiet No to Funeral Preneed|yourfuneralguy

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

Enrico Fuente’s photostream

Some States have Effective Preneed Laws-Yourfuneralguy

When calling others to honesty it is best to be sure you are honest with your self. Overall I oppose preneed because of abuses. One State is very effective in regulating  preneed. New York, unlike Illinois does not allow prearranged funds to be put in life insurance policies. All of the funds given to the funeral director are placed in trust  for the  individual.

New York has good laws when it Comes to Funeral Preneed.

According to the State Journal Register a Spring field Illinois Newspaper.

“Unlike in Illinois, where pre-need funeral trust funds have been spent on complex life insurance policies and some money ended up in the stock market, New York funeral directors have no fancy investments. There are no astronomical returns, no dizzying losses, no salesmen pitching funeral directors on can’t-miss investment schemes in hopes of collecting commissions.”

New York is one of the few in the United States that has good preneed Law. Bonnie McCullough of  the New York Funeral Directors Association Director has stated that guaranteed preneed is no longer realistic for the Funeral Director.

Sadly most  average Americans are generally shocked now that their Funeral Prices cannot be guaranteed.

Because our financial and investment systems are changing No LONGER Can a Preneed Salesman  or the Funeral Director say the classic preneed line  that most boomers have often heard.

“We will lock in today’s prices for your funeral. You will not have to pay more than what it costs today”

Guaranteed  Preneed is dead. Anyone in the funeral business who tells you different is lying. In the present environment, Funeral Directors must take Extraordinary steps NOW to be sure that they and their sales people present the truth. Because the slogan was repeated so long and in hard sell the funeral consumer is not going to like what they should hear.

For most consumers in the USA Funeral preneed should be avoided. A Preplanned Funeral however is a must.

All I can say is shame on the Illinois Funeral Directors and the Leaders mentioned here who got greedy with the IFDA Preneed Trust.

R. Brian Burkhardt.|Your Funeral Guy.

Those leaders mentioned here are: NFDA Executive Secretary. Randal L Earll, Geoffrey W. Hurd, Eric R. Trimble.and Charles S. Childs Jr. They have been  spoken to the press and covered in the press. They are named in IFDA lawsuits.

Funeral Preneed Scam; Honesty,Money|YourFuneralGuy

Trust is a word used by funeral directors. Often you have to keep them honest so there can be trust.

The one thing you need the most in planning your funeral is honesty. Honesty about death,  about your funeral wishes, and  honesty from the funeral director. It takes courage to think about death and your funeral. You also need the courage to find an honest funeral director and strength to keep that person honest.

This is the lesson learned from the Illinois Funeral Directors Association Ponzi Scheme  The IFDA was not honest about the where they were putting the money. They kept funeral directors in the dark as to what was going on with the money. They did not “notify the folks” (policyholders) as to the fact that the  their money invested in insurance policies as is required by law. A  letter to the editor at the State Journal Register sums it up this way:

“Since an increasing number of Americans are pre-arranging their funerals (although not always pre-funding), they deserve to know exactly what will happen to any money they give their funeral director. If the current status of the IFDA fund is just the result of bad judgment, that’s one thing. However, if more is involved, then any corrective measures will certainly be aided by transparency — not translucency as you now have. (Perhaps we do need a bill similar to that proposed by Dan Brady from Bloomington.)”

Even the Six Funeral homes who have filed a lawsuit did not do their due dillegence and keep track of their customers money. If they had done right by their customers the problem may have been resolved years earlier. The Lawsuit led by Calvert Funeral Homes may not have been needed to be filed on  the IFDA Preneed Trust. The very act of filing that lawsuit shows a lack of due dilligence with the folks money.

Honesty and trust are keys to coming in under the average cost of a funeral.

Funeral Cost/Funeral Industry blog by your funeral guy

Who Will Notify Working Stiffs of Lost Preneed$$?|Your Funeral Guy.

People are hurt when they do not get what they paid for in the death of a loved one.

When writing about Funeral $$ it becomes easy to forget that there are faces behind those funeral dollars. The bigger the numbers the more people are involved. So how will the folks be notified of losses in the funds they prepaid for funerals?

