please plan for the future

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great12b4ever

great12b4ever

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
1,196
Location
Houston, Texas, USA.
My father had made his final arrangements way back in 1993 and prepaid everything or so he thought. It seems that there are many different kinds of prepaid burial plans, and most of them fall way short of what was intended. Please help your family and make sure everything is covered!! It saves a lot of headaches and heartaches for the loved ones who are trying to fulfill your wishes. Some of the items his plan did not include was opening of the plot ($2,150.00), the required sealed concrete vault ($1,188.00), the marker or stone to match my mothers ($1,565.00), Motorcycle escorts for funeral processions ($250.00), and some other miscellaneous charges (obituary in local paper -no picture- $550.00) that came to a total of $950.00). In short there was $6,103.00 (and still counting) that was not covered, and the part that was covered came to $7,745.00. After all of the medical expenses he had, there was only $3,000 +/- in his account, and we still have to go thru the probate court on his will, and pay the last debts he had utilities, credit cards and such.

To the sellers on this site that I have had to cancel my orders to, I am sorry, but I have to take care of all of this first before I can start buying things again.

To the rest, PLEASE LOOK OVER YOUR PLANS AND MAKE SURE IT IS AS YOU WISH !!

Rob
 
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It sounds like the funeral home sold a bill of goods. Literally. At the time he bought the pre-arrangement everything should have been explained. The cost, especially with all those items left out, sounds a bit high. Sadly, I think he, and you, were cheated. BTW, in many locales, the police or sheriff provide escort free. Rob, handling the affairs of a deceased family member is tough, in many ways. I have been through it twice. All the best.
 
Rob, I'm very sorry for your loss. My father passed away 3 years ago and had a life insurance policy. He never had a lot of money and was very private about his financial affairs. When we located the paperwork, it was a policy bought in 1945 and for $1000. It was worth roughly $1300. Maybe local difference but I agree that your expenses sound a bit high. Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
 
Sorry about the loss of your father. I know my mother just went through the same kinds of things you are when her mother died. Not to the tune of the sum, but enough. I will tell you that they were told her by their lawyers to write deceased on the bills and send them right back. Utilities and all. Don't know if that's what they did, but that's what they were told.
 
Sorry to hear about all the issues associated with an already trying time. Sounds like the funeral home that sold him that mislead him.
 
I agree that he was mislead, but I also realize that he was almost 70 at the time, and was going thru radiation treatments for prostate cancer, plus dealing with my very ill mother who died just 2 years later. ALso he was not the best when dealing with such issues, but being independent and stubborn ;) he tried to do what was right. I thank him for that. He paid $3,200 for his plan, which would now be the $7,745. so there was some good savings, just didn't cover everything. Also the required sealed vault was by the cemetery and didn't come into play until it was sold to a new company in 1996.

My purpose was to alert others to some potential pitfalls and have them look over their plans to make sure everything is the way they wanted it.

Frank, in the rural areas I know that is the case, but in the large city of Houston, we have to pay for the escorts.

Dustin, I will be doing that on all of his medical bills, but have to pay the utilities. We moved in with him in the old homestead 4 years ago to take care of him, and will continue to live here since I have inherited the house, so we must pay the utilities. He insisted on keeping them in his name while he was alive, and we bought all of the groceries, furnished the insurances, paid the taxes, did all the cleaning, took care of the house, yard, cars, did all the cooking, and took him everywhere he needed to go. so it was a good trade-off for him.

Rob
 
Rob, my condolences, having buried both my parents I understand.
At least you didn’t live in Memphis TN., a cemetery/funeral home in Memphis defaulted on over 1000 families many with multiple prepaid funeral plans. The director now says he is broke, so far the state has uncovered several million in assets but since he sold the company the new owners some how don't have to honor his plan.
Funeral homes and cemeteries, are the largest rip offs in the country preying on the grief of families
 
I am extremely sorry for your loss and for what you are now having to deal with. Thank you for caring enough to alert others. I help my clients pick out prepaid plans on a regular basis and you are correct you MUST make sure you ask the right questions and find out what exactly you are paying for. Then, you need to make sure you keep in touch with the holder of the plan to make sure nothing has changed and everything remains covered (as in the case of the cemetary charges.)

I admire your gratitude to your father for his thoughtfulness in trying to do what he could to help you when this time came. I lost my mother 14 years ago at the age of 51 - needless to say she hadn't gotten to this point yet. It's hard to take care of everything when you don't even have any idea of your parent's own desires. Take time to talk to your loved ones about these things - even if they can't afford to pre-plan or if there isn't an appropriate way to do so. At least know their feelings on important issues.

Again, I am sorry for your loss but you are doing a lot of good by telling people your story. I thank you and I pray that you will have as much comfort as you need to help you through these trying times.
Linda
 
Rob, sorry for your loss and you will be inour prayers.
In houston, there is the largest company in the world that owns over 3000 funeral homes. They are called SCI. I would bet that you used one of those funeral homes. hey are expensive.
That being said, most funeral homes will not place what they call cash advances on on prepaid burial. Those cash advances are for things that the funeral home has to pay out to someone else. Like the escorts, those are paid to someone else that charges the funeral home for that service. The funeral home cannot "freeze" those costs in a prepaid burial because the funeral home has no control over those costs.
If you bought a plan today and did not die for 40 years, the escort service could charge more in that 40 years. the funeral home would have to eat that cost if they were to freeze it at toays cost.
I used to live in Houston when I went to college. I now live in Glen Rose, Texas and would be more than willing to look over everything for you to make sure you didnt get taken advantage of. There are steps that you can take, if you feel you have been taken advantage of. Please email if you have any questions.
 
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