Making final arrangements
Funeral directors say review all options, shop around
"What you see is what you get," said Jim Lonning, a funeral director at the 14-year-old St. Peters business.
And for good reason. That simplicity has allowed Lonning and his son Bob, who run the business, to offer prices that average 30 percent less than their competitors.Lonning said he opened the funeral home, which specializes in offering affordable services, because he saw a need in the area. When he started in the industry 52 years ago, grave openings cost $45, about 3 percent of people chose cremation and families made arrangements without a thought or a price list. Today, he said, the cost of funerals continues to rise, making options such as cremation, immediate burial, anatomical donation and prepaying for funeral services increase in popularity each year.
"People cannot afford an $8,000, $10,000, $12,000 funeral," Lonning said. "They don't believe in it, or they simply see no value in it."
That trend stretches far beyond St. Charles County. According to a survey conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association, or NFDA, the national median cost for a funeral in 2006 was $7,323 - a 10.15 percent increase from 2004. That price doesn't include costs associated with cemeteries, grave monuments or markers and miscellaneous items such as flowers and obituaries.
Consequently, people are watching their dollars closely for two likely reasons, Arvin Starrett, an NFDA spokesperson and former member of its executive board, said: The country is experiencing tougher economic times, and the public is better educated on funeral options they didn't always know were available.
"Twenty-five years ago the phone rang at a funeral home and you pretty much knew what was going to happen," he said. "But, baby boomers began to age and arrange services for their parents, and baby boomers were always known for doing it their way. Funeral service professions, in turn, developed options families never had before. Families are learning about different means and manners of disposition."
More people choosing cremation
Though cremation often is a matter of personal preference, many see the option as a more affordable and/or convenient alternative to a traditional funeral. Cremation can occur immediately following death or after a service during which the body is present. Relatives also can have a memorial service at any time, which often gives out-of-town family and friends a chance to attend.
Dennis Scherer, manager of Stygar Family of Funeral Services in St. Charles, said the amount of people who choose cremation has grown to about 20 percent; Lonning and Lisa Baue, president and CEO of Baue Funeral Homes, Crematory and Cemetery, estimated 28 percent of their customers chose cremation - 4 percent more than the state average. The NFDA estimates 32.5 percent of Missourians and 38.15 percent of people nationwide will chose cremation by 2010.
Many also choose to scatter a loved one's cremated remains, which also is a more affordable alternative to burying them. In Missouri, individuals and families are free to scatter remains in public places, but must get permission from a private property owner, said Connie Patterson, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources.
Prepaying can save money
Prepaying for a funeral allows an individual to secure a funeral home's services and merchandise at a guaranteed price. That customer can choose to do this by investing his or her money into a certified trust company, which a funeral home regularly invests in, or by purchasing funeral insurance. Trusts limit a family's choices because they face penalties if they chose to take their business to another funeral home. Funeral insurance allows for this flexibility, but the individual who purchases the policy must name a beneficiary other than the funeral home.
Baue and Jim Buchholz, owner of Buchholz Math Hermann Mortuaries in St. Peters, said prepaying is a good investment, as it can save individuals and families a lot of money.
However, Lonning said, customers need to understand that prepaying does not guarantee prices outside the funeral home, such as the price of grave openings, obituaries or service fees required by some churches.
Embalming still a choice
Embalming is not required by a law, a fact many people still are unaware of, Lonning said; both state and federal law require funeral directors to ask permission to embalm.
In the past 15 years, Lonning said, he has seen an increase in closed-casket services, some of which contain bodies that were not embalmed. Requests to not embalm a body often come from relatives, rather than in a will, Scherer said.
However, most funeral homes prohibit a public viewing of a body that isn't embalmed. For that reason, many families choose otherwise in order to have the body present when saying goodbye, Baue said.
Purchasing a casket
Many people do not know it is possible to prepurchase a casket at a discounted price. Funeral homes aren't allowed to charge customers who choose this option.
The average price for a coffin in 2006 was about $2,200, according to the NFDA. Many Internet providers offer caskets at half that price. A Google search of "discounted caskets" returned more than 877,000 results.
Baue said a customer can come into one of her establishments with an ad from an Internet casket provider and the company will match the price.
The option of making one's own casket also is a lower-cost alternative, though none of the funeral homes interviewed for this story have had customers who made this choice.
Most funeral homes offer the option of renting a casket for families who want to have a public viewing for their loved one before cremation. This saves the cost of purchasing a casket just to incinerate it.
More families host
memorial services
The trend of having a family member take over a memorial service is becoming more common.
"You do not have to pay for a funeral director to stand and smile at the church," Lonning said.
Instead of relying on a funeral director, family members can decide on the location of the service, the music played, the photo displays, a video presentation and flower arrangements.
Lonning said this option is very popular, but the majority of people still use funeral directors to arrange other details.
Most noted services have become more convenient and more individualized. The number of days in which the body is laid out have decreased from three days to one, according to all of the funeral directors interviewed for the story.
"We like to give families every ability to do everything they want, unless it's against the law," Baue said.
Anatomical donation
advances medicine
Anatomical donation is one of the newer funeral options that has gained popularity in the past 20 years, Starrett said.
Margaret Cooper, director of the Gift Body Program at St. Louis University School of Medicine, said the school's program receives between 375 and 400 anatomical gifts per year and all are used. Between 10,000 and 12,000 people have signed up to donate, Cooper said.
"When that time comes, all they have to do is call," she said.
Customers interested in this option must fill out applications with the medical school of their choice before they pass away, Lonning said. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will not accept bodies without the proper paperwork, nor will St. Louis University. For both facilities, the family is expected to pay for transportation to the university and the body cannot be embalmed or autopsied.
Cooper said some funeral homes can charge a great deal, so it is good to shop around.
Though there are great benefits to anatomical donation aside from cost, like providing the opportunity to save lives through teaching doctors, there are drawbacks. Some religions have a prohibition on anatomical donation. Neither medical school returns cremated ashes to loved ones after the body is no longer being used.
Sometimes bodies are not cremated for up to two years, Cooper said, and the university can't guarantee the remains would be the ashes of a family's loved one.
Cooper said the medical students host an annual memorial service to honor the individuals who donated their remains, and family members of the deceased are invited.
Neither school accepts bodies with communicable diseases, such as the HIV virus or tuberculosis.
