Funeral Trusts

[0b1kanobee]

Newby, I am confused. First, why sell a funeral trust in which you have to be aligned with a funeral home? Why would a $10,000 or $15, 000 final expense policy not be better?

Also besides from what Newby has said, without doing some pre-arrangements, the is no guarantee you will be buried with your loved ones or that a certain spot you would like to be placed will be available at a later date.

The main funeral home in my area also does not take assignment of life insurance. So, unless you have the ability to write a check when the time comes while you are waiting for the life insurance check, nothing gets done.

They say that pre-need is for your funeral. You plan for everything else, especially vacations, why wouldn't you plan for this? Life insurance is for the living, not the dead.

 

[Todd King]

Also besides from what Newby has said, without doing some pre-arrangements, the is no guarantee you will be buried with your loved ones or that a certain spot you would like to be placed will be available at a later date.

The main funeral home in my area also does not take assignment of life insurance. So, unless you have the ability to write a check when the time comes while you are waiting for the life insurance check, nothing gets done.

They say that pre-need is for your funeral. You plan for everything else, especially vacations, why wouldn't you plan for this? Life insurance is for the living, not the dead.

So what do they do? Do they just keep the deceased "on ice" until somebody pays them?

 

[RonRoberts]

So what do they do? Do they just keep the deceased "on ice" until somebody pays them?

I often wondered the same thing?? If there is no one to pay for the funeral can a funeral home without the consent of the family donate a body to science? Something has to be done with the body.

Ron

 

[GreenSky]

I often wondered the same thing?? If there is no one to pay for the funeral can a funeral home without the consent of the family donate a body to science? Something has to be done with the body.

Ron

Soylent Green?

Rick

 

[0b1kanobee]

So what do they do? Do they just keep the deceased "on ice" until somebody pays them?

If they desire to rest at that funeral home, yes. After 10 days it costs $75 per day.

In some cases when there isn't the ability to go into a cooler for various reasons, they get turned away. They are big into pre-need sales, kinda like an agent offering someone life insurance and they don't buy the policy. What happens when they die? Should the agent or the carrier give them the life insurance money anyway even though they did not purchase the policy?

When folks haven't pre-planned, usually they have to ask friends, family and strangers for money or from what I understand, some funeral homes take assignment but realize there are many things one must do when a death occurs which is hard on the family. These things can all be completed so the family doesn't have these problems the day this unfortunate time comes.

Most folks prepare or plan for the possible. Why not plan and prepare for the inevitable?
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I often wondered the same thing?? If there is no one to pay for the funeral can a funeral home without the consent of the family donate a body to science? Something has to be done with the body.

Ron

In our area the city or county coroner takes care of it and some funeral homes have a contract that gets bid out from the cities. Nothing special happens. The only time anything special happens is if someone writes a check or has pre-planned.
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Here is an interesting place where apparently if you have an insurance policy, they will provide you with the money for a fee to pay for funeral expenses. I'm sure there are more of these places but I'm just furnishing an example:

Funeral Funding - the Funeral Funding Experts: Insurance Assignment Funding: Funeral Financing: Funeral Debt Colleciton

QUOTE FROM WEBSITE:

"Due to the rising cost of goods and services, more and more funeral homes and cemeteries are requiring payment in full prior to providing funeral services or making the interment. With today's economy, families are relying on life insurance benefits to pay for these services. Unfortunately, it can take several weeks or even months for the insurance underwriter to pay the claim to the beneficiary or the funeral home / cemetery when taking an assignment."

 

[Newby]

So what do they do? Do they just keep the deceased "on ice" until somebody pays them?

In many cases they won't remove them from the hospital. It becomes the hospital's problem. Other times it's the county cororner that stores the body.

The Funeral Funding (advance) companies are VERY popular with funeral homes. They will cash advance the funeral amount against any active life insurance policy that has been in force over 2 years. The one shown on the link is a popular one. ForeThought Life owns another popular one. This feature is built in to ForeThought policies as well all ALL Preneed insurance companies.

