Your Funeral Guy: Roland Burris inbeded in Scandal.

Roland Burris is in- bed-ed in the Illinois Funeral Directors Mismangement Debacle or Scandal. In order to prevent another funeral industry/funeral cost  coverup this Senate Nominee needs to answer questions on what he did for the Illinois Funeral Directors Association association as a lobbyist.

On Dec 30th it was announced that Roland Burris was a lobbyist for the Illinios Funeral Directors Association. In Illinos funeral cost has been drastically affected by the IFDA Preneed  Trust Fund Mismanagement Debacle. So has funeral industry reputation.

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association lost 59 million dollars in their fund. Burris served a s a lobbyist  for the Illinois Funeral Directors Asscociation.

The Barack Obama Senate seat nominee needs to reveal what he did while he was in-bed-ed  with the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.

How much has he been paid by the IFDA?

Whom did he lobby for the IFDA?

What were the the Issues?

When did he begin lobbying for the IFDA and when did he stop?

Did he lobby regulators of the funeral industry?

Was he paid with Preneed Trust fund money?

These are just a few Questions that need answers.

These thing need to be revealed now rather than later.

The United States of America  and the State of Illinois cannot afford to wait.

Way to go Governor Blagojeich it appears you may have put another cover-up guy in power

Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Author, Funeral Director, State of Illinois.

Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Cost too High in the USA!(last 2 weeks)

Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Cost too High in the USA!(last 2 weeks). Funerals always cost too much in any situation because a person is involved. But the death of these folks is too much funeral cost to the  world. May they all rest in peace. All three.

First there was the Tim Russert  Wake and Memorial Service:
The funeral cost to the nation was too great.
Maria Shriver read the poem….The Little Ship in Washington DC. Bruce Springsteen was front and center.
It would be wrong not to repeat it. It is one of the best funeral poems ever written.

The Wife of the Actor and  California governor “Arnold” gave a great funeral poem.

“The Little Ship”

I stood watching as the little ship sailed out to sea. The setting sun tinted his white sails with a golden light, and as he disappeared from sight a voice at my side whispered, “He is gone”.

“But the sea was a narrow one. On the farther shore a little band of friends had gathered to watch and wait in happy expectation. Suddenly they caught sight of the tiny sail and, at the very moment when my companion had whispered, “He is gone” a glad shout went up in joyous welcome, “Here he comes!”

A Good post on this is here:
http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008/06/maria-shriver-poem-at-tim-russerts-funeral-service.html

Then there was the  funeral song “over the rainbow”. People walked out of his memorial service to this Rainbow. Was this a blessing from the man upstairs(apologies to atheists if this does not make you a believer nothing will)

If you do not cry during this Video! You are not human. Barack Obama and John McCain sat together at this event. If you ever click on a Your Funeral Guy, funeral cost link click on this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBddo1RGiJU

Then there was the Tasha Tudor death: The great literary illustrator original  green lady died.
Kids will miss her. Even guys read “The Secret Garden.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/22/AR2008062202026.html”

As if this was not enough we also lost to funeral cost, George Carlin the modern Free Speech almost pornographic comedian. The famous 7 words guy.

Even Jerry Seinfeld is coming back to honor him.

In the 2 weeks Funeral Cost has been too high in the USA!
May all Rest in Peace.
Now there is more funeral story and history in Rest in Peace.

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

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 Dear Abby opposes Trolling for Preneed Funeral Cost.

Dear Abby opposes Trolling for Preneed Funeral Cost. Even the National Funeral Directors Association( NFDA did an article on this one). When you visit a traditional Funeral Home watch for trolls on Funeral Cost.Over a year ago Dear Abby posted a letter on what you can run into at a traditional funeral home…someone trolling for prearrangement funeral cost(s)

“A funeral home trolling for business from grieving friends and relatives of the deceased mother and daughter two days after the granddaughter’s funeral? And to use the signed book (to receive memorials) for names, addresses and phone numbers to “promote business” is, in my eyes, unconscionable! Your thoughts, please.

Doris”

This is the old bait and switch trick applied to funeral homes & funeral cost.

Dear Abby’s response:

“DEAR DORIS: Just when I think I have seen it all, a letter like yours lands on my desk.

Whether the person who called you was the funeral director or a salesman, that person is his own worst enemy.

“People with such little sensitivity for the feelings of others should not be in a people-oriented profession.

If that man’s employer reads this, I strongly recommend that he be relegated to the back room, where the individuals he deals with are far beyond the cares and concerns of this world.”

The full story can be read here:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/894628/dear_abby_funeral_home_approaches_mourner_to_garner_business/index.html

The obituary and memorial card were a part of this scam.

watch for trolls in traditional funeral homes.

More information 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: 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: The Grim Reaper is Weeping. Funeral Cost is down.

Your Funeral Guy notes the Grimm Reaper is weeping because funeral costs are down.  The number of deaths  are down as well. The Grimm Reaper is collecting less and less funeral cost money. The lower cost funeral is becoming more popular around the world. If you have enough insider secrets you can have a traditional  funeral for a fraction of the cost. The low cost funeral is on the rise.

“The funeral business is down, Not as many Americans are dying. and  less costly cremations are becoming popular.”-Daniel Gross Newsweek, Nov17th 2007.

The lower cost funeral movement is growing and the grim reaper is weeping.
The number of services at the big funeral  corporations is down.

More people are opting for low cost funerals. The old fashion burial system is going away and quickly.  New funeral and burial systems are coming into place and this is just in time for the coming recession. Now that is a good thing! Be sure to get more of this in the new “Rest in Peace.”

