Why You Should Hire Your Own Funeral Officiants

       These days, it is more common to find families that are not involved with a church, or families flying into an unfamiliar town to make funeral arrangements. As a result, they often rely on the funeral director to recommend and help finding a minister for a funeral, vocalist, pianist or organist and even catering in some cases. I can recall one minister, whose credentials I had my doubts about, was earning over $100,000 per year serving as an on-call minister for a funeral home. Likewise, I know my share of musicians in the same situations.

       As the times have changed, however, I have become aware of a problem ultimately affecting families. Corporate funeral homes provide commissions to their funeral directors. It is a way for funeral directors to earn more money, without necessarily waiting on raises from their company. Of course, I am sure you can see the benefit to the corporation, right? You want to earn more money? Well, sell more.

       Commissions are based on the bottom line of the contract and average contract sales volume. They keep tabs on your individual averages per funeral. If you can increase your average sales, you can greatly increase your commissions. Naturally, casket and vault sales make a difference, especially if you are skilled at convincing consumers to purchase an all-inclusive package. However, in between package sales, how can you raise your average?

       One trick often used is with those convenience needs, such as securing a minister, musician, or catering for a family in need. Here's how it works. You need a vocalist, right? The funeral director has the perfect one in mind for you and her charges are $250.00. She has a wonderful pianist who can join in for another $250.00. I can also add a minister. Families love him and typically pay him a stipend of $500. Let me go ahead and arrange catering for you for $1200.00. You make out the check and all the services are taken care of.

       The funeral home pays the musician $150.00. The same goes for the pianist. The minister's funeral home check is $250.00. The payment to the catering company, $750.00, will be added to their quarterly payment system. The service providers are happy for receiving their expected payment, the funeral director raised his or her contract total, which raises the commission.

       When a death occurs, it can seem like a tremendous convenience to allow the funeral director to arrange everything. However, just be sure you are not over-paying for the convenience.

How Well Does Your Funeral Director Know You?

          When a death happens, the first step is to contact your local funeral home or cremation provider. Generally, the funeral home makes preparations to remove the body from the place of death, transport your loved one to the funeral home and set an appointment for an arrangement conference.

          For families, they have a scheduled appointment and maybe even the funeral director's name. The funeral director, in turn, has the basic information about the deceased and the next-of-kin. Sounds pretty simple, right? Question is, how much more will he or she know about you by the time you arrive for the arrangement conference?

          I know of one funeral home, where the manager is a former police officer. And as a licensed peace officer, he is still entitled to certain information that most of us are not privy to. Before he assigns a apecific funeral director, he checks the family name through various databases. This proves to offer an endless supply of information. He can find home addresses, property values, job titles, the type of car you drive and economical data about your particular neighborhood.

          Based on the information that is available, he can then properly assign the right funeral director. Also, he will talk to the funeral director prior to the family's arrival. He will probably offer pointers for the amount of money  the family "should be able to spend." Once you arrive for the conference, the presentation will be specifically tailored to your pocketbook.

          Before you walk through those doors, remember, funeral directors often pay close attention to zip codes. And for those of you who use social media, they have probably already checked your Facebook page as well.

The Embalming Room : No Laughing Matter Part I

          I remember my first job at a funeral home. It was a student position, as I was also attending mortuary college. It was one of the city's older funeral homes and part of a group that was once family-owned. By the time I went to work at the funeral home, it had been purchased by a corporation. However, given the small staff, it still had that "family feel" to it.

          As a student, my job consisted of a number of duties that varied each day. There were always death certificates to type, flowers to set-up in the visitation rooms or deliver to churchs or grave sites, phones to answer, folders to make and bodies to help dress and place in their casket. On the embalming room door, there was a sign left over from the days of family ownership. It read, "Behind these doors rests the most important responsibility we have. Someone has entrusted us with the care of their loved one."

          Many years later, I returned to that funeral home. There was a new owner, as the smaller corporation had been taken over by a much larger one. The much larger one was, by this time, my new employer. Upon entering the back hallways, I noticed that sign. It had survived the transition and caused me to stop for a moment and reflect. It was in that moment of reflection where I realized what a powerful impact the sign had made during my career. It was the constant reminder of taking care of somebody's mother, father, wife, husband, daughter, son, grandmother or other.

          It was the words of that sign that brought a sickening over me the day I visited one embalming center. The corporation I now worked for had developed what they called central care centers. This refers to one building, a centralized embalming facility, containing a very large room designed with tables where all aspects of the embalming process are performed. Most families are not aware of this whenever they make arrangements at certain funeral homes. They are still under the impression that their loved one is actually at the funeral home.

          I had made arrangements with a family for a gentleman who weighed 550 lbs. Because of his size, the manager of the care center suggested that I deliver the clothes to him and his staff would dress the man. The facility is equipped with specialized equipment and lifts to help in these cases. I decided to hand-deliver the clothing and stay during the dressing in case extra help was needed. What I witnessed next was appalling. The care center staff rolled the gentleman into a dressing area and he had been uncovered, meaning he had been stored completely naked on a table. The staff was laughing and making jokes the entire time they were dressing him, including the manager. As a non-manager myself, there was little that I could do except feel badly for the deceased.

          It has been many years since that incident and not a day goes by that I don't remember. It makes me worry about anyone I cherish being taken to a funeral home.

Embalming Shortcuts : Cats On The Coffin

          Throughout my career in the funeral industry, I was always amazed by some of the practices that were so generally accepted, especially in the embalming room. I have always been an advocate for saving money and being thrifty, especially when it comes to business expenses. However, for some funeral home owners, that idea is taken too far sometimes.

          I remember a couple of my first embalming cases, where the deceased had undergone an autopsy. For the uninitiated, a full and complete autopsy includes the medical examiner removing all internal organs for inspection. Once the autopsy is completed, the medical examiner's office places the internal organs (viscera) in a plastic bag, places the bag into the upper cavity of the body and closes the Y-incision with a few far-spaced ligatures.

          Once the body is back at the funeral home, the ligatures are removed, the Y-incision is opened and the viscera bag is removed. The embalmer will treat the internal organs with some type of embalming chemicals. The proper way is to soak the internal organs in a high-index, concentrated cavity solution. Many firms slice the organs into smaller sections to allow for better absorption, while others choose not to. Once the organs have had time to soak, the cavity fluid is drained and one of two methods are used. The viscera is returned to the body cavity, either in the original bag or without. I always preferred not using the bag method, to decrease the chances of fluid leaking. Returning the organs to the body cavity, combined with using a generous amount of embalming powder, provides the best possible results.

          Embalming powder can become expensive, but is well worth the price for proper results. However,  there are a number of funeral home owners, managers and funeral directors who have developed cost-saving methods that are disturbing. One that I found particularly troublesome was the use of cat litter instead of embalming powder. Sure, cat litter is designed to be absorbent, yet it offers nothing in terms of preservation. And, families that choose embalming are paying for embalming -- not cat litter. Once I learned of the litter method, I often imagined walking into a funeral home and finding cats gathered around a casket.

   

A Welcome Message

Source

          Welcome to The Business of Death, a revealing look from beneath the veil of silence. The purpose of this blog is to bring truth to funeral consumers, which is often masked by an industry driven by profits. What makes this site different? The creator is a licensed funeral director & embalmer who, after many years in the profession, became disenchanted with many of the tactics and unethical practices of the industry.