Utah Insurance License Number: 88816         Pre-Need Sales Agent Number: 325672-5802

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This agency only works with local, privately-owned funeral homes. This means you will be dealing with a trusted member of your community, not some distant corporation only worried about a bottom line.

2015 Casket Survey Price Update


Pre-Paid Casket Plans Funeral Homes Don’t Want You to Know About

I do a lot of research and homework, so you don't have to do as much. Many funeral homes have raised casket prices again in 2015. I just surveyed 22 funeral home 2015 casket price lists. The average price of a casket based on these lists I tabulated into a sreadsheet is around $2,800--which is about $1,200 more than your family should ever pay for a casket. The median or "mid-range" is around $3,100. And more than 70% of these caskets were priced above $2,000. And even though most of the lower priced casket models are available in four or five colors or varieties, they only show you one before they move you up to the next price. I have a total of 27 different caskets under $1,600 that I can show you in a variety of colors and including wood.

For example, I offer the following Batesville Spectra casket for $1,295, and the price list I use shows that it is available in five colors.



A vast majority of funeral homes don’t want you to know about the most affordable casket purchasing options. This is because they like to mark up their caskets as high as possible or sell high-priced models, and they continue to raise prices year after year (something they expect you to "get used to"). They don’t want you to consider buying a casket from Costco or Walmart, where you nearly always get a better value and price. If you buy your casket from a source other than their funeral home, your funeral service will be on average $300 more. But you might be saving your family $1,000 or more buying a casket from someone else. And you'll likely save over $3,000 by having both the service and the casket provided by a different funeral home than the one you've been looking at.



Don't buy from a casket price list that looks like this:



Or this:

FACT: You should be able to select from at least 20 different casket models priced less than $1,600. Otherwise, you are looking at over-priced caskets. Look at what I have available, on payment terms you can't get at Costco or Walmart.



I can set up a pre-paid casket plan with prices comparable to Costco. Costco, however, has no layaway plan, so pre-paying with them isn’t really an option—unless you’re willing to store a casket after it is delivered. You must pay for your casket in full, and then it is delivered immediately.

If you make a single payment now, I can freeze your casket cost starting at $995, with the casket only to be delivered at the time of need by Premier Funeral Services. No need to worry about over-charging from what your family is shown at the funeral home showroom. Yours will be pre-paid at the best possible price. If you can only make payments, I have plans that start at about $28 a month. I can do the same with your burial vault and make it a single plan. If you do this, you can still use your favorite funeral home and save $500-1,200 on the total cost. And there is always a discount for paying for your casket with a single payment or early payoff any time during the payment plan—based on your current age and health status.

If you’ve already purchased a funeral plan with a casket included that is fully pre-paid, but you feel you spent too much money on it, you can get that money back. Just purchase a casket from another source. Then, at the time of need, the money you over-paid has to be refunded to your family. This is much easier to do if you change funeral homes than if you stay with that funeral home but just change who your casket supplier will be. The more you feel you overspent for the casket, the easier it will be. For example, if your casket cost in the plan is $2,900, and you've decided on a casket around $1,100, changing sources is more likely to give your family money back than if you are just trying to save $400-$500.

Another way to get your money back if you’ve already bought an expensive funeral plan that includes an expensive casket is to change the beneficiary to a lower priced funeral home. You can see who charges substantially less by surveying funeral homes or looking at the surveys I do periodically. The funeral homes I recommend charge quite a bit less for caskets than, for example, the chain operations. This means if you make one of the funeral service providers I suggest (or that you find are better) the beneficiary of the funds, you’ll get back at least some of the money you overpaid. The newly selected funeral home can only charge you up to their interest in your money, which means the amount they are charging at the time of death. If your plan is fully paid up, it more than likely has a yearly increasing value, i.e., your death benefit is continuing to increase as long as you are alive. See if you can get a guarantee in writing for lower prices in exchange for your current death benefit or face amount on your funeral policy. They may want you to make it "irrevocable" to that funeral home, which is normally undesirable when you purchase a plan in case you move or plan change otherwise; but by the time you decide to do this, you should know for sure that is the funeral provider you want to use. The "face" amount of the policy is the initial amount that the policy will pay at the death of the insured or when the policy matures, although the actual death benefit can provide for greater than the face amount as it grows in cash value--a lot like earning interest on your money. The policy matures when the insured dies or reaches a specified age (such as 100 years old) and stops increasing in value at that time.

