I think it is a pretty well established fact that if a funeral home can get families to talk about what they want to have done at their eventual death the funeral home has a much better chance to pre-arrange that family into some type of financial arrangements to be used at the time.  That just leads into the fact that if a family pre-arranges and pre-finances future funeral services the funeral home that does the planning with them will eventually profit and build market share.

 

In other words, there is a lot of positives that can happen for death care establishments if they can get families to talk about their future wishes.

I think that is what is really behind the decision of Great Britain’s Co-op Funeralcare to partner with Great Britain’s Channel 4 in offering a short-series of three programs titled “Celebrity Send Off”.  According to this information from Co-op Funeralcare, the company has “. . .partnered with Channel 4 in a bold new series where celebrities have a loved one arrange and carry out a funeral service based on what they think they would want”.

 

The premise of the three-part digital mini-series is that Co-op Funeralcare realized that only “45% of people surveyed said they have discussed their funeral wishes with their family, whilst over half (55%) said they haven’t broached the subject with their loved ones”.

 

In an approximate 12 minute production of each part, one partner goes to the funeral director to arrange the funeral for their other partner without having discussed the thoughts of the (proposed) deceased beforehand.   As the one partner is selecting the funeral/cremation/service selections the other partner is interviewed on what they would want for their final arrangements.

 

The first episode is based on Shaun Ryder and Bez — Channel 4 celebrities.  Here’s a quote from the Co-op Funeralcare release about the first episode, “There are times where they’re shocked at how much they disagree, including burial vs cremation, transport method, and even flowers – all things that would have been easier to agree on if they’d talked openly about their funeral wishes beforehand”.

 

You can read the Co-op Funeralcare press release and watch the first two episodes here.

 

Co-op Funeral Care operates 801 funeral establishments in England, Scotland, and Wales.  Here is the company website.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  I watched the first episode and it really hit me when cremation was chosen as the method of disposition at the funeral home while the one the arrangements were for mentioned that he wanted a traditional, casketed burial.  It truly pointed out that even while living with someone for a length of time it is not uncommon to really know how they feel about certain subjects unless you seriously talk about it.

 

I think for consumers that see that episode it will be disconcerting how easy it will be for their partner to make differing choices than they would have made themselves about their Death Care wishes.  The idea of having a “discussion” about these issues will, in my opinion come up.  Getting them to prearrange may actually be another effort, but there is no doubt that Episode #1 of this series will give consumers impetus to do so.

 

A couple of the things that I would say at all the preneed seminars I did over time also emphasized this fact.  And, I used to tell seminar attendees it is best to go in to the funeral home and talk with the directors and/or preneed planners about your wishes even if you didn’t fund them.  I did that because a simple serious discussion could probably clarify things and make the choices at the time of death much easier.

 

I also told couples that if they did nothing else they should discuss three things with each other and if they did so funeral arrangements would be much easier at the time of death. . . . Those three things were:

 

1. Decide and declare on final disposition — casketed burial or cremation
2. Decide on where permanent memorialization of the body or cremated remains will be
3. Understand how you will pay for the services that you wish to have

 

At the end of the day telling seminar attendees that it could be that simple spurred lots of them to make appointments with me or our preneed counselors to do just that. . . . . and, at that time we could take the arrangements to a higher level or leave them with simply those three things which most often turned #3 into a insurance funded pre-arrangement.

 

By the Way —  If you want to increase your preneed leads or are looking for someone to help increase your preneed leads, look no further than Laker Planning Service, a Funeral Director Daily sponsor.  Laker Planning Service is an expert at seminars that will lead to established preneed leads in your community. . . .just give Patrick Zalusky a message via email at

La****@ao*.com











or call/text him at 507-327-6938 to learn how.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Cemetery represents “Our past and our future”.  The Delaware Gazette (OH)
• Rest in style: “Mourning” China models don elegant funeral fashion on expo catwalk.  South China Morning Post (China)
• The Last Goodbye:  How to plan a funeral.  Consumer Reports
• William Bevan funeral director expelled from NAFD.  Hereford times (Great Britain)

 

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