Funeral Expenses Broken Down
MOVING on to the afterlife is an expensive proposition for Americans today – figures from the National Funeral Directors Association show the average 2020 funeral costs more than $7,000.
And that is a pretty basic, no-frills affair without many of the items people expect such as flowers, obituaries and headstones.
As well as dealing with the grief and mourning of losing a loved one – especially if the death was unexpected – the nearest and dearest have to find a way to pay for the costs of a funeral.
The first big cost is burial or cremation – and burials are more expensive that cremations. A funeral with burial averages at $7,360 and if your choice of cemetery requires a vault the average rises to $8,755, but a funeral and cremation averages at $6,260.
Costs also vary sharply by region around the US, and averages can be misleading – you may find yourself paying much more depending on your choices.
Services and materials that you need to consider include: casket, $2,400; service fee, $2,100; vault, $1,395; cremation casket, $1,000; embalming, $725; funeral home staff, $500, chapel fee, $425; cremation cost, $350; hearse, $325; transportation, $325; urn, $275, cosmetic work, $250; service materials $160.
And that is the funeral itself – cemetery costs are not cheap, with burial plots ranging from $1,000-$4,000 depending on location and whether it is public or private. Gravestones are a further cost, and as they are bespoke can be anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars for a simple maker to $10,000 or more for statues and monuments.
At the cheapest end is a straightforward cremation without a service – at least any formal service – where the only costs are an urn and the cremation itself.
As you can see, saying farewell to a loved one is an expensive matter – and it has to be paid for. The deceased may have left money in a will for this, but that will take months to sort out the legalities and creditors will want paying much sooner.
The quickest way to meet the bills and not cause an unexpected hole in family finances is if the deceased had life insurance.
This pays out almost immediately if it is set up with clear beneficiaries, avoids legal issues with probate and is tax free.
Life insurance has many other uses too, but one immediate matter it can take care of is final expenses, leaving the family to be able to mourn their loved one without worrying about bills.
Depending on your age and health, a simple small policy may only cost a few dollars a month and provide huge peace of mind to you and your loved one should you pass away unexpectedly.