I’ve been doing a lot of this for seniors for years. Lower-priced funeral homes are happy to have the business, and the family gets a better deal. Why these people didn't choose a lower-priced funeral home to begin with is not clear, but it may have been due to the perception they must use the funeral home that is located where their burial spaces are, which is never true. A few months ago in 2014, for example, I got one senior couple out of their expensive “buffalo” funeral plan with the chain operation they'd been paying on for just about a year and into a plan with Premier Funeral Services with the identical caskets they chose at $800 less per casket! And we knocked $2,000 each off the cost of funeral services. We sent the buffalo out to pasture. This idea works best if you are only a few years or less into a payment plan. The amount of money you let go in the payments you made can be made up for by the savings you gain in using a lower-cost funeral home. But even if you are 3/4 of the way through paying on a plan, and you decide you want to stop making payments, the plan is going to have a "reduced paid up" value, an amount that stops growing in value but is there and available to use at the time of death. You might have a cash value at this point big enough to fully pay for a funeral with a company such as Premier Funeral Services, Legacy Funerals and Cremations, Aspen Funeral Home, Serenicare, Cannon Mortuary, Holbrook Mortuary, Peel Funeral Home, etc.,--who offer much lower prices on everything. If you don't have completely enough to pay for a plan with one of the lower-priced funeral service providers, you can start a small plan to pay for the difference that will cost you less than if you continue on with your more expensive plan. I can help you sort that out, if you do some of the homework first.

Don’t Get “BUFFALOED” Into a Ten-Year Plan That Costs You DOUBLE

When a funeral home representative meets with you in your kitchen or living room, don’t let the buffalo in with him. Do your homework. You might not even want that sales representative there in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with a 10-year payment plan. I write them all the time. The plans I write all come with insurance during the entire payment period, so if you should pass away prematurely, your family does not owe a balance. But stretching the payments out that long should not cost you TWICE what the funeral costs today. Don’t buy into any plan that does. This goes for plans without any insurance but that cost you interest over time, such as 8%. Either way it’s too much money paid for nothing.

A funeral plan that charges interest over a long period of time, such as five years or more, is not a wise investment. These plans have no insurance, so your family would be facing a balance due if you passed away unexpectedly. I’ve “rescued” some seniors from these plans and put them into better plans with insurance, early payoff option, and a low premium that didn’t cost them double the cost of the funeral--the National Guardian Life Funeral Expense Trust.

I have rate calculators for several funeral funding insurance companies. What you will pay over ten years on these plans is outrageous, unless there is an early payoff option. And the early payoff option should not be limited to just two or three years. You should be able to pay it off early any time without penalty or cost. All early payoffs should cost you less and save you money, period.

My plans, funded through National Guardian Life, will cost you nowhere near double if you take the full ten years to pay. For example, a $3,000 plan at age 65 will cost you $33.99 a month. Multiply this times 120 months, and you get $4,078.80. That’s not even close to double. And I can guarantee most of your costs. To see how this compares to companies such as Security National Life and Forethought, see the illustration on this Web site. Most people will pay double today’s funeral cost for paying over ten years.

Regardless of whether you can make a single payment, pay off early, or need low monthly payments with insurance, I have the best funeral plan for your money in the Salt Lake valley. This is not the only one, simply the best value. I have payments of $25-50 a month for a full traditional funeral, not $75-125 that you pay with the high profile and chain funeral homes.



I have written about 800 funeral, burial and cremation plans over 23 years for numerous providers and funding companies. There are a handful of funeral homes I still fund for. I show them to you in the order of value. I have no vested interest in any particular funeral home, and I am not paid by any funeral home. This makes me completely unbiased and objective.

The Truth About Your Favorite Funeral Home

Your favorite funeral home might have an outstanding reputation and much valuable "goodwill" in your community. Because of this, however, the ownership may feel it is entitled to keep raising its prices year after year just like the chains do. But they also may feel they must make a lot of money on their pre-paid, pre-need funeral plans. If you think your favorite funeral home is worth the higher prices they charge, you don’t have to use their funding insurance company, which may be too expensive for you. Use them if you feel you should for the funeral itself, but consider using an alternative funding company like National Guardian Life--which is the largest of the funeral and final expense funding companies.

Here is a survey of funeral service providers in the Salt Lake area. Services are package offerings without casket:

UPDATED February 13, 2015





NGL is No. 92 of all insurers in the U.S. Read Report.


