Ads for funeral insurance.
Posted by: mistymae53
4th Jun 2011 03:19am
I wondered if anyone else out there is as irritated by funeral insurance ads as I am. I love "The Bold And The Beautiful", not every-ones taste I know! But it's a free country! Why is it that during the afternoon, before B&B, and in the early evening, on free t.v. we are bomarded with ads for funeral insurance. Wouldn't it be nice if just once in awhile there was something happy on t.v. How sad is it that these companies make you feel so concerned about your health, or getting hit by the proverbial truck, that you need to run out and take out funeral insurance to protect your family against the cost of you passing away. I have had to bury people I love on two occasions, and I have to say, both of the funeral directors concerned were very sympathetic, understanding, and didn't hassle me for money. This is my experience only, maybe some people have had nasty situation occur, but there are young children watching t.v. during these hours, how nice it is for them to have to be concerned about their parents or grandparents passing away, unreal!
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Comments 26
killy
Yes I agree...The ads are quite annoying. Infact they are really cheesy! If I want Funeral Insurance I will ring & get it. I don't need the adverst constently been shown on day time TV with young people talking about how they want to be covered when they die. They cannot find anything else to sell, so now they have gone to this!
Goulah
What I find intensely irritating is the way they play on emotions (I call it emotional blackmail) and imply you are a bad person if you do not pre-pay for your funeral.
geromam
Being on holidays at the moment I thought I'd watch Dr Phil...then really wondered about the demographic audience as every advert was for funeral insurance!! So I switched off and read a book!
will
if you were to listen to all the hype of how cheap they all are you would sign up with all of them. but i agree just to many to often
God
I just record everything I want to watch on TV then fast forward past all the crap ads. We are subjected to too much rubbish over and over again. We should ban the same TV ads, show them once every 24 hours we might get to see something newer for a change. As for the programs their all repeats and their repeated continuously especially JEW shows like Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld and Friends.
Anonymous
I know how everyone feels! Adds do get annoying after a while that's why I have resulted to watching all those loved series online on my laptop! Works much easier no adds to breaks!
ally
Yes I hate these adds too. The Suncorp add said no medicals, but they contact your doctor and then ring you up and ask you embarrassing medical questions over the phone. Is this false advertising.
caity
its only been in the past 6 months or so, before that there were almost no adds for funeral insurance, now every second add is for it, i think its stupid, because if someone wants life insurance that much, they can look into it them selfs, they dont need adds on tv bombarding them with deals and competition
Chazza
What happens if you cover yourself for - say $15000 - at the age of 30, die at 75 and the cost of funerals 40 years on is $45000?
Chazza
Yeah, it would be great as long as it wasn't mine! But 40 years ago a Holden cost $2000! I bought a brand new Fairlane for $5300 in 1973. And 40 years ago a funeral cost around $750... not far from 10% of today's costs.
PGS
$45,000 for a funeral? That wold have to be some party. Food, booze, entertainment. How long is this one going? A week?
That aside, some Asian funerals last a week.
Nefertari
Ads like these really annoy me with their constant repitition. And it is right throughout the day we are inundated by them. Not that I watch tv all day but I have turned it on at different times during the day and those ads seem to crop up all the time. They might be fine at first but the constant bombarding with that type of ad I find totally depressing. We know we all end up dying one day ...that is a fact of life...but we do not need to be constantly reminded of that. It can lead to a rather gloomy and negative outlook on life.
judi1
To say nothing about your bank ringing you about funeral insurance and life insurance, usually around the time you are trying to cook dinner.
Gerry1945
Typical scare tactics again these ads should be banned.
Anonymous
There was a horrible crash on the Kwinana Freeway in Western Australia last Thursday. The guy was literally hit by a truck. I passed moments after it happened when the guy was still laying there dead on the ground metres from us.....It was hard enough to go through that but then I had to go to the shops and they had a "simplicity funerals" stand set up....talk about bad timing.
I also thought it was so inaproppriate when I saw a funeral home sign on the outside net of a "lawn bowls" garden....I know it's only a stereotype that "only old people lawn bowl" But it wasn't a coincidence I bet, as it is a suitable sport for ...well....older people.
Anonymous
I am suspicious that something underhand is happening with funeral insurance. We are deluged with expensive ads that suggest the business of insuring funeral expenses is very profitable.
However, you do not have to be a genius to calculate that premiums paid by many older people will not cover the cover of the funeral + business expenses + TV advertising + a profit for the insurance company. So what is going on?
I guess that a very large number of policies lapse before the death of the policy holder. Or the policies are not paid out on for some other reason (small print problems?)
The business model just does not work, folks. Insuranceline paid out for ~3,000 funerals in 2010; that sort of business does not come close to justifying the heavyweight advertising.
