Primary Duties Of A Funeral Director

By Shirley Cruise

to the actual handling of the body of the deceased.

The essential tasks of a funeral director can be divided into four broad heads, transporting the dead body, readying it for the funeral service, making arrangements for friends and relatives to gather and pay their last respects to the departed and finally the actual cremation or burial of the body according to the preferences or tradition of the family.

The tasks of a funeral director range from posting obituaries in the print and electronic media to arranging for a hearse to shift the body, besides other planning tasks like choosing the timings and venue for conducting the funeral service etc. Besides, funeral directors have to make arrangements for flowers and have the decoration carried out for each ceremony, make provisions for vehicles for the assembled people and dress up the body for the ceremony after embalming it.

A funeral director has many responsibilities besides the above mentioned ones, including doing the essential paperwork formalities as required. He helps the relatives in obtaining a death certificate. He also shoulders the responsibility of settling claims of insurance for the family as well as helping them take benefit of schemes like veteran's burial support. He also helps in clearing annuity and pension money, if any, of the deceased person to the dependants of the deceased and assists the family in assessing the costs of the whole funeral service.

In addition, a funeral director has to coordinate with a number of people so that he can do his tasks in a systematic way. He must be able to communicate with physicians, florists, coffin makers and priests equally well.

Finally, the funeral directors must be considerate too and must attempt to provide some comfort to the grieving family and try to bring them out of their grief over the demise of a loved one. Though a few funeral directors ignore this task, it is an important aspect in a job like this.

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