How to Avoid being Scammed when Planning a Funeral

A lot of funeral homes are violating laws when bereaved families are availing of their services as described here. Because most bereaved families often forget to check laws and know their rights as consumers, some funeral homes are taking advantage of this.

Scams among funeral homes are so prevalent that one out of five funeral homes was confirmed to break laws and take advantage of their clients. Because of this, it is vital that you know your rights and avoid being scammed by funeral homes.

Avoid Getting Scammed by Funeral Homes

Whether you are planning a funeral for a deceased loved one or for your future funeral, it is ideal that you do measures to avoid being scammed. This is particularly true if you are planning a funeral for a loved one who suddenly passed away. Because you will likely be in grief during this time, you might not be able to decide on things as you would under regular circumstances. Thus, it would be ideal if you would have funeral program guidelines to help you know whether you are being scammed or not.

Here are some tips that you can follow to avoid being scammed by funeral homes when planning for a funeral.

• Read Funeral Program Guidelines

Even if you are in a hurry and you are still grieving, it is important that you take time to read funeral guidelines so that you will know the things that should be done and prepared for a funeral.

This will help you avoid getting committed to things that are not really necessary for the funeral service. This will also enable you to know the price range for the services and the supplies needed for the services so that you do not pay for overpriced materials and services.

• Review Your Insurance Policies

If you have a plan or insurance for your loved one’s funeral, you should check it immediately before contacting a funeral home. This way, you can determine if the insurance can cover a lot of things for the funeral. This will also enable you to know if the funeral home is not charging fees that are already covered by the insurance company.

This also goes for planning a funeral for the future. Make sure that you discuss everything with your family so that they will know how much they only have to pay.

Also, make sure that when you avail of plans from funeral homes, you have every detail of the plan and the accommodations listed and checked by a lawyer or someone who is familiar with these things. Having funeral program guidelines will also help to determine if your chosen funeral home is charging you excessively for their services.

• Do Not Go for All-in-One Packages

When getting a service from funeral homes, do not choose all-in-one packages. These packages are often overpriced or include services or things that you do not really need for the funeral. Plan everything on your own and let your wishes be known by the funeral home. As long as you are following proper funeral program guidelines, you have the right to ask for your wishes. If the funeral home refuses to give you such services, it is best to choose a different funeral home.

• Find Resources Online

It is best to find free resources online before opting for the offers of your chosen funeral home. There are a lot of free things that you can get online such as online memorial program cards.

These free online memorial program cards will help you create funeral cards easily. Just by downloading these free cards templates, you can create personalized online memorial program cards that you can save on your computer and print at home.

There are also sample funeral program guidelines that you can download from funeral card shops. You can use these to guide you in the preparation of a funeral.

Because of these resources, you do not have to get every offer your funeral home suggests. Thus, you do not have to pay excessive fees for simple services that should have been cheap; and this includes everything, from flowers, the casket and the rental of the funeral home’s room.

When planning for a funeral it is best to check guidelines and the Internet so that you can avoid being scammed. Getting recourses from the Internet for guidelines, online memorial program cards and everything else, is a great way to make sure that you are safe from scams and overpricing.

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Tips on Finding a Good Funeral Leaflet Template

Funeral leaflets may be small but they are a big and important part of a funeral. Through memorial leaflets, you can inform your family and friends about the passing of a loved one formally. Because of this, you don’t have to send simple emails that may seem informal or insensitive to most people.

The death of a loved one should be announced in a formal and solemn way to show respect for the deceased and also to the ones caring for them. So, funeral leaflets are the best way to inform your relative and friends about the death of a loved one who live in distant locations. These cards are also a way to tell them when and where the funeral service will be held, which is helpful as your relatives and friends can put aside their commitments on that day to be able to attend the service.

FuneralPamphlets.com

Finding a Good Funeral Card

There are a lot of funeral program guidelines that you can find online. And if you want to save money on making these leaflets, you can look for free ones online. There are a lot of free funeral program guidelines on various websites online. But you should also take a look at the paid ones as these have more variety and are already customized. These paid leaflets are not expensive so you can get them even if you don’t have much money for the funeral cards.

