Estate Planning

Tips on Keeping Funeral Costs Reasonable

By Hull and Hull LLP

In a prior blog by Paul Trudelle, a partner at Hull & Hull LLP, he explained the decision of Rooney Estate v. Stewart Estate (2007). In Rooney Estate v. Stewart Estate, the court highlighted some of the roles the Estate Trustee and the estate solicitor and held responsible for including, among other things, arranging for the funeral and disposition of remains.

Arranging for the funeral and disposition of remains can be burdensome, especially if the estate trustee was related to the Deceased. This task becomes even more daunting when they are dealing with the expenses of a funeral in which case, fewer are in the mood to bargain. Regrettably, this leads many spending more then they have to. 

I recently came across an interesting article, How to Cut Funeral Costs, which was published in The Wall Street Journal. Under this article, the author provides us with a few tips on how to keep costs reasonable when arranging a funeral service:

 

1.                  Learn your Rights: Funeral homes are prohibited from charging certain fees, and there may be a requirement that compels funeral homes to provide a written fee list upon request

2.                  Pre-plan: 'Have a conversation with your family about what you want and what's going to be meaningful to them.'

3.                  Consider pre-owned plots: Purchasing a pre-owned plot has always been a common practice; but the purchaser has moved out of the area where his plot is purchased. 

4.                  Compare Funeral Home Prices: it's worthwhile to shop around. Prices vary from one home to another

Thank you for reading,

Rick Bickhram

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on September 03, 2010 (boomark / email).