Barbadians are taking the financial preparations for their death more seriously.
This revelation has been made by president of the Barbados Association of Funeral Directors, Ian Griffith, who told the Nation team that coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic an increasing number of Barbadians have been going to funeral homes to pre-arrange and make down payments for their final send-off.
Griffith said the growing number of Barbadians pre-arranging their own funerals may be closely linked to higher funeral costs now compared to the past.
“Persons are looking at tailoring their funeral expenses to meet their budgets and that is one of the things that we try to guide people on. As more and more persons start to plan their own funerals, they start requesting quotations while they are alive to see what they would be looking at in case anything happens to them, or anything happen to the grandmother or their parents, they want to know what the funeral cost would look like. So more people have started to do pre-arrangements,” Griffith said.
As inflation rises, and other expenses increase throughout the supply chain, funeral expenses on the island have also been rising accordingly.
The Nation team spoke with Griffith, and managing director of Lyndhurst Funeral Home, Russell Griffith, about some of the factors that have been contributing to why funeral expenses have gone up.
Making it clear that funeral directors were not deliberately charging significant sums for funerals, Griffith also indicated that like other industries, funeral homes were also facing increasing operational costs.
“We have caskets coming from overseas. We have equipment and we have fluids that we use to embalm the bodies coming from overseas, and all those things went up in costs because of challenges in the shipping industry. The freight prices went up. In Barbados, lumber to build caskets went up, so that cost is going to come right back down to the consumer,” Griffith said.
“Like the supermarkets and any other place we can’t control the prices. The cost of building a house went up, the cost of doing some other business went up, cost of fuel has gone up, cost of transportation has gone up. Persons have to adjust how they conduct themselves in terms of daily activities and people have done the same thing when it comes to funerals, hence, more and more persons are pre-planning funerals,” Griffith continued.
Meanwhile, Russell said when looking at the cost of burying a loved one, people must consider the funeral home’s services and equipment that are charged for in addition to the entities that the home would do business with on their clients’ behalf.
Newspaper and radio stations, florists, casket builders, churches, crematorium, cemeteries, and live streamers, were just a few of the external entities that make a funeral possible.
“Someone would come to me and want 300 hymn sheets, the biggest advertisement in the paper and live streaming of the entire funeral. Another person would want the simple advertisement, maybe 100 hymn sheets, and tell me that livestreaming is not necessary.
“As for the funeral home side of things, one of the biggest costs is the casket, so when the casket builders increase their cost or the imported casket cost goes up, our cost has to reflect that as well,” Russell explained.
“So overall, the funeral industry cost for the funeral home itself has marginally increased, but because of those entities outside of us that we are going to pay on our clients’ behalf have also increased, it looks as though the funeral industry charges are going up faster than it really is.
“We do try our best to absorb these costs as much as possible and we did especially during COVID-19. There was a time when people were home from work, some people were being paid, some weren’t and it was a very difficult time. And to help with that situation we here at Lyndhurst and a few other funeral homes did not raise our costs for as long as possible. We did feel the pinch, but it worked out overall.”
Russell explained that a standard funeral service with burial or cremation can range from between $13 000 and $17 000.
While graveside services increased during COVID-19 due to protocols and restrictions, Griffith pointed out that many families have been choosing this option, since it has proven to be more affordable.
Griffith said as was the case in the past, Barbadians no longer see graveside services as just a pauper’s funeral.
“Why spend $15 000 to $20 000 when you can have a simple service at a gravesite? Years ago we had a stigma where a pauper’s funeral was going to Westbury Cemetery and get a service at a graveside. That is not a stigma anymore.
“It has become a norm and people now accept the fact that if a person has a graveside funeral that it is cheaper and it is what the family wants. And this is one of the other changes from a financial perspective that came out of COVID-19 as it relates to funerals,” Griffith said. (AH)
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