• Choose a Leaflet that is Easy to Edit

Because you will likely be very busy with the preparations of the funeral, you will have to look for memorial leaflets that are easy to edit. Templates that are in MS Word format are the easiest to edit and they are also the easiest to resize for printing. Because you do not have to use complicated image editors with MS Word memorial card templates, you can just click on where you want to put the texts and the pictures.

If you are getting free templates, make sure that they are in MS Word format. But if you are going for the paid ones, be sure to ask if the template that you like has an MS Word format version.

• Choose a Template that Has Same-Day Delivery

Some templates are sent via email. So, make sure that the delivery is same-day as these are only files, whether they are already edited or not. For printed ones, if the cards are not really too many, the delivery should be just a few business days after.

• Choose a Leaflet that Offers a Good Space for Photos

When choosing leaflets, check the sample funeral leaflets so that you can count the images that can be put on the template. Make sure that the leaflet can accommodate a picture at the front page of the card and the spaces for the photos inside the card are large enough to be clearly seen.

• Download a Couple of Templates Before Choosing One

Before you choose which funeral program guidelines you are going to use, download a couple of templates with different designs that you like first. This is recommended if you are going to choose free templates. This way, you can compare them to one another before printing them.

But if you opt for paid templates, be sure to screencap the images of the templates so that you can choose which one you like even when you are not online.

• Ask for Suggestions

When choosing funeral program guidelines, you can ask your family and even the owner of the online store where you want to get the funeral leaflets from for suggestions. This is a great way to select the one that will be proper for the theme of the funeral and the personality of your deceased loved one.

Aside from asking which template to use, you can also ask for suggestions on what to include so that the photos, text color and font color will match the theme of the card itself.

When selecting a good memorial leaflet, it is also important to consider your budget. The templates and the printing cost would add up to your expenses for the funeral so it is better to compute the expected expenses first before creating one. But because the paid ones are not really expensive, they are not really a major concern when it comes to budget.


Related reads to consider:

How to Make Template for an Obituary

Things to Avoid Putting On Memorial Cards

Memorial cards are not only notices that inform family, friends and colleagues of the death of a loved one. They are also a way of relating the deceased to the people who didn’t know the departed. Also, these cards can also be used as a token for the people who are close to the late loved one. By having memorial leaflets that surviving loved ones can look at and cherish, they are able to have something that relates them to the departed.

But even though these cards are important parts of a funeral, many people do not know how to write them, what to include and what not to include into them. Because most people do not want to learn such things as they do not want to think of the death of their loved one, they often do not know what to include and what not to include in memorial notice cards when the time comes when they need to write memorial leaflets. This results on some people including unnecessary or awkward phrases on these memorial cards without realizing it.

Writing Memoriam Cards

So, just to be prepared or to have something useful when the time comes that you need to write a memorial notice properly, listed below are some of the things that you should avoid when writing a memorial notice card to avoid embarrassment and awkward phrases.

• Dramatic Phrases

Prayers and poems are better to be included in memorial cards than dramatic phrases that most card recipients won’t be able to relate to or feel awkward about. It is best to keep these simple and include only the information about the deceased. Achievements, remarkable experiences and the likes are also more proper for such cards.

• Embarrassing Experiences

Memorial leaflets are a way of informing family, friends and other loved ones of the passing away of the deceased. These cards are also used to show appreciation of the life or the departed by including prayers and poems. So, do not include any embarrassing stories about the departed, regardless of how you would want to lighten things up and give even a small laughter for the surviving loved ones.

Jokes about the departed and the likes should also never be included in memorial cards. Thus, make sure that the cards are not only solemn but show respect for the departed. Important information and experiences can be added but aside from that, avoid further stories that can embarrass the family of the departed.

• Clichés

Even if you feel like you need to include things that will make everyone feel better, including clichés is not a very good idea as they are often generalized. It would seem that the cards are just generalized and are not made for the deceased so just include messages that are from your heart instead of including clichés. Poems and prayers are also recommended, as what was mentioned above.

Making in Memoriam Leaflets

When making these kinds of cards, it is best to look for samples so that you can’t go wrong. Look for websites that offer paid and free samples so that aside from having a guide, you can also get printable memorial leaflets that you can use as template for your cards.

