The Generations Legal Group Podcast
“Aging” or “Growing Old” has to be better than dying young, right?? Join Certified Elder Law Attorney, Todd Whatley, Founder of Generations Legal Group as he dives deep into the complexities, sensitive topics, and how-to’s of becoming an “aging individual” or caregiver of an aging loved one. This podcast covers senior-related caregiving issues, legal/financial issues, when to stop driving, late in life marriages, grief, death, and other end of life concerns. If you struggle with what to do next, how to cope, or simply the basics on what lies ahead as you or your loved one ages, this podcast provides solutions to your questions.
The Generations Legal Group Podcast
Adapting Memorial Traditions for Modern Times
Discover the fascinating transformations occurring in the funeral industry with our special guest, Christie Page from Dignity Memorial, North America's largest funeral provider. Uncover why more families are choosing cremation over traditional burials and how the mobility of modern life is reshaping final arrangements. Christie shares how Dignity Memorial's national plan transferability offers unprecedented flexibility and financial assurance for families, ensuring that your plans can follow you across 2,000 locations. This episode provides a rare glimpse into the innovative solutions being crafted to meet the evolving needs of families today.
We also explore groundbreaking alternatives like green burials and water cremation, even though they’re not yet available in Arkansas. Understand the importance of planning ahead and how pre-arranged plans can significantly reduce the emotional and financial stress on loved ones. From direct cremations at $2,800 to elaborate funerals averaging $10,000, we break down the costs and explore the personalized planning guides offered by Dignity Memorial to perfectly align every detail with your wishes. Whether you're contemplating your own arrangements or simply seeking to understand the shifting customs in memorial practices, this episode is packed with insights that promise to enlighten and inform.
Christie's number: 479-957-0102
Information to help you answer all of your questions about aging.
Welcome to Answers on Aging, the podcast dedicated to helping you navigate the complexities of growing older. Your host is Todd Whatley, a certified elder law attorney with a passion for empowering the aging community and their families, From finances and legal matters to health, long-term care and beyond. We've got you covered, Because every question you have we aim to answer. Dive into today's episode and let's uncover the truth about aging together.
Speaker 2:That's right. This is the Generations Legal Group podcast and my name is Todd Wiley and, as always, I am super glad that y'all are joining us and I know it's been a little while. I apologize for not getting something out there recently, but it's just been super busy and that's good. But it's not good for the podcast sometimes. So today I am not talking all by myself. I have a guest today and I'm super excited to have Christy Page here and, Christy, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me All right.
Speaker 2:So tell us who you're here representing.
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you. So Dignity Memorial is the largest funeral provider in North America. We have over 2,000 locations and we have two here in Northwest Arkansas. We have Callison Lowe Funeral Home in Bentonville and Rollins Funeral Home in Rogers. So we've been part of the community for many decades. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So I've known about Dignity for quite some time. Okay, so I am coming into this fairly prepared and it's from everything that I've seen, everyone I've talked to it seems to be a very well run and just a really cool organization doing what y'all do. So give me just a few things. Number one just about the funeral industry. Now I personally have seen you know I've been doing this for 25 years. Back 25 years ago almost everybody got full-on funerals, big fancy funerals, and I was just talking with my wife the other day. I said when's the last time you've seen a funeral session going down the road with the police and blocking red lights and everybody pulls over? I don't even think the kids nowadays understand that you're really supposed to pull over, because it's been. I can't remember the last session I've seen. So things have changed a lot. Tell us about that.
Speaker 3:Yes, they have. Well, I have been in this profession for about five years and I've even seen a change as to how I grew up, as you did, seeing processionals and so from the traditional full-body burial, full-body burial, the way that we always my whole family had done that there are so many more cremations now and I think part of that is we're such a is it a transient Is that the right word Bunch now. But it is just. A lot of families have told me that they don't know where they'll be whenever they pass, and so to have a cremation made more sense to them rather than having plots in the cemetery and that type thing.
Speaker 3:One really amazing thing about Dignity Memorial is our national plan transferability and what that means with the over 2,000 locations. What that means is when you have a plan with us, if you were to move let's say you move to Texas this plan would go with you and you wouldn't have to start over once you got there. So it's such a benefit for the family to be able to just take that with them to the nearest sister location and they would also honor our prices. So we, since 1984, good funeral homes have used insurance to set the funds over to the side so that if we burn down, your money's not in the paint and the carpet, and so being able to have that policy also means that it freezes the cost of the services so that, no matter how many years down the road that it's our time, our families don't pay any more than what you froze today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people always ask me well, if I go to this funeral home and I do a plan with them, what if they go out of business? I'm like you don't have to worry about that. There's mechanisms out there to make sure that money will transfer. So, yeah, an insurance policy in particular, since you already have 2,000 different facilities out there. That's super cool. Facilities out there, that's super cool.
