Posts Tagged ‘cremation’
Taking A Look At Family Funeral Home Vs Corporate
Today 85-87% of funeral homes are independently owned. It can be tricky to run a small business locally, especially as many businesses are passed down from generation to generation, and not every generation being so eager to run the show. Take, for instance, the case of the crematorium that was passed down to a son who decided he’d rather toss the bodies in the backyard than upkeep the property and services, thus leading to a billion-dollar lawsuit involving over 2,000 corpses. As horrifying as this may sound, it’s certainly not representative of the vast majority of operations in the US. Most of the time, when people don’t wish to carry on the legacy themselves, they farm their business out to a large corporation that is eager to cash-in on the $20-billion-a-year “death care” industry. This could mean a whole new world of service from your local, privately run funeral home.
What kind of changes does corporate control bring to the funeral home business? For one, SCI has tried cutting prices for individual items like caskets and urns, but tries to attractively market bundles or packages. As a result, even though the number of funeral services decreased over the past few years, the average revenue increased by about 9%. The big corporation’s competitor Anthony Amigone, president of Amigone Funeral Homes argues, “By staying independently owned, we can keep our prices under control and we can maintain a very high standard of service. Any independent can.”
Secondly, branding has become part of the corporate appeal. Twenty-four-hour “compassion hotline” services are marketed on television, some targeting Latino viewers or other specific demographics. They choose new names like “Dignity Memorial” or “Forever Remembered” to be marketed from coast to coast. Websites will become more elaborate and marketing techniques could begin to edge out the smaller competition. However, many argue that the appeal of the family-owned funeral parlor will never die because people generally associate higher levels of care and fairer prices from the independents.
Thirdly, big companies with big money can sometimes offer better musical arrangements, more funeral flowers and more elaborate memorials. Some directors can even offer videographers who will put together a multimedia presentation for guests at the wake or memorial. Another newer service being offered by funeral homes/laboratory partnerships is DNA storage, which can help with paternal tests, family genealogical history studying and disease screening. The price for this service is about $295 for DNA retrieval and 25 years of storage. These services are valuable to some, but could one day usurp all the little funeral homes that can’t accommodate these extra, high tech goodies.
Typically, the mourning families don’t care whether a funeral home is owned by a corporation or a family, when it comes down to the day of loss. Therefore, it’s a good idea to check out local funeral homes and cemeteries and discuss things like cremation or funeral expenses beforehand, and get these things in writing! While it seems sort of morbid to think about it, thinking ahead can lessen the financial burden later on.
Life Insurance For Pets Essential Facts
How much do you know about pet life insurance? Most of the time, people assume that life insurance for pets is the same as life insurance for humans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. You will not see the same financial payout when you invest in life insurance for pets. Why is that? Consider this, pets may be like members of the family but they are not really human beings. Although both humans and pets are an important part of your life, society dictates that humans and pets deserve different insurance policies.
So if you can’t get financial payout from life insurance for pets, why sign up at all? If you can’t get money from the life insurance, why bother with it? Wouldn’t it be better to get it for older dogs? If the insurance for aging dogs cover end of life expenses, you may not have to get life insurance for pets for your dog. If your older dog is not covered, however, consider life insurance for pets. Before you buy, there are a number of things you need to consider and know before you buy life insurance for pets.
Benefits at the End of Life
Although you don’t get money with life insurance for pets, you will help see coverage for the pet at the end of their life. Life insurance for pets gives you additional coverage so you don’t have to pay for your dog or cat’s cremation. When your pet dies, the cremation service is expensive and without coverage, you might have to dip into savings or go into debt to pay for it. If you cannot afford the cremation service, your pet might not have a decent burial.
The life insurance for pets will also cover bereavement counseling services as well as cremation and burial. After the loss of the pet, the owner can benefit from the bereavement counseling to move on. Bereavement counseling can help the owner cope with the loss of the pet family member.
We have reviewed plenty of insurance offerings for pets. To find out more about one of our favorites, check out Quickcare Pet Insurance . One of the industries best!
By: Dr. Robert Sleeter