• Get Printable Cards Online 

There are a lot of downloadable cards that you can find on the Internet, which will make your task much easier and quicker. Because you will likely be stressed and depressed about the circumstance of your loved one’s passing away, you would want to make the preparations for the funeral faster so that you can finally pay respects to your loved one. So, take a short while to find card templates so that you can just edit them and have them printed.

• Have the Cards Edited and Print Them

You can also find websites that offer paid templates that you can edit yourself or you can have the company edit for you. You can also print them yourself or have them printed at local places such as your local Staples store.

Related Reads:
Complete Memorial Service Guide and Walkthrough

A Complete Memorial Service Program Guide

Planning a memorial service is never easy. Aside from the grief that you and your family are going through, you might get overwhelmed with all the things that you have to do for the arrangement of the funeral service. Because of this, it will be really hard for you to do everything for the funeral; even making simple decisions may be too hard. Thus, having a memorial service program guide would be ideal.

Having a guide will help you accomplish the things that you need to do for the memorial service. You will less likely forget anything if you have a guide that will tell you everything that you need to have or do in a proper and orderly manner.

Preparing for a Memorial Service

Here is a guide to help you get through with the memorial service preparations.

·         Prepare Yourself

The first thing that you need to do is to prepare yourself and your attitude. This will help you get through things more easily without being too emotional or distressed.

See the memorial service as a way of celebrating and showing appreciation to the life of your deceased loved one. This way, you wouldn’t feel too heavy about it. It will even motivate you to get things done properly.

·         Choose a Funeral Home

After preparing yourself for all the tasks that you have to take care of, it’s time to contact a funeral home. The staff of a funeral home can guide you in everything that you need to do for the memorial service. So, work with them to make things easier for you.

·         Choose a Minister

If your loved one is a Christian, choose a minister or pastor from their church. But if they are not active in a church, you can choose a minister yourself or ask the funeral home’s staff for a recommendation.

Planning of the Service

After you have taken care of the list above, it is now time to work with your funeral home’s coordinator to prepare everything. You can also follow an online memorial service program guide to help you out so that you can discuss things more easily with the funeral home’s coordinator.

·         Talk with the Minister

After choosing the minister who will officiate the memorial service, talk with them and discuss the details of the service. You can request special songs, messages and offerings of hope during your discussion so that these will be included in the service.

·         Work with the Church’s Funeral Coordinator

You should also talk with your church’s funeral coordinator so that you can set the schedule of the service. The schedule that will be agreed upon should be included in the memorial service program guide that will be given to the attendees of the service.

·         Make Memorial Order of Service Cards

Create memorial order of service cards that will be sent to your loved ones living in distant places so that they will know the schedule of the funeral service. This way, they can get to the church or the funeral home in time and would know what will happen during the service.

These templates are easily editable as they are mostly in MS Word format. Just download what you like and edit them.

Websites such as FuneralPamphlets.com offer a "customization" service where you may choose for them to customize the memorial template for you and have it delivered in as little as 2 hours.  Make sure that you include the important information about the deceased, along with the memorial service program guide and the photos of your departed loved one. You can also include prayers, poems and messages onto it. You may also add any special instructions you may want for the customization service in order to makes the templates completely personalized according to your wishes.

FuneralPamphlets.com

·         Send the Memorial Order of Service Cards

Before or after printing the memorial order of service cards, send them to your distant relatives and friends so that they will know about the passing away of your loved one or be notified of the memorial service date. You can also hand these out during the service so that the mourners can have a token that they can cherish.

·         Prepare a Eulogy, a Guestbook and Special Remembrances

While arranging the details of the funeral with the minister, church’s funeral coordinator and funeral home’s staff, you can discuss the eulogy to them. Make sure that you choose a good speaker or have the minister read the eulogy. Then, ask the funeral home’s staff if they can provide a guestbook where the attendees can sign. Also, ask the church’s funeral coordinator if they can arrange a place for the special remembrances that you want to display during the service.

Related Readings:

How to Organize a Funeral Service
Step by Step Guide on Making Memorial Service Flyers for Free
Tips on Planning a Funeral for the First Time