Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What are the benefits of prearranging?
There are many benefits of prearranging your
funeral. The first is the ability to lock in your costs at today's
prices in today's dollars. You also have the opportunity to specify
exactly the type of services and arrangements you wish to receive.
Finally, by arranging in advance, you save your loved ones the stress
of organizing final arrangements at a difficult time.
Question: What are the benefits of prearranging my funeral
if I have a Will?
Your Will specifies your final
wishes. However, your will is not read until after the funeral,
so any special directions regarding your final resting arrangements
may not be honored. Taking the time to pre-plan your funeral with
a qualified professional will ensure that your final arrangements
are in accordance with your wishes.
Question: What information should
I bring with me to the funeral home to make arrangements following
the death of a family member
The following information will
be required to complete the death certificate (however, it would
be best to contact your Funeral Director to get a complete list
of information and items needed):
Legal Name:
Home Address:
Date of Birth:
City/State of Birth:
Social Security Number:
Father’s Name:
Mother's Maiden Name:
Occupation:
Type of Industry:
Education:
Marital Status:
Veteran Status (Record of Honorable Discharge):
Cemetery Information (Name, Address, Telephone
#):
Insurance Policy:
Survivors:
(Name) (Relationship)
Question: What are the options
if my partner and I would like different final arrangements?
All the cemeteries we serve can
provide flexible lots to accommodate both a traditional burial and
cremation urn. This provides partners with the ability to choose
the final arrangement that best suits them, while creating a final
resting place together.
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Question: Is there a way I can
remember special friends and family that are buried in other
cities or countries?
Cemeteries offer a wide range
of options to create memorials to special ones who are not
buried close to where you live. Types of memorials that are
commonly purchased include benches, remembrance trees, statues
and sundials. If you would like more information, please feel
free to contact us and we'll be
happy to provide you with the answers you are looking for.
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Question:
What contributes to the cost of a funeral?
Funerals are no more expensive
than other major life events such as weddings and births. However,
happy life events typically do not raise much sensitivity about
cost. Funeral homes operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week. This
is a labor-intensive business, with extensive costs for facilities
and real estate - (viewing rooms, chapels, limousines, hearses,
etc.), these expenses do factor into the cost of a funeral. Funeral
costs include not only items, like caskets, but the services of
a Funeral Director who handles legal documents and makes many detailed
arrangements. Your Funeral Director will assist you in dealing with
doctors, ministers, florists, newspapers; with death certificates
and items; and seeing to all the necessary details.
Question: Has the cost of funerals increased significantly?
Funeral costs have increased no
faster than the consumer price index for other consumer items. Today,
an average funeral costs about $6,000.
Question: Why Do People Choose Cremation?
Cremation is selected for many
reasons ranging from religious beliefs or ethnic customs to cost.
Cremation, or any other funeral service option, should not be selected
in an attempt to hasten or circumvent the grieving process, which
is a necessary part of readjusting to life after death has delivered
a great sense of pain and loss.
Question: What are the costs of cremation verses burial?
Generally
the costs of cremation are lower than the costs of burial. However
there are many, many variables such as the choice of service, type
of casket or urn and so on.
Question: Can you have a funeral if you choose cremation?
Yes. Cremation is an alternative
to earth burial or entombment for the body's final disposition.
However, cremation often follows a traditional funeral service.
Cremation is the second most common form of disposition in the United
States. In other countries, such as England and Japan, cremation
is the most common form of disposition.
There are a variety of options for the final disposition
of cremated remains. Urns or other containers may be placed in a
niche at a columbarium, a structure or room designed to contain
cremated remains. Families may elect to bury the urn in a family
plot or cemetery or keep it in another place of personal significance,
such as the home. Subject to some restrictions, cremated remains
can be scattered by air, over the ground or over water. Your Funeral
Director can advise about allowable practices in this community.
Scattering of cremated remains is often accompanied by some form
of memorialization. Most people find consolation knowing there is
a specific place to visit when they wish to remember and feel close
to the person they have lost. Regardless of the disposition option
selected for the cremated remains, families should choose one that
best fits their emotional needs.
Question: What are the implications
of scattering my ashes - Will that save the need for a burial place?
The choice of scattering one's
ashes should be carefully discussed with loved ones before a final
decision is made. While this option has a very romantic theme, the
reality is that it does not leave a place where family and friends
can gather to remember and commemorate. With the contemporary approach
to final arrangements, there is an increasing choice of memorials
such as benches, remembrance trees, statues and sundials that can
accommodate a desire to scatter one's ashes and still provide a
place of remembrance.
Question: What is the purpose of embalming?
Embalming sanitizes and preserves
the body, retards the decomposition process, and enhances the appearance
of a body disfigured by traumatic death or illness. Embalming makes
it possible to lengthen the time between death and the final disposition,
thus allowing family members time to arrange and participate in
the type of service most comforting to them.
Question: Why have a public viewing?
Many grief specialists believe
that viewing helps begin the healing process as the bereaved recognize
the reality of death. Viewing is encouraged for children, as long
as the process is explained and the activity voluntary.
Question: What is a medical power of attorney?
A medical power of attorney is
a document that enables you to appoint someone you trust to make
decisions about your medical care if you cannot make those decisions
yourself. This type of advance directive may also be called a "health
care proxy" or "appointment of a health care agent." The person
you appoint may be called your health care agent, surrogate, attorney-in-fact,
or proxy. In many states, the person you appoint through a medical
power of attorney is authorized to speak for you any time you are
unable to make your own medical decisions, not only at the end of
life.
