|
|
I have noticed many funeral
homes have a token 'Happy
People Having Fun'
photo...so here's ours...this
is the wifely woman Carol
with Swan Quarter, NC
Funeral Director Steve Bryan
at the Oregon Inlet. This
particular day there were
mosquitoes the size of
hamsters encircling us..."I have always loved the story of an elderly gentleman who had burial plots on both coasts. The family kept after him to tell them where he wanted to be buried. He thought for a moment and then said, 'Surprise me.' We walk a fine line between knowing what we want to happen at our own funeral and forcing some hard decisions on our family. Conditions change, situations become altered and suddenly the family cannot fulfill all of the requests we have made. Many a family lives with long-term guilt over failing a loved one in this area.
The answer to this is to make general plans. Have a family meeting so everyone has a voice in the plans and understands what is to happen, and then make clear that it will be all right if changes have to be made.
I cannot emphasize this enough that family unity is priority number one. The only way to avoid misunderstanding is to have an understanding. A family discussion is in order."
- Doug Manning
Excerpted from Building Memories: Planning a Meaningful Funeral
With permission from Insight Books, Inc. © 2002 | www.insightbooks.com
I get questions all of the time about Preneed plans and arrangements...
 To begin with, there are 2 different types of preneed plans - IRREVOCABLE and REVOCABLE. The irrevocable meaning that the funds cannot be used until death occurs. The revocable is pretty self-explanatory; essentially, the funds can be retrieved later if needed. This is probably a good time to mention that preneed plans may be transferred between firms. The NC State Board of Funeral Service will oversee your preneed contract and serve as the regulatory agency over preneed. When you are handing over funds to be used on a service ahead of time, there will have to contracts written and signed, and a clear understanding as to what will be provided. The NC Board of Funeral Service has a $20 filing fee for a preneed contract. We file a report with the Board at the end of each year to show interest/balance amounts, and the Board inspects our records each year.
NC Consumer Protection...
There are several places that a purchaser of a preneed funeral contract need to sign or initial. This particular area is VERY important for your protection. Please note that when you initial this portion, you are acknowledging that the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service will be in contact with you in writing within thirty days to let you know your contract is on file with them. IF you do not hear from them by mail within the thirty days - for heavens sakes' call them. This makes your Funeral Director look good to the State Board that we are doing our job and adequately explaining your protection and rights. This is all for the consumer's protection.
There are two other important distinctions in contracts - INFLATION PROOF and STANDARD. Let me try to explain the important distinctions.
INFLATION PROOF - The consumer selects actual funeral details and merchandise; the consumer is then given a funeral contract showing those items. In this case, full payment of the amount of the contract is required. The Funeral Director (with the exception of non-guaranteed items, such as cash advances and sales tax) takes the funds and places the money in a bank trust or an insurance funded preneed.
AT THE TIME of death, the Funeral Director is agreeing to provide those items for the deceased and no additional charges for those items selected - again, some non-guaranteed items may not qualify.The goal for the Funeral Director is to use a funding vehicle that will hopefully accumulate enough interest to take care of all of his charges. In these situations, the director is taking a risk. The law says that the director can keep all funds from the trust or insurance for the "risk" they have taken. Okay, with me so far?
STANDARD - The consumer may or may not pick out selections. Sometimes we just have folks who say, "We want to contribute $6500 to a preneed, we will make selections at the time of death," and so on. In this case, a standard contract would need to be used. Alternatively, a family does pick out selections but is not paying the full amount up front - maybe they are going to pay over a certain amount of time. If this is the case, they can pick selections OR not make selections. Either way, the funds are growing in the bank trust or the insurance preneed. The catch here is that if you select a Standard contract you may be responsible for any rise in cost.
