Planning a funeral? How to avoid paying too much - The Prosperity Project

More New Zealanders are choosing simpler, personal farewells over costly traditional funerals. Photo / Alfredo Viramontes

The cost of living isn’t the only thing stretching New Zealanders’ wallets - dying has also got much more expensive.

“For a full funeral where you may have the service first followed by a cremation or burial, the average cost here in New Zealand is between $16,000 and $18,000,” Brent Ruru, director of Everything Funeral, told Nadine Higgins on The Prosperity Project podcast.

Ruru says the costs stack up fast. “Funeral directors charge a professional services fee … and then on top of that would come the casket selection, venue, catering, photo montage, service sheets, newspaper notices, floral arrangements, engaging a celebrant - right through to perhaps a cost associated to live streaming the funeral.”

Everything Funeral is an independent service Ruru founded to help families navigate more affordable funeral options.

While Ruru stops short of calling it profiteering, he does suggest some in the industry will “clip the ticket”.

“The funeral director may have a contract with the media outlet that they use; they probably get a discount in the sense of the volume that they might put through, so they’ll clip the ticket on that discount. A flat-lid casket does just as good a job as a raised-lid one, yet there could be a price differentiation in those two options”.

The restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic, however, served to change the landscape.

“More people are now doing direct cremations first and then having some form of celebration or ceremony afterwards… that drives the cost down significantly”.

Catering, he says, can be pricey. “If you have a hundred people there at, say, $14 a head, that’s $1400 pretty much upfront just for that cup of tea afterwards.”

However, he says some aspect of ceremony is important. “Not to have a ceremony leaves a void with some people. It celebrates the life of the loved one that we’ve lost, but equally for those that are left behind”.

For families struggling financially, Work and Income’s funeral grant of $2559 is little relief.

“People go into debt and then they’re chased with regard to trying to recover that debt,” Ruru says.

Ruru practises what he preaches: his own mother-in-law’s farewell, he says, cost just “$4660 from the time she purchased her plot to paying the bar tab.”

It wasn’t about saving money, he says “in fact, it made it more personal”.

Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more

The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.