National Funeral Directors Association Statement: Death: It’s a Living, CNBC Documentary on Funeral Service
Brookfield, Wis. – On Thursday, January 31, 2013, CNBC aired a one-hour documentary, Death: It’s a Living, which explored funeral service and the many options families have for honoring the lives of their loved ones. Broaching the subject of death and funerals is not easy, but the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) hopes that CNBC’s exploration of funeral service will prompt families to have open and honest conversations about how they might wish to honor and remember one another when the time comes.
As Death: It’s a Living illustrated, individuals and their families have more options than ever before when planning a funeral or memorial service – the list is seemingly endless and can be quite daunting to someone who has never had to plan a funeral or who has not done so recently.
Ultimately, funerals and memorial services must be a personal, meaningful and healing experience for those who are mourning the death of a loved one. Local NFDA-member funeral directors stand ready to help families explore all of the options available to them.
Funeral homes serve families from a variety of financial circumstances. Because of the number of options available today, funeral directors are able to work with a family to identify the options that fit within their budget while meeting their emotional needs.
NFDA members encourage families to educate themselves about options available to them, be it in advance or at a time of need. Every funeral home has unique facilities, services, products and pricing. Information is often readily available on the internet and most funeral directors welcome questions from consumers at any time, even if a death is not imminent. Consumers should take the search for a funeral home as seriously as they would the search for any other professional service provider to ensure they are working with the one that can best meet their family’s needs. Looking to organizations like NFDA, whose members agree to an enforceable Code of Professional Conduct, can be a good place to start.
Information about planning a meaningful funeral or memorial service can be found on the NFDA website, www.nfda.org. There, visitors can also search for NFDA-member funeral homes in their community.
About NFDA
NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 19,700 individual members who represent more than 10,000 funeral homes in the United States and 39 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org.
