Thursday, January 21, 2010

Primary And Ancillary Duties Of A Funeral Director

By Manny Cruise

The primary task of a funeral director is to supervise everything from the pre burial or pre cremation rituals.

The prime tasks of a funeral director can be categorised into four broad heads, which are shifting the dead body, readying it for final service, making arrangements for friends and relatives to assemble and pay their final respects to the deceased and then the actual cremation or burial of the body as per the preferences or tradition of the family.

These duties cover a wide variety of jobs, which include arrangement of hearse for carrying the deceased, deliberation on the place and timings for memorial service and also publishing obituaries in the local media as well as the newspapers. Moreover, funeral directors also take care of things like flowers and bouquet arrangements for each ceremony, anointing and clothing the body, arrangement for shifting of the family and relatives from one venue to another etc.

Other than these jobs, a funeral director also handles the essential paperwork that forms a part of the formalities that follow a person's death. He helps the family obtain a death certificate. He is also entrusted with other tasks like helping the family with getting the insurance money and to take benefit of veterans' burial scheme. He also takes care of problems related to annuities and transfer of pension of the deceased to the rightful beneficiary and helps the family to estimate a budget for the ceremony.

He also has to associate with a wide range of professionals to perform his jobs in an efficient and systematic manner. He has to associate with doctors, pastors, coffin makers and flower sellers, all with equal ease.

Finally, the funeral directors should be humane too and must attempt to provide some solace to the grieving family and try to bring them out of their grief over the demise of a loved one. Some funeral directors neglect this responsibility, but it is an essential part of their service nevertheless.

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