Anyone who is worried about funeral costs should contact the Australian Undertakers Association and investigate the payment plan - they help you save up, and the money remains yours even if you stop paying for a while.
sprinkles
Oh hell, yes! Its awful to be watching a happy show and be brought down by a funeral ad. It brings back awful memories and is very insensitive.
Now wonder so many people get depressed these days.
bubbles
I agree with Liz that funeral insurance is a rip off the money you get back does not even cover the cost of a funeral. If a person want to be put to rest in a hole at the cemetery the funeral plan will not even cover that. I know this after the loss of father-in-law we still had to find $1500.00. We did not have anything fancy.
liz
Funeral Insurance is a ripoff!! Better to prepay your funeral in advance and you get the funeral you want at the price you paid already. Or do as the others suggested and use a high interest savings account and put the same amount of money away regularly, but don't touch it. You could also do this for health/hospital cover. Its cheaper to pay the cost of an operation than to have private hospital cover. This way the money and interest is still yours and you benefit from it.
Harley man
Are you aware that as an alternative to paying Insurance for which most people pay four to six times what is payed out you can go to any funeral service and arrange to pre-pay for your funeral over up to three years and no matter how long you live you will get the level of funeral you have paid for. That is if you pay for top level service now and live for another twenty years you will still get a top level funeral. If the company should go broke this is also covered as the money is held in a government controlled account and the government will allocate another service provider to cover your funeral. If this service was allowed to be advertised it would kill the insurance industry in no time. Remember with the insurance deal if they go broke you loose everything.
DaddyWayne
I took out funeral insurance just over 5 years ago after a serious illness nearly killed me. While I may end up eventually paying more than I would have paid for my funeral if I live long enough; I'm glad I'm not leaving a big bill for any family members or it coming out of my estate; as I would like to pass on a larger lump sum to several people.
People don't like to think about dying but it happens to everyone eventually and it is part of being prepared for it. Part of that is having a will done. I also recently had to sort out a friends estate (who died intestate); he had no family surviving and having no will made it even harder.
The ads for the funeral insurance don't worry me. It is a good concept as a lot of people wouldn't be able to raise the $5,000 - $10,000 needed for a funeral. My father died 2 years ago and his funeral was nearly $8,000 and it wasn't anything elaborate.
Steve49
Funeral insurance is a rip-off. If you're worried about it go to the local funeral parlour and arrange it yourself and pay it off weekly. You don't pay anymore than the cost of the funeral.
Missjackie
Wouldn't it be a better idea to just set up a high interest savings account, and deposit the money gradually yourself. This way, you can stop when you've reached enough for your funeral, and you'll even be earning interest on it! With the funeral plans, you could end up paying $20000 for a $10000 funeral over the course of your life.
I also find it hard to believe that if I died, my family, friends and colleagues wouldn't be able to scrape together $6000. They'd soon get it back from what they inherit from my will. No point spending lots of money on a funeral in my opinion. A gold plated coffin wont bring you back, and no amount of flowers will make your friends and family feel any better, sad but true. But if you're really worried, why not go to the funeral home and make a down payment?
Also - I agree, those ads are ridiculously fear-mongering and manipulative, and seek to take advantage of those who think setting up a personal savings account is too hard.
margw
The only irritattion is that the ad is very boring! It is a good thing to take out funeral insurance, or at least to put buy as much as you can for that sad day, as prices rise drastically within months, eg. asked about funeral plan for a relative in Dec. 2010, and again in April, and the price was $150 dearer! MY husband and I bought our funeral plots when we were in our early 40's, but have enough in our Super/savings etc to cover the rest. I work with aged and disabled people and know the heart-ache and confusion of trying to get their heads around all the funeral arrangements and what they entail, and end up paying, I think uneccesarily for loads of flowers, ads, memorial books etc., and later on say they didn't really want it.
Wen
Insurance companies have got the reputation of weedling out of payouts with pointing out the fine print and they can confuse with all the jargon. If it is financially possible prepaying funerals can be ideal. At least you have the say in what you want.
PGS
The concept is good - if they actually pay up when they should. Insurance companies in general have a bad reputation for happily taking the money, then looking for any pathetic excuse possible to not pay.
Currently, an average funeral seems to hover between 5,000 & 15,000. Big difference, yes, but the cost will vary on the type of box you are talked into getting, how many people, the day...
I won't mention which company I'm using for this example, as I'm not advertising for any of them. so...
The policies can be taken out from the age of 17 for about $3/week, essentially $156/year. On the minimum of $3/week, your cover is $5200.
So far so good.
At age 50, you've paid more in than you will get. To get your money's worth you have to die young.
To get the full $15,000 (top amount) you're paying $8.50/week or $442/year. Again, you need to die before age 50 to get your money back.
They are making interest on it - why shouldn't you?
Use one of the high interest online accounts & benefit yourself.
Unless you plan to die young.
Me, I'll live forever.