Batesville Casket Company Partners w/FTD-YourFuneralGuy

Funeral Flowers Image via Wikipedia

Batesville Casket Company a subsidiary of Hillenbrand Inc has Partnered with FTD.com Florists, Now this is unique the world largest casket company is diversifying and getting into many other aspects of the funeral business. Flowers are an important part of funerals but just like caskets, people are demanding to pay less.

It is all about a decline in Funeral cost.

FTD.COM, Inc. (“FTD”), a subsidiary of United Online, Inc., has entered into an exclusive agreement with Batesville Casket Company, the leading provider of caskets, cremation products and funeral home websites, to provide customized, co-branded floral websites to licensed funeral homes in the United States and Canada.

“This program represents a unique and innovative opportunity for both FTD and the funeral service industry. FTD will provide a nationwide system for ordering sympathy arrangements to a market that has not always enjoyed a consistent, quality, branded experience,” said Robert Apatoff, President of FTD Group, Inc. “Thousands of funeral homes and their customers can benefit from easy, online access to a full range of beautiful arrangements designed and delivered by FTD’s nationwide network of artisan florists, and supported by its quality customer service.”

The new program is available exclusively to funeral homes that utilize Batesville’s WebLink(TM) websites. Participating funeral homes will receive a co-branded floral website, custom-designed and hosted by FTD, which prominently displays the funeral home’s name and brand. Consumers can easily access the new floral website to place orders through a link on the existing funeral home website. Tailored for the funeral industry, visitors can choose from a first-class assortment of FTD sympathy and funeral arrangements and gifts including flowers, plants, sprays, wreaths, gourmet foods, and gift baskets.

via www.perishablenews.com

Funeral Industry| Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

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$3 Fee For Leaving Flowers at MJ Burial place-Your Funeral Guy

Now You can leave Flowers  for Michael Jackson’s  grave for  $3.00 Forest Lawn Cemetery, a place not so hard up for Cash charging fans for leaving flowers at his burial site inside the Mausoleum.

Fans have been leaving  memorial mementos at a stage,  but no more, a new policy has taken place.

According to sources at the infamous burial space, Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA has decided to take down the stage where fans were previously allowed to place gifts — and are now enacting a new gifting policy … so long as fans pay the price and abide by the rules.

Effective immediately, cemetery staff will take gifts for MJ inside the mausoleum where fans are still forbidden from setting foot — for a $3 fee … oh yeah, as long as those gifts are flowers.

via www.tmz.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News Funeral Blog by your Funeral Guy

Guess they still want to cash in on the Michael Jackson Burial

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Walter Cronkite Funeral|Family Requests Donations|Link-YourFuneralGuy

The Walter Cronkite Family has requested, in lieu of flowers that donations go to a specific charity.

The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Children have requested that Donations be made in lieu of of flowers. This is a common practice at funerals.

The Fund they would like you to make a donation to is called “The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Fund for Fair Play”.

Here is the link where the Cronkite Children would like a donation to be made

This fund has been set up by the Walter and Betsy Cronkite Foundation through the Austin CommunityFoundation.com. It is called “The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Fund for Fair Play”.

From AustinCommunityFoundation.com:

“The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Fund for Fair Play was established by the Cronkite’s children to honor the lives of their parents. Betsy and Walter Cronkite were two extraordinary individuals. Many know Walter Cronkite as the man who delivered the news of the day as the anchor of the CBS evening news from 1962-1981.”

Donations to a Charity to honor a loved one is often requested instead of sending flowers.

Walter Cronkite Funeral Service to be private. Make a donation to his Funeral Fund.

“In lieu of flowers” followed by a “charity name” or “donations to the family” is commonplace in obituaries. This can be helpful to your charity,charities or the family to lower funeral cost.

Be sure to make your donation to the Walter Cronkite Funeral Fund

Funeral Industry Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Walter Cronkite Pic from Wikepedia

“And thats the way it was”

Funeral Guy: Corporate Funeral Homes, Funeral Flowers.

Corporate Funeral Homes are having  a tough time these days Adding extras expenses to a funeral is not all that popular in the economic downturn.

I have three basic points about corporate Funeral homes: Please be aware of them so you may accomplish a lower cost Funeral.

1. Corporate funeral homes are usually not a good choice for your lower cost funeral. They generally have experienced tough salespeople and negotiators. However you can negotiate a lower cost funeral.

2. Corporate Funeral Homes generally carry on a Family Name even though the are run by a corporation.

3. Family Funeral Homes can be Corporate. Some family funeral homes can have a corporate mentality. Family Funeral Guys can run funeral homes like a corporation and own multiple funeral homes, sometimes 30 to 100 funeral homes. Most often no lower cost funeral here.

Recently I answered  a couple of questions about corporate funeral homes and  funeral flowers.

Many of the large funeral home operators seem to be focusing on selling funeral related services.  Is this good or bad for consumers?

Generally large funeral home operators raise funeral expenses. These are not just the corporate guys. Families can be large funeral home operators as well. I have experienced both and they are not the friends of a lower cost funeral.

Do you think families should order flowers directly from funeral homes?

One should not do this if the family is looking to save on funeral cost. Often the funeral corporations come in with flowers at low funeral cost and then raise the cost of funeral flowers. After this sometimes they send free flowers to hospice and the family feels obligated to get the flowers from the corporate funeral home at higher cost. Sources tell me that funeral flower sales are down 25 %. On the internet or a discount flower shop is a better place to buy flowers. Please avoid funeral home flowers and lower your funeral expenses.

Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy: The Low Cost Funeral at Church.

Using a different location obviously lowers the average cost of a funeral. “Location Location Location.”Low or high Funeral Costs are the charges billed by the funeral owner for a casket, for cremation, for the use of the funeral director, funeral home or viewing of the loved one, and related costs. These costs can range from $6000 to $11,000 or more.

There are some Funeral cost associated with having a funeral service in a church. These may include:

1.An honorarium for the minister.

2.An honorarium for the organist.

3An honorarium musicians.

4.A fee for the custodian who prepares the sanctuary for the service

5 Flowers in the sanctuary

6 If the person who died was not a church member, some churches charge additional funeral cost .

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Using a different location obviously lowers the average cost of a funeral. “Location Location Location”

Ministers can be helpful and compassionate on the low cost funeral by having as service at the church and acting as an advocate during arrangements. Or they just collect their check from the funeral home. Look inside the funeral cost book.

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 how you did your lower cost funeral.