The cost of a funeral can come as quite a shock. If you’ve had to organise a funeral, you’ll know how difficult it is to negotiate costs at such a difficult time. Costs can mount up as music, printing and catering are added. People often go to a local funeral home, but this may not be the best prices option.
The most basic funeral, that is driving the body to the crematorium can cost around two thousand dollars. But the average cost for a basic funeral is around eight thousand dollars. Coffins alone can cost thousands of dollars.
Paul Versteege, Policy Manager for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association wants people to be more aware of funeral costs and take the initiative in planning their funeral, and paying for it, well in advance.
If you plan your own funeral, you can specify what you want, and it will assist your family and friends at a time of grief. You can put the money aside for the funeral or buy a funeral plan and pay it off. However, interest charged on funeral plans should be considered.
Paul Versteege strongly warns against funeral insurance that is
often advertised on daytime television. He says people can end up paying way more in insurance than the actual costs of the funeral. And if they stop paying, they lose the insurance.
People need to remember that funerals homes are businesses, as caring as the people who work in them may be. Funeral home websites should advertise their costs on their websites, including the cost of their cheapest coffin.
There is no licensing or registration for funeral directors, so it’s be informed, plan in advance and make your wishes clearly known to your family well in advance.
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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and live, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
We acknowledge the sorrow of the Stolen Generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
OWN NSW supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the call for a First Nation's Voice enshrined in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to oversee agreement-making and truth-telling.