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How does life insurance pay off or cover most of a funeral?

-I want to become a Lic. Funeral Director & Embalmer I work part-time in a family-owned independent funeral home (i don't like those chains) and by "family-owned" i mean it is independent and is owned by the original owners (not SCI, Dignity Memorial, or Stewart Enterprises, etc.) I have nothing against that, I just personally believe family-run independent funeral business are the best. I'm in high school, then im going to a community college that offers a great mortuary-science program. anyways getting back on topic, going in this field of professional career (or lifestyle has i call it) I want to know how is it people, average people, and families, can afford an average funeral which can range to $8,000-$10,000 these days. A "complete" Traditional service by itself w/o merchandise included yet is about $4,000 (I live in upstate NY and that's how it is mostly around here) lets not forget the casket, lets go with an 18 gauge steel casket priced for $3,500 ....and a burial vault, lets going with a concrete marbleon one for about $2,000 Ok, so so far you are paying the funeral home approx. $9,500.oo total now lets say you buy a single plot and a bronze flat maker for a grave (this goes to the cemetery costs, not funeral home) im guessing a single plot is about $750 and a in-expensive bronze marker is about $300? now the total grand cost is...that is $10,550.oo! -Remember that's typical funeral these days. Now, back to my main question...how is it that someone pays all of these costs off? How does life insurance or any other insurance take care of this. oh by the way, the person didn't prearranged services either. i know how prearrangements work, you pick what you like, the funeral home files it, and you begin to deposit payments (like any other payments) by months to put into a trust and cover the costs of the funeral you are planning for in the future.

Public Comments

1. Life insurance is paid to the named beneficiary to use as they please. Many do use it for funeral costs. Others have savings to pay for the funeral. Still others finance the cost if they are able.
2. Whoever arranges for the funeral, pays the cost. Whoever gets paid by the life insurance, can use that money to cover the funeral, but doesn't have to. Most people buy cars that cost 3-5 times that much, and 70% of people who die here in the USA don't have life insurance in place. It's then up to the family to cough up burial costs, if the deceased doesn't have enough in their estate to cover the costs. But many, many times, the estate has enough to cover the cost.
3. When my parents died, we took a copy of the life insurance policy to the funeral home. The director then called the insurance company and forwarded the death certificate plus the cost of the funeral to the life insurance company. The life insurance issued a check to the funeral home for the costs. The balance of the life insurance was then distributed to the beneficiaries listed on the policy. And yes, most funerals cost an avg of $5,000 to $8,000 plus burial costs that could be an addtl $1,000 to $2,000 more. But when my brother died, both my sister and I paid 1/2 of the costs by our credit cards, since his insurance was not enough to cover for his funeral. Since your goal is to do this for a living and you currently work part time at a funeral home, why don't you sit down with your employer and ask them how the system works, since they would accurately tell you how the system works and how they do it. good luck
4. Life insurance gives money to the beneficiaries and they pay for the funeral.