Obligation to pay for stepdad's funeral?

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There is no need to have an expensive funeral. See about buying a wooden coffin from a religious order.
 
TheLittleLady said:
The laws in the US required transparency in funeral home pricing.
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Yes, but if there’s one thing funeral directors know, it’s that many people don’t know about those laws.

I’d go with a smaller, local funeral home, rather than one owned by a big conglomerate.
 
Convert3 said:
Costco has inexpensive caskets.
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Unfortunately, the issue is not how affordable the casket is going to be. It is really the FIXED costs that are funeral homes are going to charge. No matter where one has a funeral, the out of pocket costs for a one day traditional service is about $4,500 - $5,000, which includes the cheapest casket of about $800-$1,000. There is no way around these costs that I can envision or even be negotiated because some person or family is poor. The same is true for the cemetery costs (i.e. open & close, vault liners, plot) involved. The Catholic cemetery charge the same FIXED costs that also go up approximately 5%-10% each year. Even when I said I would pay $11,400 upfront for a double burial with everything included, they discounted the price about $100. The refrain from the cemetery is that you can pay off the expense over four years at 0% interest. In other words, there are no price breaks as they know people die and need to be buried somewhere.
 
Just wanted to give everyone an update. On Tuesday, I assisted my mom and stepdad with obtaining life insurance policies within their budgets for final expenses (i.e. burial, funeral). My mom’s simplified policy is for $13,000 and my stepdad’s simplified policy is for $11,000, which were within their respective budgets. The policies go into effect on 9/5/19 and the premiums are the same each month. I am relieved that they were willing participants on a difficult subject matter and that I will avoid incurring $20,000 plus in funeral costs between the both of them. Thank you for everyone who participated in this thread. I appreciate it.
 
In most states in the US one can have a simple cremation for less than $1,000. Mass is no charge. Cremains may be interred at little or no charge. We do not have to spend thousands, even if we are not poor.
 
Our location is a little more expensive.

For Mom, we paid about $3,000. But that included transportation of the remains from our house to the funeral home.

We did not have, and therefore did not pay for, a casket of any sort, or any type of viewing.

Thankfully, Dad was retired military, so we did not have to pay for a headstone or the plot. Dad died shortly after Mom, so they were buried at the same time. That way we didn’t have to pay for opening or closing of the plot.
 
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