QUESTIONS TO ASK A FUNERAL DIRECTOR
WHEN DEATH OCCURS
Can I keep my person at home?
Will you support us to wash and dress our person ourselves?
Can you come to my home to make arrangements? Is there a cost for this?
Will we be dealing with the same person the whole time?
Can we run the ceremony ourselves? Do we need to have a celebrant?
Can we supply and arrange our own flowers/catering/memorial books/signing sheets?
Do you have something that will help me keep my person cool at home?
Once you take our person, where will they be kept and who will look after them? Can we meet that person/see that space?
Do we have to have a funeral?
Are you an independent business or owned by a larger company? If so, who?
Can we make the montage, supply the music and/or design the memorial booklet?
Can we have the ceremony at home or in a venue of our choosing? Do you charge extra for ‘offsite’ services?
What does your mortuary care entail?
Will you perform a temporary preservation? What does that entail?
Do we need a coffin? Can we supply our own coffin?
Can you provide an itemised costing? Are your services and payment terms negotiable?
Would you transfer our person from their place of death straight to our home?
Can we decorate your chapel? What time will we have for this and is there a cost to that?
IN THE CASE OF BURIAL
Will you offer a shroud burial?
Can we hand lower the coffin? Do you have lowering straps we can use?
Do you supply a grave marker?
Do you know what a natural burial is? Will you arrange a natural burial for us?
We are keeping our person at home; can we transport our person to the cemetery for the burial?
Is memorialisation required in this cemetery, what are the rules and timeframes?
Can we dig the grave, can we backfill the grave?
Can we use our own pallbearers? Will this reduce the cost of staff needed at graveside?
IN THE CASE OF CREMATION
Will you offer a shroud burial?
What happens to the metal implant/s in my person? Can we have the metal returned?
Can I supply a container for my persons ashes? What do they come in otherwise?
My coffin has metal handles, do you remove them?
We are keeping our person at home; can we drive them to the crematorium when it is time for their cremation?
How long until the ashes are ready for me to collect; how long will you keep them?