statistics<\/a> available from the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost of a funeral in the U.S. in the year 2012 was $7,045. Toss in a vault, as many cemeteries require, and the median cost jumped to $8,343. Today, depending on the burial location and the exact coffin chosen, it is not uncommon for funeral costs to total $10,000 or more.<\/p>\nWhen Nana passed away, she had pre-paid thousands of dollars for her burial costs — as had her husband who predeceased her. But other expenses — like buying urns, paying for name engravings, and renting a hearse — crept up nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Since Nana and Papa (my husband’s grandfather) both opted for cremation, their ashes were placed into separate urns. Actually, for Nana, there were two urns that my husband purchased — one for his mom, Nana’s daughter, and one for his uncle, Nana’s son.<\/p>\n
While the cost of an urn can vary greatly (based on the urn’s material size and shape) nice cremation urns usually run $100 to $250 apiece, and some extra fancy urns can even run into the thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
A word to the wise<\/strong><\/p>\nYou might think that pre-paying funeral expenses, arranging for cremation, and buying a couple urns would make things pretty straightforward. But the funeral home still charged several hundred dollars each time they did any service such as re-opening and closing the niche to place Nana’s ashes next to Papa’s or engraving Nana’s nameplate on her niche.<\/p>\n
<\/span>3. Transportation expenses really add up<\/span><\/h2>\nAll three of my relatives died in one state and were buried, memorialized or laid to rest in a completely different state.<\/p>\n
Nana passed in Pennsylvania and was interred in New Jersey. Uncle Otis passed away in Georgia and was buried in California. And my sister Debby passed away in Texas and was buried in California — in addition to having two separate memorial services in Georgia and New York.<\/p>\n
Nobody likes to think about money matters during the grieving process. But as a money coach, I can’t help but empathize with families that struggle with the basics of burying a loved one, let alone handling all the transportation and logistical expenses that often result after a death.<\/p>\n
All sorts of travel expenses<\/strong><\/p>\nNot only are there several steep transportation charges involved with actually shipping a body from one state to another, there are also considerable air and hotel expenses for traveling family members that attend out-of-town funerals. Further costs follow when relatives need to travel to pack up a deceased person’s belongings or to help get them ready for storage, shipment, sale or donation.<\/p>\n
Consider the costs of inheritance<\/strong><\/p>\nOn top of that, family members left behind shouldn’t forget the potential for hefty shipping expenses of the things they inherit. These costs can run into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
“Certain items pose unique difficulty to transport to the intended beneficiary,” says McManus. “Think about moving a concert grand piano across the country,” he says. “It is important to consider how such costs could deplete inheritances to loved ones.”<\/p>\n
Inheriting other specialty items — like liquor or even gun collections — can be particularly thorny. “Wine collections, for example, will require someone with a liquor license to move any amount greater than five gallons across state lines without incurring a tax,” McManus notes.<\/p>\n
And what if your grandfather was a history buff who left you his collection of Revolutionary and Civil War rifles? “If a beneficiary receiving a gun does not live in the same state as the decedent, it will be necessary to hire a registered dealer to arrange delivery,” McManus says.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Planning is the best protection<\/span><\/h2>\nUltimately, proper financial planning is key, and that includes having a Plan B in case things don’t go according to your original intentions for some reason. His solution: “Make sure the will provides for those costs.”<\/p>\n
“Expect the best, of course,” says McManus. “But you’ll be glad you planned for the worst if you’re ever confronted with it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Have you prepared a will for yourself? What types of expenses are you planning to address? What advice can you add to help others avoid unexpected funeral costs?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a little less than 18 months, I lost three treasured family members. First, my husband’s 94-year-old grandmother, Nana, passed away in late 2013 and was laid to rest just before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
At the end of December 2014, my sister Deborah died suddenly and completely unexpectedly. Debby was a 49-year-old healthy, vibrant person, the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, and the most caring individual I’ve ever known.<\/p>\n
Five weeks after Debby’s death left my entire family reeling, our dear Uncle Otis, who was like a father to me, passed away from cancer at the age of 75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[496],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}