Estate planning

Exposed: The high cost of going out with a bang

Jun 07, 2017

The funeral business is booming but did you know you can opt out?

George Harrison did it. So did Princess Margaret, David Bowie and even Albert Einstein – we’re talking about cremation.

Despite old-school beliefs that suggests cremation is a ‘pauper’s funeral’, it’s completely acceptable, and one of the most affordable options when saying good-bye to a loved one.

This is no small consideration at a time when funerals cost Australians $1.1 billion a year, especially when you consider that the billion-dollar funeral industry thrives on fortifying societal expectations about the ‘acceptable’ way to mourn a death.

The cheapest funeral price disclosed online for a direct committal, which doesn’t involve a formal service, was $2,125. If going through a funeral company that requires you to contact them directly before they will offer a quote, you can expect to pay more than $3,300 for a simple committal.

By going online, the average price for a budget funeral was $4,132, compared to $5,646 via direct contact.

There’s a very good reason funeral providers want to have direct contact with the bereaved.

A recent report from the University of Sydney Business school titled It’s your funeral: An investigation of death care and the funeral industry in Australia found the funeral business employed tactics like upselling and emotional manipulation to get mourning relatives to open up their wallets.

Professor Sandra van der Laan, one of the co-authors of the report, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the industry was “shrouded in secrecy” and emotionally manipulative sales techniques were the norm.

“Upselling is … common with funeral directors basically hinting that if you loved the departed, you should consider a more expensive coffin, which might be marked up by 1,000 per cent,” Van der Laan said. “Upselling also goes on in relation to flowers and a range of other things that you don’t actually need.”

Then there’s funeral insurance – the report stated that in the 2014 financial year about $315 million in funeral insurance premiums were paid, covering nearly 750,000 lives. The sum insured was generally between $4,000 and $15,000.

However, every year, around one in six policies are cancelled and those millions spent on premiums goes directly to – you guessed it – the funeral industry that sell the policies.

The report also found that people organising a funeral had two disadvantages: firstly, grief often impaired a person’s usual powers of judgement and ability to make sound decisions, and secondly, funeral directors weren’t always transparent when it came to quoting services.

Another hidden cost most people don’t know about is that a large portion of a funeral’s cost is a funeral director’s fees. Those fees are justified in that the funeral director will sort out the paperwork and organise transportation of a body from the hospital or home to the funeral service and then to a cemetery or crematorium.

However, anyone can transport a body as long as they have the right receptacle, van der Laan told the Sydney Morning Herald.

While funeral providers do sell a necessary service, it seems most of us don’t have all the information to make a rational choice. And while there are comparison websites out there, shopping around can be a time consuming and ultimately frustrating experience.

Read more: Hidden costs of dying exposed.

According to the SMH report, it’s evidently more costly to die in New South Wales or Western Australia than other states.

It also found funerals organised through the InvoCare Group were the most expensive (InvoCare has a 40 per cent market share of the national funeral market, through 33 brands including White Lady Funerals, Simplicity Funerals and Guardian Funerals.)

When David Bowie died, he asked for “direct cremation”, where the body is sent directly from home or the hospital to the crematorium and the ashes are either scattered by the cremator or returned to the family.

Despite his fortune, the singer didn’t want an elaborate funeral service.

But there is an even more affordable way to leave this mortal coil – forgoing a funeral entirely. What the funeral business doesn’t want you to know is that it’s completely feasible to organise a burial or cremation yourself and dispense with the legalities for as little as $1,200.

If the whole idea of cremation or DIY funeral is not your cup of tea, you could donate your body to science.

The university accepting the donation will also cover basic funeral costs but you’ll need to organise this in advance, as family members cannot donate your body on your behalf.