The Grim Reaper will continue to weep as people live longer and their funeral cost is lowered and have more money for their life!

Your Funeral Guy, author, R.Brian Burkhardt
Funeral Director  “State of Illinois and Commonwealth of Virginia”

Wheaton, IL  March 7, 2008 — R. Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director and your funeral guy revealed that the book “Rest in Peace: Insiders Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral”. is reasonably priced at $12.95, and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. A book purchase brings a free 15 minute call on the phone with a Funeral Director. This will help you with your family funerals and bring about reduced funeral costs.

Keywords
lower cost funeral
low cost funeral
funeral
funeral business

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

Your Funeral Guy: Senator Obama, Please do NOT Raise OUR Funeral Cost

Dear Senator Barack Obama,

Mr. Presidential candidate 2008 Please do not raise OUR Funeral Cost. The National Funeral Directors Association is calling for March 11, th 2008, to be National Funeral Director and Morticians Day. Please do not allow this to happen. While your at it it, it would be good for you to investigate the 40,000,000 “IFDA” trust scandal in your own state, By ignoring This Funeral Trust Scandal and other abuses the folks prepaid funeral cost money you are raising funeral cost. If you allow National Morticians Day, you will make the problem worse.

As a funeral director/mortician in the State of Illinois and an advocate of lower cost funerals, reduced funeral costs and the lower cost funeral, I would urge you NOT to co-sponsor and actively support passage of House Resolution 892, introduced by Representative Charlie Wilson (D-OH) “DESIGNATING MARCH 11, 2008, AS NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTOR AND MORTICIAN RECOGNITION DAY. This WOULD BE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO ALL US SENATORS and the United States Congress.

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association admitted to mishandling 40 Million Dollars in the IFDA Preneed trust. There license to handle the trust fund has been removed by the State of Illinois.

Supporting this Measure will result in embarrassment to You, Senator Obama, as well as the United States Senate and the United States Congress.

I hope you will NOT support this Resolution and investigate the IFDA Preneed trust situation. This is a true embarrassment to the State of Illinois. This measure will imply support to funeral directors and morticians, giving them the blessing of the United States Government. As a result It will raise funeral cost in this Great land. The presidential election 2008 is a great challenge but please take time out for this.

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

This measure will not contribute to the broad prosperity, personal freedom, and better future,of all Americans. It simply, buries a National Disgrace: Mishandling of $40,0000 of the folks money in the great State of Illinois. The Illinois funeral directors association needs investigation.
I hope that you will assume leadership in this matter. This Scandal does not appear to rest in peace.

Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Food, Funeral Meal, Funeral Desert on Funeral Cost

Today because of economic distresses many Americans are concerned with Funeral Cost. It is that one more $6000-$10,000 dollar event that hits you at the time of sudden death or expected death. In either case it can bring you into a sudden death financial playoff. Your Funeral Guy wants to assure you that is quite simple to plan a low cost, less stress funeral. Lowering your Funeral Cost does not have to cost you a bundle. You can plan ahead and pickup funeral food, save on personal expenses and funeral expenses by going here below. There is even a guarantee, for a little more than $10 you can save a Thousand Dollars, Guaranteed

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

Now I realize that some of you do not trust the internet, You watch Bill O’ Reilly, who I affectionately call Pill O’Smilley. He does not trust the internet either. So I am going to look out for you and give you ticket to a free funeral meal. Click on your your ticket below:

http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/25856.asp

I being a funeral director realize that allot of folks go to a funeral just for a free meal. Then there are those who only want desert. So read on. right now for your free funeral cost desert. Read about the guys who lost $40,000, 000 of the folks funeral cost money. Get your free funeral desert by reading on

Free Funeral Desert

Why do Directors Love to have you prepay a funeral? In spite of Trust Mismanagement (The case in the IFDA Preneed Trust) simple theft of the funds and the continual distrust of Prepaid Funeral Trusts they keep wanting those prepaid funerals.

More importantly for any Funeral Director and the industry as a whole prepaid funerals cause mistrust and suspicion. So why do they hang on to this practice?

Simply put, work once get paid continually. It is called passive income and it is great for the funeral home owner. The problem is they are getting paid on the interest on your money.

Yes when you use a prepaid funeral it is goodbye to the interest on your money. Sometimes they let you have some of it but not all of it. Sometimes none at all. It is fee funeral desert for the funeral director

Here is the useful side comment in the article what I called free funeral desert.

“Not all of the money paid out by the IFDA has gone for funerals. The association also has been paying guaranteed interest to funeral homes that collect money from pay-in-advance customers and deposit it in the fund.”

Simply put, The Funeral Director gets the interest on your money. It is your money. The source article is here:

http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/25856.asp

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

Still waiting to here from politicians, lawyers on the IFDA Preneed Trust Sacandal.

Specifically I have contacted Congressman Charlie Wilson D-Ohio

State Representative Dan Brady(Bloomington, IL) and State Senator Randall Hultgren (Wheaton, IL)

Senator Dodd is too busy with Baruck Obama in the presidential election 2008. If they were wise they would stop, look and give a listen to the IFDA Preneed Trust Scandal. Come on now Barry( Barack Obama’s real name) This “IFDA Preneed Trust” Illinois Funeral Directors Association snow job has happened in your home state.

This scandal is not going to “rest in peace” soon. If you follow it you will get a quick education on Funeral, Funerals, funeral cost, funeral expenses, and how to do a lower cost funeral.

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