Beat the high cost of dying

Depending on where you are going for turkey dinner, you may (or may not) need the following information. Hopefully, not.

Many complain about the high cost of funerals but have little knowledge about what to do about it. Too often deaths occur at inconvenient times or suddenly, and there is no time to do your homework. You just call your local funeral home and go in to make arrangements at the worst possible time, when you not prepared to make intelligent, unemotional decisions about funeral and burial.

My second wife was always after me to wade into the subject, but I kept putting it off, even though I was in the life insurance business and should have been interested in how arrangements would get made and, very importantly, what they would cost. It was just easier to say, "Hey, there is plenty of life insurance. Don't sweat it."

What does a nice funeral cost in McHenry County? I've not gone shopping, but I'll guess $7,000 or $10,000 or $15,000. An article in the AARP Bulletin (October 2009) titled "The High Cost of Dying" estimated $7,323, PLUS cemetery plot, burial, grave marker and other items. And that was with a "cheap" metal casket costing $2,255. Included in the cost was a "non-declinable basic services fee" of $1,595 which, according to the article, might be negotiable but not declinable. Kind of like the "doc" fee when you buy a car?

Earlier this year I wrote about home funerals and green burials. Look them up on the internet.

A Letter to the Editor in the November AARP Bulletin mentioned Willed Body Programs, through which you can donate your body to science. How would you like to save $10,-15,000?

Contact the Anatomical Gifts Association of Illinois at 312/733-5283 or read up on their program at www.agaillinois.org/about.htm Basically, you donate your body to medical science and escape with only the transportation fee to the Chicago intake location. They will even connect you with a transportation service that, for $695, will take your body there from McHenry County. Possibly, a local funeral home would do it for the same amount or less.

You can print a Donor Enrollment Form on the AGAI website.