A lawyer and a funeral director walk into a bar.
The bartender asks, “What happens when you die?”
The two give very different responses that the bartender needed.
This is education in the wild. Anytime someone asks a question, they are asking to be educated. They probably didn’t think much about the depth of the education that could come from each answer. Frankly, as a future consumer of funeral services, I underestimated it too, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing what I could learn from Jeremy Hansen, the owner of Fassbender Swanson Hansen Funeral & Cremation Services. and Upper Peninsula Pet Cremation in Marquette.
I have a family member who is a funeral director, but he joked around about it. That’s my only context. Tell me about what challenges your field is facing or that you are working through?
Building trust is challenging. People are hesitant to work with us in planning because death is uncomfortable. Additionally, about 20 years ago, there were some financial misdealings with prepaid plans, which created widespread financial mistrust.
It’s now years later, and people still have related questions. I just meet people where they are by slowly educating them to build trust.
PLANNING.
This sounds very familiar to the legal field! How do you educate clients?
We do seminars, and there is so much education in the pre-planning process itself. There’s no downside with Michigan preneed laws favoring the protection of the consumer by requiring 100 percent trusting of all funds. Pre-planning for funerals can be used to benefit medicaid planning, future cost concerns, and general peace of mind.
When we meet with people, we cover all the typical things like cremation or burial but we also get questions like:
“What happens if I buy a funeral plan in Marquette but die in Florida because I’m a snowbird?”
Wow – Never thought of that question. What happens?
The plan covers it! And those are exactly the kind of details that just come up during those planning conversations that educates the client and their family.
Encouraging conversation
Like Taproot, Jeremy recommends that families let their guard down a bit and talk to each other about what they want during life and death. Jeremy often finds that, like me, helping to facilitate difficult conversations with families is crucial.
So if the question “What happens when you die?” is on your mind, give Jeremy a call for educational information on pre-planning funeral education through a sit down or seminar. If you’re looking for more of a lawyer’s answer, contact me at Taproot Law!
Let’s connect!
The Green Space series has been a really fun way to connect with and learn from community members and we want to keep building our community! If you are interested in contributing to this series or know someone who might be, let us know by emailing Ann at ann@taprootadvocates.com with the subject matter: Green Space.
Check out upcoming Taproot events!
February 24: Make a Will Workshop at Rock River Township Library in Chatham, 10 a.m. EST. RSVP to hello@taprootadvocates.com.
March 6: Law Decoded at Gallery Coffee, Munising, 10-11 a.m. EST
March 21: Watch Erica on Ask the Lawyers on WNMU-TV, 8 p.m. EST