This was kind of an outrageous thing I heard today where I was told of a person that was planning their funeral ahead of time as they don’t want to put their family in a financial burden if they were to pass away. Apparently a salesmen from a particular organization approached him and was talking about all these packages that were pretty much $15,000+. Even for things like cremation it seemed like one would have to pay $5000+ minimum.
He did end up signing a contract for a $15,000+ plan and in the end he was complaining they are all that expensive anyways so it’s just an expense you have to swallow. These kinds of things irritate me as it feels like these are targeting people who will make emotional purchases as who wants to sound “cheap” when it comes to something as serious as a funeral right? There was even a person telling me how how they were stressing out as they are already retired and having to put aside $20,000 for a funeral is a little overwhelming.
With that said, since this sounds more like any other “business” I decided to do some price comparing. Sure enough, there were extreme price differences if you actually do the research. Like in my quick research I was able to find reputable businesses that did these kinds of services starting at about $1000. That’s a far cry from starting at like $15,000. I did show this to the person too and it surprised them.
I did learn an interesting thing too where when it comes to these services apparently it is your right to ask them for a price list of sort to see how they justify the final figure. For example, the cost of the casket, the flowers, the professional fees, etc. Apparently most people don’t do this and base it on trust that it simply costs that much. If they said your casket costs $10,000 for example would that not make you wonder? Kind of sad that people get taken advantage of as I’m sure most people simply purchase emotionally when thinking about it. Just reminder that even in these situations you need to compare prices.