Funeral and burial costs continue to rise - but there are options
I’ve always joked that I wanted my gravestone to read: “Final Sale, No Return.’’ But with funeral prices averaging $7,000 or more, the cost of dying is no laughing matter.
When my parents died several years ago (within weeks of each other), the idea of hunting for the best funeral deals was just too hard. Luckily, my thrifty mom and dad had planned ahead. No pricey services, no expensive caskets or burial plots.
They had requested we hold simple farewell gatherings and have their bodies cremated.
I’ve learned since that we could have saved more.
Across the country, people concerned about the high cost of dying are exploring a range of cost-cutting alternatives. For many, it’s a necessity.
“The economy is directing people to look for less expensive alternatives for everything, including funerals,’’ says Luke DiMaria, owner of Abby Funeral & Cremation Service Inc. in Rocky Hill, Conn.
DiMaria’s business specializes in direct burials and direct cremations. Fees start at $2,995 for a direct burial. Direct cremation costs $995. The cost includes transfer of the body, necessary paperwork, and burial or cremation. No embalming, viewing, or memorial ceremonies, and cemetery charges are included. (All funeral homes offer direct-burial funeral and direct cremation, but few advertise the services.)
Wal-Mart announced recently that it had added caskets ($895 to $2,899) and urns ($150 to $215) to its retail website. The warehouse club Costco has been selling caskets ($924 to $3,000) and urns ($50 to $200) online for about five years. (Federal law requires all funeral homes to accept caskets purchased elsewhere.)
For some people, donating one’s body to science is a preferable choice.
“More and more, we are hearing that people have chosen body donation to spare their family the trauma and expense of a funeral,’’ says Dr. Bruce Koeppen, at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. It’s a simple process: Individuals contact a medical school, sign consent forms, place copies with wills, and arrange for the school to be notified when they die.
“When we get a call, someone is sent to retrieve the body and determine if the body can be used,’’ says Koeppen. (Some illnesses render bodies unusable for research or dissection.) “If so, the body is taken to the school and used for study by medical students. At the end of the academic year, remains are individually cremated and returned. There is no charge to the family.’’
Members of the military and their dependents also can request burial at sea. The committal ceremony is performed from a Navy vessel while the ship is deployed, so family members are not allowed to be present.
See the Funeral Consumers Alliance website (www.funeralconsumersalliance.org) for a range of options.
Korky Vann writes for The Hartford Courant. 