For example, let's say you pick out items totaling $6533 and pay that amount. At the time of death, the funeral costs years later have risen to $7211, and the bank trust or insurance preneed has $7083 in the account - the family may be responsible for any rise in cost. However, it's possible that the funds worked the other way; that is, the funeral then cost $7083 and the preneed amounted to $7211. A refund is in order. The refund must be routed through the local Clerk of Court, and most of the time it is going back to the family in some way. It may be important to mention here that a preneed is to be used for funeral costs, it is not an avenue to "shelter" funds so a big refund can come back at the time of death. Many of our preneeds come to us by way of someone eventually going on some type of public assistance benefits - and those have to be irrevocable, and it is a good idea to either select items and know the cost OR simply use an average funeral cost for the type of service someone would want.
After explaining these situations, let me emphazise something that I have heard come up several times this year. Let me use this example: a family completes a preneed plan for a family member and signs the contract with the Funeral Director for $6800.00. Keep in mind we are putting these funds in either a bank trust or an insurance preneed (really, wherever we think the best growth will be, and a person's age often affects that decision). At the time of death, the funeral costs have risen to $7150.00 and the actual preneed amount at the time of death is $7200.00. IF it is a standard contract then a $50 refund would be paid to the Clerk of Court. I have had some folks think that when we say the funeral is $6800.00 at the time of planning, we are agreeing to always keep the price at $6800.00 and accept that amount at the time of death. For a Funeral Director, we would be crazy to sign this contract and accept that same exact amount, not knowing if death would occur within a few years or many years later when casket companies, vault companies, and other vendors' cost (not to mention the costs to run the funeral home) have risen. Accounting for these rising costs and is the purpose of drawing interest, either with the bank or insurance company. I know of a few families who thought they were entitled to all interest earned. It doesn't work that way.
So, how do you know that the costs are exactly what are written on the funeral contract at the time of death? Each Funeral Home is required to give a family a GENERAL PRICE LIST at the beginning of arrangements. A Casket Price list and an Outer Burial Container Price List are required to exist in the funeral home. I put all three of ours on one sheet for simplicity and easy understanding. All prices on the current GPL and price lists will match up with a Statement of Funeral Goods and Services.
Something I mention on a preneed contract that can be unpredictable is the Place of Death. Many funeral homes have a "Removal From Place of Death" charge that you will see listed, and an additional mileage charge for "anything over 40 miles," or similiar amount of mileage. Of course no one can predict exactly where death will happen, so if a family member has been taken to a large city for treatment in a hospital, and the person dies, the family may have additional costs for transportation.
For Washburn & Dorsey's purposes, we use two funding groups for preneeds. For Insurance Preneed, we use Columbian Life. Columbian is great for folks who are doing preneeds at a "younger" age than our average preneed. For Bank Preneed, we use First Citizens Bank. First Citizens doesn't care how old a person is, how much they are starting the preneed with, etc. It is also more friendly to installment payments than most insurance-based preneed. We get a once-a-month printout of all preneeds with them and the amount of interest, so even on the weekend we have a pretty good idea of how much will be in a given account.
MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, preneeds must, must be done by appointment. We are a small funeral home, and a licensed Funeral Director in the State of North Carolina MUST make the arrangements with you for a preneed. Since I am a one man operation here, I bolt out the door to do errands many times during the week. I may be getting death certificates, retrieving a tent from a cemetery, or indulging in a hot fudge cake somewhere. When we are busy, I don't have time to make many preneed arrangements. So is it imperative that a family call and say, "We wanted to come Thursday night at 7:30pm...", that's okay if the schedule isn't busy here. I don't mind meeting at night or weekends; not a problem - I'll be glad to work with you. I just have to know several days ahead of time that you are coming. It takes a little planning on my part, and a lot of time to draw any contracts up. But I am amazed at the number of people who show up on the doorstep here wanting to talk preneed and they usually say, "We've been thinking about doing this for several weeks..."
I hope you find this information helpful - please feel free to give me a ring if you have more questions or would like to schedule an appointment.
In addition, arrangements can be made in the comfort of your own home by clicking the button below. Fill in as much as you are comfortable with and I'd be pleased to meet with you to discuss further. See the form below for details.
Pre-Need Form
|
