Traditional ground burial used to be a 'Family Thing'. You paid a few dollars for a wooden coffin from the local cabinet or furniture maker, family and friends dug the grave in the the family or community cemetery, someone said a few words, and it was done. Then everyone concentrated on the survivors, those who really needed the attention.Not anymore!
Now it is a major undertaking (no pun intended) with lots of people involved ... and each has his hand out for payment. Still, you must know where the body will ultimately go before you can plan services.
Under the cold heading 'Disposal of the Remains' one finds several options. You can:
This is the one we know and are perhaps most comfortable with due to our exposure to it. It can also be the most expensive. First you'll need a burial plot in a cemetery. Cemeteries fall under two categories; public and private. You can also divide them as 'Not for Profit' (public & religious) and 'For Profit' (all others).
A burial plot can cost from $500 into the thousands. Some will even offer you a plot for free! Beware of these, there's NOTHING FREE in this business so they'll make it up through exorbitant maintenance fees, opening and closing fees, monuments, and/or burial vaults. If the deceased is a veteran, he or she can be buried in a national or state cemetery gratis (IF there's room!), but you're responsible for getting the body there. [See our page on VA benefits]
Get real-time quotes on life and burial insurance, plus the Alzheimer's Research Foundation receives a $2.00 donation for each visitor who fills out the form.
Something to bear in mind when selecting a plot is the extra items you'll need that aren't required with cremation, donation, or even (in most cases) a mausoleum. These include:
If you are like most of us, you view mausoleums as the resting places of the idle rich. Considering the costs now inherent in traditional ground burial -- $2500 or more, beyond funeral services -- a mausoleum space may be a bargain since some start below this figure. They offer indoor visitation that is not as weather dependent as burial and are not as likely to be torn down in years to come to reclaim land for development.
Nationally, between 20 and 30% of all families choose cremation. On the West Coast, this figure is closer to 50% and, in affluent areas such as Marin County California, it's more like 70%. This figure is growing each year. Why?
A lot of reasons, not the least of which is cremation, even with the same services, costs less than half what a traditional burial will run. Also, since we're a more mobile society these days, an urn of cremains (as the ashes are known) can be taken along when you take that better job or relocate to a kinder climate. For romantics, you can have the ashes scattered at-sea, over a favorite place, or retained with the family in an urn.
Eventually, this will be the only option. As in Japan, India, and most heavily-populated countries, we'll reach a point where we can no longer afford to tie-up prime land --100,000+ acres per year in the U.S. -- in cemeteries. Already we've seen thousands of cemeteries uprooted and 'relocated' to make way for lakes, shopping centers, and housing developments. It'll only get worse in the future as our population increases.
Once you have determined where the service will end (cremation, donation, cemetery, mausoleum, etc ...) you will know what funeral products you'll need. Please bear in mind that, no matter what you are told to the contrary, NO STATE REQUIRES THE USE OF A BURIAL VAULT or GRAVE LINER. Many, perhaps most, private cemeteries do, and its purely for the profit of it and ease of mowing the grounds. Like caskets, no claims can legitimately be made for protection against moisture, decay, organisms, etc ... and none of them are effective against roots.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CASKETS
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