Hidden costs of dying exposed

Today’s consumer is more cost savvy than ever and using a comparison tool is fast becoming the norm.

If you’re not actively trying to find the best deal, be prepared for ridicule should you deign mention it in public.  

But would you use one to price a funeral?

The first online comparative aggregator for funeral costs, funeralplanner.com, was developed to help families plan and price cost a funeral service.

While it may sound slightly morbid, the fact is, if you get the call in the middle of the night that a loved one has passed, there’s not much you can do if funeral plans are not already in place.

However, funeralplanner.com is a 24-hour service which means things can get underway with little to no fuss as you deal with the brevity of the situation.

“It’s designed to give people a choice,” Funeral Planner spokesperson Fergus Kelly says.

“There’s transparency in cost and pricing – whether it’s for cremation or burial – it gives people a range of providers in their area (and) makes it very clear what a service would cost as well as letting people know what the additional elements could be.”

Kelly explains that the tool was developed to give families an opportunity to find the right services and products to suit individual needs by offering greater choice and more affordable options – whether they have the luxury of time or not.

“At the end of the day, a funeral is an event, and is often a celebration of life,” he says.

“If you’re planning a wedding, you’d have 12 to 18 months to do that but a funeral planner often has as little as three days to pull it together.

“You could have 100 plus people in attendance, there’s catering and music, audio visual, the order of service – there are a lot of other elements that come into it nowadays.

“If you’re planning a funeral for a loved one, you have the requirement to truly show and celebrate the life that person lived.”

Kelly says because the funeral landscape has changed so much over the years, navigating the ins and outs, costs and options, can be confusing.

“The tool is really there to support people, especially if this is the first time they’ve had to plan a funeral for a parent or loved one,” he says.

“Because funerals have become more event based, there are other costs that you may have not considered – music and audio visuals are a big element of it now – telling the story of a person’s life is so enriching for people and that is what’s becoming more of a requirement for funerals.”

Photography director and producer Mikey Hamer recently lost his father to a 10-year battle with illness and used the comparative tool when he got the call at 2am.

“We were all devastated,” he says.

“Even though my father had been ill, you are never prepared for such an enormous loss.

“It was a difficult time and we just didn’t know where to start to plan his funeral.”

Hamer had heard about Funeral Planner through work.

“We were in the hospital and logged on then and there — the whole process was easy and seamless,” he says.

“It automatically filtered all the options available that suited what our father wanted. We had everything on the one page, and the transparency around costs made it a lot easier for us.”

Would you use a comparative tool to help plan a loved ones funeral?