Speaker 3:So you're seeing a huge trend toward not full-body burials but to cremations. Yes, and I don't know the exact percentage right now, but when I first checked it, I'd say a few years ago, we talking with our manager and he said that he had seen such a difference in the percentages. I don't know if it's 60-40. I don't know if that might be a good number, but definitely so many more people are cremating.
Speaker 2:My mother. God bless her soul. She looked at me and she said mine's paid for and if you cremate me I will come back. And she was absolutely scared to death that I was going to cremate her. I was mother, you've paid for it. It's good, I'm going to do exactly what you want. So. But I'm seeing a lot of people I think my wife's parents have switched from full body to cremation and that's what I want to do. I don't. I don't think my kids are going to drive to the graveyard and put flowers on my grave and I don't know that I really want them to do that. But back in the day, you know, there was like decoration day. That was a big day that everybody goes out and they just I've got a friend my age who still does that and she said oh yeah, that's a big thing in our family. I said, well, you're the only family I know who does that.
Speaker 2:Wow, and it's just you don't see that much anymore. So I do know Dignity does a really cool thing. To my knowledge, you're the only company that does this. That, to my knowledge, you're the only company that does this. So talk about how y'all work with your clients, plus their children or grandchildren.
Speaker 3:Yes. So the prearranging side is what I take care of and I'm so honored to do that with families and I've had so many families that probably were a little not timid but not really looking forward to coming in. They'll want to plan. They are planners. They don't want to leave this for their families and that's the part that I take care of and just find such a great joy in doing that. And mostly whenever they leave and they tell me, well, that just wasn't near as bad as I was thinking it was going to be, we actually laughed and had a good time.
Speaker 3:But getting that off of the plate, as far as we plan for every other thing we plan for weddings and vacations and retirement and this is just one more thing it's inevitable and it's just such a smart thing to be able to do that for the family. In fact, I'm the recipient of that very compassionate gift. My in-laws did this for us. We didn't have to decide if we thought they wanted to be traditionally buried or cremated, it just was done on our behalf and it really is the most compassionate thing gift for the family. So we do that with whomever is wanting to prearrange. We get that all taken care of whether it's traditional burial, whether it is cremation. And then, if you purchase a package from us, there's also something called the child and grandchild coverage that comes with that. God forbid that we ever lose one of our children or grandchildren under the age of 21 and unmarried. The same amount that one had taken out in a package for themselves would go towards that child's funeral, at no charge to the family and no change to one's own plan.
Speaker 2:So you don't give up your plan for them. You still have your plan Plus y'all do that for the child or grandchild. Yes sir, that's incredible.
Speaker 3:It is an incredible thing of which we hope never to have to utilize and for that never to touch our families. But we know that it does and it's just something that's in place for a devastating time, Just something that we could offer to take just a little bit off of the family at that point.
Speaker 2:Man. That's peace of mind right there, just to know that it's not going to be a burden to a younger family who has gone through that they're dealing with enough anyway, exactly. So how does someone do this? Okay, well, I guess you're kind of like me. I say that everyone needs a power of attorney. Okay, it's just, if you're over 18, you need a power of attorney. Well, we're not getting out of this alive and so we're all going to die. So I guess your answer is everyone should do this. How do they start this process? What are some things that you would tell people to help motivate them to start thinking about this and then come see you?
Speaker 3:Yes. So we have something called the personal planning guide that I present to our families whenever I meet with them. It's a comprehensive organizer that you're able to document all of your wishes. You can put all of your information for the death certificates, just all of the things that you know. All of this on a good day, but on a sad day they just evaporate all of those details. And so to have that documented for the family our families have told us it's invaluable to have this in place.
Speaker 3:So that would be the first step to come see me and let me get that into your hands. And then you want to decide whether you're going to be traditionally buried, full-body burial, or you're going to want to have cremation. So those are the ways, that those are the couple of first steps in prearranging and I have we talked about this just a little bit earlier. But the age of folks that I help some folks are just planners. Some folks think, well, I'm getting to the age that I guess I better do this. So my youngest person that I've ever written a policy for was 39 years old, and that is far younger than the average folk that I see many days the average folk that I see many days. But I asked this fellow what made you want to prearrange and he said you know, my father passed away just recently and I don't want to leave this for my family. I don't want anyone else to have to take care of this because it's my responsibility, and so I thought that was very adult and responsible of him. So I thought that was very adult and responsible of him.
