Arrangements

Making funeral arrangements without knowing what to expect ahead of time could be thought of as an intimidating problem. The actual arrangement process is really nothing more than sitting down and exchanging information and making decisions. Information needs to be gathered by the funeral home for a variety of reasons and decisions need to be made by the family to shape the way the funeral will proceed. Our directors meet with your family to carefully listen to you and help you create the funeral that will meet your family’s specific needs. At this same time we gather the information we need to perform the services we do for you. The first type of information we need is called the statistical data. This is the information about the person who has died that will be used to complete the death certificate, social security form, veterans’ forms, clergy forms, and other records. This consists of items like birthday, social security number, and place of birth and so on. For your convenience you can click on STATISTICAL INFORMATION SHEET to see the complete set of information we would need and print out a copy as a worksheet for yourself.

    The next type of information we would need is called the obituary information. This biographical type of information would be used to create the obituary and death notices to be placed in the newspaper if so desired. In our area of New Jersey, free newspaper obituaries can be placed in our local papers as a service of the newspaper. We gather this information from you, write it up and fax it to the papers as part of our service to you. The free obituary does not always include all the information that families wish to appear in the paper. If this is the case we can then help you by placing paid death notices in the paper. A death notice is a type of classified ad that runs in the paper that you can pay for and place into it any type of information concerning the funeral that you choose. Things like donation requests, visiting hours or service times, or grandchildren’s names are some of the information that most papers would not run in a free obituary but families might want in a paid death notice. The biographical information for the newspaper consists of things like place of employment, family members and clubs or organizations that the person belonged to. For a complete list of this information and a work sheet to print out for your convenience, please click on OBITUARY INFORMATION SHEET. As each newspaper is a little different in what they will include in the obituary, one of our directors could explain this in more detail. After gathering the two sets of information we need, it’s time for you to tell us what your wishes are in relation to the funeral. Does your family want to have visiting hours?

    Do they want to have a religious ceremony at our funeral home or your place of worship? Will there be ground burial, entombment or perhaps cremation after the ceremony? Will there even be a ceremony? Perhaps memorial services without the body present or a graveside service when the burial takes place? The choices as to what will make up the funeral are as varied as there are different types of families. Our directors will explain these types of options to you and help you choose the ones that are important for your family.

    Another area discussed during the arrangements would be the different types of merchandise available for sale from our funeral home. After deciding on the type of funeral arrangements you desire, we can then help you decide on items we sell to go along with the funeral you have selected. We offer an assortment of goods such as prayer cards, register books, clothing, thank you cards, religious items, grave liners, burial vaults, caskets and alternative containers. Many of these items can be custom prepared for your specific needs. For example, in our casket selection room we show 20 different full sized caskets of all types, prices and styles. Many of them can be further personalized with different colored interiors or names and symbols added to the outside. If you need more to choose from, we have many other caskets available to see in pictures. We offer many types of urns to hold cremated remains and they too can be personalized in a variety of ways. You can add pictures to prayer cards, laminate them in plastic or have your own custom poetry or special bible verse added. All this customized merchandise is used in an effort to help make the funeral and its parts as personal as possible.

    After these choices are made, we would then explain the prices that would be charged for the type of funeral and merchandise items you have selected. Quite often the cost of the funeral is discussed throughout the arrangements because each aspect of the funeral you select would have something to do with the final cost of the funeral. Moore’s Home For Funerals operates under the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule by having available at all times a General Price List, a Casket Price List and an Outer Burial Container Price List.The charges that make up the total cost of the funeral are all listed in a menu like fashion on these lists. The director would show you where the individual charges come from on the lists based upon the funeral you have selected. After determining the cost of the total funeral, payment options would be discussed and the arrangement conference would be concluded.

    There is often discussion during the arrangements of the different services we provide to the families we serve. Things like applying for social security death benefits, helping with insurance paperwork, displaying family photographs, and helping select flowers or even a restaurant for a repast luncheon. If the arrangements are for an entitled military veteran we can help you with a free veteran’s cemetery marker, free memorial flag, securing burial benefits or even a free grave in the New Jersey Veteran’s Cemetery. This is just a sample of the many things that make up a typical arrangement conference.

    In conclusion, making funeral arrangements is not something most people look forward to doing. At Moore’s Home For Funerals we realize this and try to make to make the event as easy to do as possible. Our experienced licensed funeral directors know how to treat you to make your family’s funeral as personal and meaningful as possible. Whether you make your arrangements at the time of a death or want to make them ahead of time for your family’s peace of mind (click ABOUT PRE-PLANNING), Moore’s Home For Funerals stands ready to exceed your expectations as we have since 1902.