Occasionally the funeral home will have already removed a body and a family will not pay for services, will not assign insurance or doesn't have any, doesn't qualify for a county burial (most people don't) and the funeral home will just have to hold the body until the family will either pay for a cremation or find another funeral home that will agree to accept the body (very difficult to find in these situations.) it is a VERY stressful situation for everyone in those cases.
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Believe it or not, funeral directors don't prefer prepaid funerals as their 1st choice. They would prefer that everyone just had the money to PAY when their mom or spouse died. That way they get full price.

The only reason they like prepaid funerals at all is to bring in more marketshare to their funeral home.

They generally give families that prepay a discount PLUS a price guarantee which USUALLY costs them quite a bit of money if the person lives for a long time.

A lot of business advisors in the funeral industry are advising funeral homes to quit offering price guaranteed prepaid funerals because they can destroy their profit margins.

I know of several funeral homes in Tennessee who's grandfather sold thousands of price guaranteed funerals for $500 back in the 1960's to young couples. The grandkids are still servicing those funerals today and those old policies were like single pay FE (meaning they didn't grow).

Most funeral homes today understand that they need around 4 to 5% annual growth to break even on Preneed policies. Unfortunately most Preneed policies only grow at around 3.5% annually. The directors write off the difference as a business loss.

 

[Tx249]

[FONT=&quot]Newby,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Any truth to this statement I found concerning Irrevocable Funeral Trust? The repast the mention is the lunch or dinner after the funeral service.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What are the Advantages of an Irrevocable Funeral Trust:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Peace of Mind - Owners of an Irrevocable Funeral Trust enjoy all of the following benefits [/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Cannot be confiscated by any nursing home or government sponsored care (Medicaid) [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Exempt from Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) "spend down" requirements and Estate Taxes [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Insulated against inflation [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Can be used for additional expenses such as: [/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]a permanent monument in the cemetery[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]travel expenses for family members to attend your funeral[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]outstanding debts or obligations[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]hospital, doctors, legal or attorney's fees[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]a repast once the services are concluded[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]your final expense monies are guaranteed to be there when you need them[/FONT]

 

[Newby]

Newby,
Any truth to this statement I found concerning Irrevocable Funeral Trust? The repast the mention is the lunch or dinner after the funeral service.

What are the Advantages of an Irrevocable Funeral Trust:
Peace of Mind - Owners of an Irrevocable Funeral Trust enjoy all of the following benefits
[*]Cannot be confiscated by any nursing home or government sponsored care (Medicaid)
[*]Exempt from Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) "spend down" requirements and Estate Taxes
[*]Insulated against inflation
[*]Can be used for additional expenses such as:
[*]a permanent monument in the cemetery
[*]travel expenses for family members to attend your funeral
[*]outstanding debts or obligations
[*]hospital, doctors, legal or attorney's fees
[*]a repast once the services are concluded
[*]your final expense monies are guaranteed to be there when you need them

I would be VERY careful putting anything in writing OR verbally misleading the public about funeral trusts if Medicaid is involved. They can legally pay for funeral, cremation and cemetery expenses only.

You can get a family in a lot of trouble if they try to pass it off for travel expenses for family members, outstanding debts, hospital, doctor, lawyer bills, a repast gathering. Also insulated against inflation is a very vague term that could mislead. A trust growing at 2% simple interest is NOT going to keep up with inflation at all.

And yes the government WILL confiscate any money in the trust that is not used for allowed funeral items. The excess MUST run through the estate and can NOT be paid to a beneficiary if they have been on Medicaid. The estate will go to Medicaid.

There is no reason to OVERSELL or over promise what a funeral trust can do. They do enough. They work. People need them.

 

[qpressng]

Who needs this anyway?

 

[Newby]

Who needs this anyway?

Everyone who is on a Medicaid spend down and still has over $2,000 in assets left.