Speaker 3:But a lot of families when they start kind of thinking about retiring, some in their 50s and 60s that's really a good range of folks that I take care of on up into the 70s and 80s and 90s so it just costs never are going down, of course, on much of anything. So it really behooves one to get this frozen, get this cost frozen, because some studies have shown that every nine or ten years funerals and cremations will double in cost Like anything else. It just all goes up from there, but you're able to either pay it all at once or you can put it on time pay so we can set up a schedule of making payments. So we make it extremely easy on the family. So I'm thrilled to be able to be here with you today and kind of talk about all of this and all of the benefits of prearranging Okay.
Speaker 2:I did not bring this up before the show, so if you don't want to talk about this, we can cut it like it never occurred. Do you want to talk about some of the alternatives? You know there are a lot of different ways. Not cremation and not full body like in a casket burial. Do y'all do some of the composting and things like that?
Speaker 3:You know that's very it's a very interesting question. Arkansas is not at the cutting edge, I guess, of that, of these options, but I've had families who have come in and said I just want to, I want a green burial, and that's not something that we're able to do yet, but in the future I presume it is. There is also a water cremation where the decomposing Decomposition Thank you Decomposition.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Decomposition would happen as an alternative water to fire. So that's very interesting, although we don't get into much of that here because it's not available in Arkansas yet. Okay. So, when you say you can't do it by law. Y'all can't do that in Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, yes, I believe, I believe that is the case. Okay, interesting. So no one's ever brought that up to me, but for some reason this interests me and I'm just saying you know there are composition bins, you know like they're in a building somewhere and they rotate it and they say like in nine months it's, you know, you're.
Speaker 2:Lord, okay, whatever, it's very fascinating so as an attorney, I do documents and I do things and I quote, process people. You know they have to pay me directly for what I do. Same thing with y'all and I know people are very price conscious, and so do you want to talk about some of the general? I know different options and different things will definitely affect price, but I'm sure our listeners are out there thinking, ok, how much is this going to cost? Sure People, I think, need to have some idea walking into your office how much they need to think about spending Certainly. So tell us just a little bit of those different plans and different things that can add cost to it or whatever.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Cremation we can do something as simple as not having a memorial service, just a direct cremation. So you can do as simple or as elaborate as you would like for the services to be. There are even ways that the body can be embalmed at the service, almost just like a regular funeral service. You can view the body.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes so there's a ceremonial casket and the body is there present. It is embalmed and then cremated afterwards. So we can go from, as you know, several thousand dollars on up to, you know, 10,000 if it were going to be like a regular funeral. So that would that range, is there? The full body burial funerals can be anywhere. I think the national average last time checked was somewhere around 9,500. So we can go anywhere. We can go lower than that, just on up to 15,000 or 16,000, it really depends on the casket and the vault. So that really drives the price up or down. So we can usually get. We can get you where you need to be, where you kind of hoped to be. On the pricing, we aim to really be where someone really needs us to be. But I would say a typical traditional funeral would be somewhere in the range of about $10,000 on up and again, totally depending on the casket and the vault and and the whether it were more of a yeah, the casket or the vault.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then the cremation, just a straight cremation. What's the basic price of that?
Speaker 3:That is around $2,800. That is everything that one would need, from the call of passing all the way through to the final disposition. A final disposition. We also have so many benefits of being one of our families. We've not ever said we were the low-cost provider, but we have so many benefits of being one of our families and I've actually had families come to meet with me and they said, well, I'm going to check some other spots. And they came back to me and they said you know, I found some places that were less expensive. But I love the fact that it is the national plan transferability option, because we just don't know where we're going to be at the end of time. And they loved just the whole aspect of Dignity Memorial and what we offer. Yeah, Cool.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so, just like I do, within a state plan, someone comes in and they put this on paper, it's done, and they know that what they want to happen is going to happen. Y'all do the very same thing, and I know, like my mom my mom, she had everything laid out. She had her dress picked out, she had the songs. She had everything laid out. I'm sure you see that, and that's probably one of the biggest benefits of doing this, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, and the personal planning guide, the complimentary guide. You're able to document every detail, right down to the dress that you'd like to wear and the songs and the flowers that are your favorites, and that way the family again does not have to remember those details. It's just there documented, where, on a sad day, you can go to that document and just say, okay, wow, this is what she wanted, or this is what my father wanted, and so it really is the most compassionate gift. It is a very simple process. I take care of all of the necessary paperwork with the family. We make it really as smooth of a process as is humanly possible because we know what it's going to do for the family and we know how much it's going to, how much stress that it will take off of the family at the time.
