Why early planning of a funeral can be advisable

Sections 30(1) and 31 of the Burial Act stipulate that relatives are obliged to bury the deceased in good time. This can cost the bereaved several thousand euros.

These costs are part of the funeral expenses

According to information from the online portal Bestattungen.de, funeral costs include all expenses that are directly incurred as a result of the funeral. On the one hand, this includes the direct services of the undertaker, such as the coffin, the urn, the transfer and the hygienic care of the deceased, and on the other hand, the services of other service providers, such as expenses for the floral decorations, the costs for placing the obituary notice and the cemetery fees. In principle, the deceased in Germany may only be buried in areas approved for this purpose.

Exemplary preliminary calculations from Bestattungen.de show that the total costs of a funeral can range between around 3,000 and 9,000 euros. However, the amount can vary depending on the type of funeral, the execution, the respective region and especially the funeral home. That is why the portal advises making a performance and price comparison between several funeral homes in any case.

Costs can be saved at these points

A dignified burial should always be the overarching goal of a burial. However, the financial outlay should also remain manageable. According to the Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter eV, in order to keep costs under control, relatives can, for example, hold the funeral service at home instead of in a restaurant, use a single flower instead of an extensive bouquet of coffins, or remove the bouquet of coffins before lowering the coffin and use them later as grave decorations . In addition, family members should always consider which tasks they can take on themselves and which tasks they can let funeral or service companies carry out.

Individual accounts drive up the final price

Because according to the NDR report, the individual services of the funeral home are also billed individually. The more complex a burial is and the more services are used, the more expensive the burial is overall. It is therefore important to proceed carefully and thoughtfully when selecting the individual services – after all, the relatives can carry out some tasks themselves and do not have to be taken on by the funeral home. According to the report, serous undertakers inform the relatives about compulsory and optional services and mark them accordingly in the offers.

Early planning for a better price and service offer

In order to increase the chances of a satisfactory price and service offer, it may be advisable to deal with this topic while you are still alive. In this way, several offers from different funeral homes can be obtained and then compared with each other. Likewise, under these circumstances, no quick decisions need to be made under time pressure in the course of the death.

Editorial office finanzen.net

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