Kenneth C

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How Bad Is It? (5 minutes to read this section) ©Kenneth C. Lambert, 2003 It Could Happen to You Before you read these stories, let me remind you that there are some wonderful people in the funeral business. They truly love their profession. But the systems they operate under are designed for manipulation and getting you to spend money at a time when your family is most vulnerable. And quite frankly, many family firms with great reputations, can be some of the most ruthless in their sales tactics, gamesmanship, and price gouging. Can you relate to the following people? The lady is in the funeral director's office. She is staring out the window as everyone is talking to her. She just lost her best friend after 52 years of marriage. She is trying to figure out how she is going to live without him, or even if she wants to live. She has a $50,000 life insurance policy. She wants to spend it all on his funeral. It doesn't matter that she will be living on social security alone. In the other room, another salesman is trying to talk her children into purchasing an more expensive casket for Dad. The next gentleman is in the hospital emergency room with his head in his hands and slumped over a chair. His son called him a few hours ago on his way home from college. Shortly thereafter, a drunk driver crossed the center-line. His son died in his arms a few minutes ago in the emergency room. This father spent over $57,000 on his son's funeral. He almost spent $82,000. He called me six months after his son's funeral. Too late for me to help him. A few years ago in Northwest Houston a man called me and said, "Ken, I do not know what we are going to do. We just lost my mother. We've been to three funeral homes. The best price we can get for the funeral is $12,000. Ken, we can only come up with $3000 if we all pool our resources." I listened to his story for a few minutes and then asked him if his family had ever considered cremation. As soon as I mentioned cremation, he started cursing, profusely. He was very emotionally upset and anger seethed in his voice. I thought to myself, Ken, you should not have mentioned the "C" word to this family. I started apologizing and he said, "No, Ken, you've got it all wrong. My family has done cremation before, but we have some family members who simply will not agree. All the funeral homes said, since we did not have 100 percent agreement of all family members, by Texas law, we cannot cremate our mother." I then asked if I could speak over the telephone with the dissenting family members. I then learned cremation was not a big problem for the family members. They just had not understood. This family did a direct cremation with a fabulous ceremony that honored their mother at their own church. Total cost of the cremation and expenses at the church was less than $1,500. The family saved over $10,000 and got what they wanted in the first place. Similar stories like this happen every day in Houston, Texas. I am sure it goes on around the country. Here is another way to put things into perspective: Let ’s imagine, you recently lost your father. After the funeral, your mother received a life insurance policy .

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