Speaker 2:So should someone get this book first and go through it and just kind of, you know, think about that process and then come to you and say okay, I've written this down. Y'all make this happen.
Speaker 3:What typically happens. That's a, that's a, certainly an option. What all of those details would include do not have to be documented before we do. What I can I can help with. Some families want to do it that way and that's fine. But, um, typically the the, the way that that we've done it is they will come in and make an appointment with me. We'll sit down, I'll share the, the organizer with them and kind of go through it and show them all of the details.
Speaker 3:And many times families will say you know, I've, I think this is, I think this is the way we're going to go. So let's go ahead and just take care of the things that are necessary. As far as if it were a cremation and they said you know, I want to have the service, I want to have the flowers and the guests, we're going to take care of all of this. So the part that I take care of, you're not required to have all of those details in place at that point, because really it's more of a line-by-line transportation, cremation, the service, the things that really you're not going to have to make a lot of decisions on before you make those extra documented decisions as far as where it's going to where you're going to have the service and which flowers that you want and that kind of thing, so which earn. So it's really you're able to go ahead and just lock that price in and then, on a rainy day or if you never get that organizer filled out, you'll still have that prearrangement in place.
Speaker 2:Got it Okay, that makes total sense. So, christy, real quick. I do want to throw in one of the things that I love about prepaid funerals and I think some people may not know this. When you're looking at nursing home qualification, people are like we've got to spend money, we've got to get under $2,000. One of the things Medicaid is very liberal about letting you do is a prepaid funeral. So talk to us about that and how that would fit into someone's plan.
Speaker 3:Yes, I do help families frequently with the Medicaid spend down. You all, I appreciate, have sent some families to us that we've been able to help and, just as you mentioned, the spend down, we're able to customize that amount to whatever the family needs. So if it was just part of a funeral they need to pay for right now, or it's the whole thing. But that, as you mentioned, medicaid is liberal on that and we make it irrevocable, which means that those funds do not appear as an asset.
Speaker 2:And that's a requirement under Medicaid rules. Yes, sir, and I always tell people they don't want your kids cashing that in and taking the money and not burying you.
Speaker 3:Exactly so. We make it irrevocable, and that's something that we're happy to help with, of course. Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I just wanted to bring that up and make sure that everybody knew that. Yes sir, very cool, so I need to do this. I just turned 59 and I haven't done it, and so I'm going to come see y'all. I need to do this Particularly. I now have three grandkids two kids and three grandkids, and that really jumps out at me as a huge benefit of working with y'all. So cool, all right. Is there anything else I didn't bring up that you want to talk about?
Speaker 3:I would love to tell you one more thing, one more benefit. It's called the Compassion Helpline and the families have 13 months of unlimited access to trained grief counselors. So they're there in the middle of the night, they're there on holidays, they're there no matter when you just need somebody to talk to, and it's anonymous. They tell us that the highest call volume is in the middle of the night and it's from men, and I don't know why. I was surprised about that, but it was such a statistic that I just had never thought of, had never thought of. And so, having that at your fingertips, whenever your best friend is asleep or your minister or whomever you might typically confide in, you can call these folks in the middle of the night and they're always there. So that's another huge benefit of being one of ours is as an 800 number to the Compassion Helpline. So that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for bringing that up yes sir. That's incredible. So all right, thank you very much and I would highly encourage folks. If you're thinking about doing this, call Christy. Do you have a phone number handy?
Speaker 3:I do. I'm going to give you my cell number, so it's 479-957-0102. And I'll repeat that 479-957-0102. And if I'm in an appointment, I promise to call back as soon as I'm out.
Speaker 2:And that number will be in the show notes also. You can scroll down and find that. So thanks, christine. You seem so sweet and I bet you're really good at this job, so I'm going to come see you and hopefully our clients will come see you and get one more thing taken care of.
Speaker 3:Yes, and thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1:And that's a wrap for today's episode of Answers on Aging. Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time. And that's a wrap for today's episode of Answers on Aging. Thank you for joining us on this journey of discovery and understanding. For more resources, detailed show notes and expert advice on the many facets of aging, don't forget to visit our website at wwwanswersonagingpodcastcom. Remember, growing older might be inevitable, but doing it with grace, knowledge and empowerment is a choice. Until next time, stay informed and keep those questions coming.