And if your favorite funeral home's caskets are over-priced, consider buying the casket elsewhere. You still get to use their funeral home with the assurance of high quality service, but you save money at the same time. They can only penalize you by, at most, a few hundred dollars for buying a casket elsewhere. (This means they can only charge you a little bit more for the service if you buy your casket from Costco). This is explained in the Federal Trade Commission's "Funeral Rule."

Here's how the important FTC rule reads:
"Accordingly, you cannot condition the furnishing of any funeral good or service to a consumer on the purchase of any other funeral good or service except for your basic services fee and any items required by law.(20) You also cannot refuse to serve a family because they do not purchase one particular item (e.g., a casket or embalming) or a combination of items or services from you."
The bottom line of what I do is simple. You put your funeral money into the National Guardian Life Funeral Expense Trust, a product of a large insurance company, which I believe is the best investment of its kind. There’s no way you can pay twice today’s funeral cost as you do with some of the smaller funding companies like Security National Life, Great Western, or Forethought Life. Next, you select the funeral home or funeral service provider who has the best prices with a good reputation of high quality, consistent service. Another critical factor is to examine how much and how often a funeral home raises its prices. Premier Funeral Services, for example, has been charging the same price for a full traditional funeral service for six years (since 2009). You'll want to think twice about funding a funeral through an operation whose prices go up year after year for no good reason. In any case, I can help you work out the details of every last cost, so everything is accounted for.

It’s not as important that 100% of your costs be “frozen,” which no funeral home can really do, although I can help you get 60-80% of your costs guaranteed. What’s most important is that you have everything “accounted for,” funded, and at the right price and on the right terms. This is not something every funeral home representative will take the time to do, especially if they are more interested in making money or if suggesting better alternatives is against their company's policies. The “chain” operations are notorious for leaving loose ends or things “hanging,” so they can clobber your family with more bills at the time of need.

There are many pitfalls and too much over-charging that most families are unprepared to overcome. But I can show you exactly how you can do it. We will summarize your most important final wishes onto one sheet of paper so no mistakes are ever made and no money is ever paid. (See example of completed Final Wishes Summary).



Other Web pages on this site

Memorial Estates 2015 Prices vs. Premier Funeral Services
How to Buy or Sell Your Cemetery Property
Traditional Church Funeral Followed by Cremation
How to Construct Your Own Funeral Plan Instead of Being "Sold" One
What to Do if You Own Burial Plots At a Chain Operation
Preparing A Will Yourself for Under $50
Burial Only Plans (No Services)
Which Plans Are REALLY Best for Most Seniors?
Why 85% of My Appointments Buy A Funeral, Burial or Cremation Plan
Why Top Professionals Buy My Plans
Why Premier Funeral Services Doesn't Raise Prices
Is Prepaying for a Funeral a Good Idea?
Meet With Me Once and You're Done
What Most Ten-Year Funeral Plans Cost
$5,000 Will Cover It All
With One Company, It's Always About the Money
The Biggest Problem with "Chain" Funeral Homes
Federal Trade Commission Helps You Get Best Value on Funerals
How to Save Huge on Caskets
Why Your Memorial Burial Is Going to Be Expensive

I don't need your Social Security number. There is a major funeral funding company based in the Salt Lake area that owns many mortuaries and cemeteries that insists on getting your Social Security number when you set up a plan with them. Don't fall for this. That number is only needed for a death certificate, not for a funeral or burial plan. National Guardian Life does NOT require your Social Security number. Turn down any plan that does.

Get professional, personalized service at the right price, on the best terms.

    UtahsFuneralPlanningSite.com serves the funeral and funeral planning market in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Our goal is to help you plan a funeral in as much detail as possible well in advance. This website provides the tools you need to pay for funerals the right way, so affordable funerals don’t end up being a sacrifice but instead a more comfortable reality. We offer or point you to Utah's best funeral prices and lowest cost for funeral plans, which can include caskets and burial vaults, and final expense whole life insurance, especially for seniors with bad health and with low incomes. You will be able to not only outline your final wishes with accuracy, but you will know exactly how to calculate and control the cost of a funeral (church, mortuary chapel, or graveside), the cost of a burial, and, if applicable, cremation options. You will not become the victim of funeral rip-offs, over-priced caskets, or plans that don’t suit your family’s true needs and budget. There will be no confusion in your family at the time of need concerning arrangements. Once you have done things correctly, they will know where the line has been drawn on spending for your final expenses, and no mistakes will be made.