I found this on our Probate costs page.

When I was about 23 years old (many movies ago), I had job as a purchaser/expediter for a retail manufacturing company in Toronto. I was pretty diligent at shopping and getting the best prices on things.

It was about this time that I got my first life insurance policy. I figured, well.. I have some assets , not much debt, but I don't want to leave the cost of my death up to somebody else.

CHEAPEST COST OF DEATH
I thought that I would take it upon myself to price out the cost of death. The question I asked everybody was, what's the cheapest cost of death"

Ultimately the cheapest cost was about $400 for cremation with no ceremony or plot or anything else. You die, get torched, and then get thrown in the garbage, for the low price of $400.!!

If you don't have any assets, any liabilities, or any other worldly possessions, you won't have to incur any administrative or legal costs.

So... if you want the cheapest death possible, it's going to cost approximately $400 to get it done.

This is another way to look at it. Spend a little time to price out the cost of your death, the way you want it. It's an interesting exercise.

If you have any assets, liabilities, want a nicer funeral, or have dependants that may need income replacement, then getting a life insurance policy is the right thing to do.

Attitudes toward death have changed, along with the cost of setting the departed poor in their final resting places. The Connecticut Funeral Directors Association is backing a bill before the General Assembly that would increase state payments for burying indigent people from the current $1,200 to $3,000. The bill also would increase the cap on friends' and relatives' donations for funeral expenses from $2,800 to $3,000.

State funeral directors say the cost of even the most basic burial has risen significantly since the current state allowance was approved 20 years ago. The average cost of a traditional funeral is now $5,200 to $6,200. Randy Molloy, director of Molloy Funeral Home in West Hartford, ran down the expenses: cemetery lot, $670 to $2,600; opening and closing the grave, $650 to $1,100; outer burial container required by some cemeteries, $800 to $900; coffins start at about $900.

"When you're talking $1,200, you can't even purchase a grave and get it opened," Molloy said.

cost of death, cost to die,

Articles from April 2006
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