Fex Contracting or the Insurance Squad

[rousemark]

Some of it can be regional too. Somethings that are the norm in one area are not normal in another area.

Rouse mentioned his area doing a lot of evening funerals these days. The first time I ever worked with funeral homes over in eastern Tennessee I was shocked that they did that. There are no evening funerals in my area. Not ever.

Another thing that was different was that in eastern Tennessee families did not bring food in to the funeral home during visitations. They will meet for a meal after the funeral but not at the funeral home during the visitation. In my area when you go to a funeral it's almost like going to Thanksgiving dinner. During the visitation they will be buckets of chicken, meat trays, pies and cakes, etc. The funeral home has to have an employee there to receive food just like receiving flowers.

It's my understanding that eastern Tennessee does not do that. At least 10 or 12 years ago when I was over there they didn't.

No, but when I officiated a couple of funerals in North Georgia there was food at the funeral home..

 

[VolAgent]

Very common in my area that there is a funeral at the Church or Funeral Home followed by a graveside service as well. Followed by a reception at some other place. Makes for a long day. Not counting the viewing of and or Rosery.

Initially I understood you guys as saying there was food at the service. I am envisioning aunt Mary surrounded by paper plates of KFC and red cups.

Here is very similar, minus the rosary (at least for us non-Catholics).

Typically a service at a church or funeral home, followed by a graveside service, and then a reception somewhere. Easily several hours, and that doesn't include any travel if you don't live in the area.

 

[PA Bill]

My mother-in-law died recently and my wife said they didn't ask for policy assignment. Just obviously signed an order with a promise to pay when the life insurance proceeds came through.
There was no prior business relationship or anything like that. Just total strangers who did a nice, reasonably priced burial with no money down. Anyone heard of this?

p.s.- Our "needs analysis" or presentations should touch on how the cemetery will charge owners of burial plots an open/close fee for the grave. In our case, it was two grand!

 

[LostDollar]

Question -

How many FE agents leave those?

how many FE clients have updated those?

How many even have a blank one in their Life insurance file?

How many have a Life insurance file?

*

I like question 4.

The only reason I have one is because one of my life insurance agents gave me one.

(This was "normal" life insurance so he probably had a higher profit margin to support "giveaways" than the FE agents do.)

 

[rousemark]

Here is very similar, minus the rosary (at least for us non-Catholics).

Typically a service at a church or funeral home, followed by a graveside service, and then a reception somewhere. Easily several hours, and that doesn't include any travel if you don't live in the area.

These days, in my area the service is very seldom performed at a church. It is almost always at the funeral home.. When the deceased belonged to a church, The family dinner is normally provided buy the church members either at the church fellowship hall or at a family member's home following the internment.

 

[rousemark]

My mother-in-law died recently and my wife said they didn't ask for policy assignment. Just obviously signed an order with a promise to pay when the life insurance proceeds came through.
There was no prior business relationship or anything like that. Just total strangers who did a nice, reasonably priced burial with no money down. Anyone heard of this?

p.s.- Our "needs analysis" or presentations should touch on how the cemetery will charge owners of burial plots an open/close fee for the grave. In our case, it was two grand!

It is getting close to $1K here and those folks want to be paid upfront before the backhoe rolls off the trailer..

 

[VolAgent]

These days, in my area the service is very seldom performed at a church. It is almost always at the funeral home.. When the deceased belonged to a church, The family dinner is normally provided buy the church members either at the church fellowship hall or at a family member's home following the internment.

Yeah, now that I think about it, only my mother's and grandmother's were at the church, and that was my doing. They both had spent a lot of time at the church, so I thought it was fitting.

For my relatives, it was at the funeral home, with the reception at the church.

That said, I do see a lot of funerals processions leaving from churches, so I guess it just depends on the family and how connected they and the deceased were to the church.

 

[VolAgent]

It is getting close to $1K here and those folks want to be paid upfront before the backhoe rolls off the trailer..

In the two I handled, it was made extremely clear to me that all payment would be in advance. The funeral home even had a placard in the conference room to that effect.

 

[Newby]

My mother-in-law died recently and my wife said they didn't ask for policy assignment. Just obviously signed an order with a promise to pay when the life insurance proceeds came through.
There was no prior business relationship or anything like that. Just total strangers who did a nice, reasonably priced burial with no money down. Anyone heard of this?

p.s.- Our "needs analysis" or presentations should touch on how the cemetery will charge owners of burial plots an open/close fee for the grave. In our case, it was two grand!

Must have buried at an SCI Cemetery. That's very high for open/close fee. But cemteries do that stuff now in case you buy your headstone from Greg. They jack any labor fees way up now and reduce merchandise way down. That way their profit margins are covered regardless of where you get your merchandise. They make their margin on the monument installation fee regardless of where you buy the monument too.

Back 15 years ago service fees at funeral homes were $1000 or less and caskets had huge markup. Today it's usual to see service fees of $4,000 and higher but caskets, vaults, etc are way cheaper than they used to be. That's just the way the funeral industry had to adopt to the internet like most industries.

All funeral homes used to do the funeral and trust the family to pay them later too. Now the few left that will do that get adverse selected by families that know they aren't going to pay. All the competitors turn them away. And then the one funeral home owner that is trying to be a good guy will attract way more than his normal share of non-payers.

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[PA Bill]

Must have buried at an SCI Cemetery. That's very high for open/close fee. But cemteries do that stuff now in case you buy your headstone from Greg. They jack any labor fees way up now and reduce merchandise way down. That way their profit margins are covered regardless of where you get your merchandise. They make their margin on the monument installation fee regardless of where you buy the monument too.

Back 15 years ago service fees at funeral homes were $1000 or less and caskets had huge markup. Today it's usual to see service fees of $4,000 and higher but caskets, vaults, etc are way cheaper than they used to be. That's just the way the funeral industry had to adopt to the internet like most industries.

All funeral homes used to do the funeral and trust the family to pay them later too. Now the few left that will do that get adverse selected by families that know they aren't going to pay. All the competitors turn them away. And then the one funeral home owner that is trying to be a good guy will attract way more than his normal share of non-payers.

No good deed goes unpunished.

There you made me go and look it up. Not SCI, but Stonemor Partners who bought the cemetery. Wall Street strikes again! But what can a family do when they got you by the short ones and under the gun?