People are  terribly hurt at the time of death when they discover the prepaid  funds are not there.

“There must be an effort to notify individuals of their investment’s status and exactly what will happen when funeral bills arrive.“-the State Journal Register newspaper.

“A question was asked on a blog.“John Duggan has a point, and that’s what concerns regulators in Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Who will be blamed when the consumer does not get the benefit of their preneed contract?”

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association and the Comptroller in that State say that the Funeral Home must cover the losses. But what happens to those non guaranteed policies where the folks lost money?

Many Times  folks  in Illinois were told not to worry about the non guaranteed policies because the IFDA was paying a good interest on their policy. Well misappropriation and abuse  sent that out the window. Who will notify these folks of their losses?As reported here, in the State Journal Register and the Chicago Tribune Lynda Canger of Lake Zurich did not get notified.

Who will notify folks of their preneed losses before the time of death?

Funeral Industry Funeral Costs Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy:Preneed or Prepaid Product may be funeral cost fraud.

Preneed or prepaid Product may be funeral cost fraud.

People often say “preneed product” will lock in prices today and save you money on funeral cost. But inflation and the loss of interest on your money are issues. Often funeral directors get paid a monthly commission on prepaid policies.

Often they get a check every month. It is from your funeral cost money. This is a check from your money. It may actually be better for you to get a check. Some people believe that because they have a preneed product it is still their money. This is not the case.

Many folks in Nursing homes have a preneed policy with a funeral director or a company. As time goes on they often lose track as to where the funeral money is. It is important to keep track. But even this may be not enough to stop prepaid fraud on your funeral cost.

This system is proving to be inadequate. National Prearranged Services (-nps, a series of prepaid funeral companies)have had scandals with loss of hundreds of millions across the USA . This is not meant to scare you but even individual funeral directors have run off with money. This is true in almost every state in the country . The legal term for this is fraud.

A funeral directors association has recently lost 40 + million of the folks money do to mismanagement of prepaid funds. This is close to fraud and a high risk situation. This is reported weekly in newspapers.

Now you may simply plan for a lower cost funeral and avoid all this. There are stories of great low cost funerals with how to examples as well. Many of them can be found here in the new book “Rest in Peace” The day of the Funeral Director always ringing twice is becoming a thing of the past .The First time is when he/she tries to get you to prepay your funeral. The second time the Funeral Director rings is at the time Your Loved One Dies.

Not to worry, the low cost funeral is quite doable when you get a few insiders tips .Preplanning your funeral is an important thing to do. Prepaying with preneed is not in your best option. Please do not purchase a preneed policy and risk fraud or loss. What appears  to be lowering the average cost of a funeral may actually raise your funeral cost.

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. This book is published by Morgan James Publishing.

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

The “Google Books Search” give a look inside the book.

http://books.google.com/books?q=r+brian+burkhardt&btnG=Search+Books

Be sure to let me know about your lower cost funeral.

Your Funeral Guy: IFDA Preneed Trust Continues As Funeral Cost Issue

The IFDA Preneed Trust continues as A Funeral Cost issue. But the secrets of this Funeral Cost and Trust Scandal are hidden and take time to research.If a funeral director is kind enough to be honest about low funeral cost options be sure to say” Thank you.”Recently I thanked a Funeral Director for his honest Blog Post about Funeral Directors and Funeral cost:

“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. Included in this call is ILLINOIS State Senator Randall Hultgren of Hultgren Funeral Home in Wheaton, IL.

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 IFDA and funeral leaders in the State will embrace ethics and honesty. Right now I just find myself too busy helping folks lower the cost of their funerals(as well as the stress)…to keep up with the hairsplitting.The IFDA ( Illinois Funeral Directors Association) knows the changes that are coming.

There will be blogs here from time to time as things become public on the IFDA and IFDA Funeral Homes as well as Funeral Leaders in the State of Illinois.

The Funeral cost issue of the “IFDA Preneed Trust.” continues to be a troubling.

Your Funeral guy.

Two books can help here

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

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