Six Ways Your Firm's Families Benefit from Life Insurance Assignments
September 13, 2021
During the end of the year, it’s more important than ever to have life insurance assignments set up as a funeral payment option for your firm’s families. As you know, since there are more deaths during the winter months, your firm will be busier than usual. And if those deaths are unexpected, their families may not have a way to pay for the expenses up front.
With life insurance assignments as funeral payment, you can give them a way to pay for their loved one’s funeral. If you’re not yet convinced, here are six ways that your firm’s families benefit from life insurance assignments as funeral payment.
1. Keep Emergency Savings Instead of Using It Up.
2. Eliminate Awkward Conversations About the Funeral Payment.
If a family’s loved one didn’t prepay their funeral arrangements, have funds set aside, or document where they want the funds to come from, this can be an awkward conversation among family members. The death of a loved one, especially during the holiday season, is already stressful enough, so families don’t need the added tension of deciding who is going to pay. By assigning a loved one’s life insurance policy to cover the funeral expenses, they can avoid this uncomfortable situation. This also means your firm wouldn’t have to bring up the topic if you were still waiting for the payment decision.
3. Pay for the Expenses All at Once Instead of Taking on a Loan.
Funeral financing is another payment option that lets families keep their savings. However, if they want to avoid having a recurring payment but can’t afford to pay the expenses all at once, then paying with a life insurance assignment may be right for them. With this option, they still get the satisfaction of knowing that the expenses are taken care of, and they don’t have to take on a loan if they’re tight on funds. Or if they would have some extra funds for a loan, they can use that for other expenses around the holidays instead.
4. Focus on Funeral Planning and Grieving.
Depending on who you work with for your life insurance assignments program, their team may handle completing the bulk of the paperwork and contacting the insurance company on your family’s behalf. This means that burden doesn’t fall on your families or staff, so you can spend more time making the funeral special. You also can dedicate more time to helping them grieve their loss and honor their loved one. Like we mentioned earlier, you’re extra busy this time of year, so any time that you can put back into your day is helpful.
5. Plan the Funeral That They Want Without Worrying About the Payment.
Using a life insurance assignment for the funeral payment means that your families can plan the funeral that they want to; they don’t have to choose things just because they cost less. Instead of feeling limited by their small budget, they can plan the funeral that meets and even exceeds their expectations. If they choose a funeral element, it should be because it’s what they think will best honor their loved one or what their loved one said they wanted.
6. Get Peace of Mind That the Funeral Expenses Are Paid For.
Lastly, not having to worry about how they’re going to pay for the funeral gives them the peace of mind that they need when going through one of life’s most difficult moments. With life insurance assignments, they still have their savings, no extra tension, can pay all at once, and focus on planning the funeral that they want to. They also can focus on honoring their loved one during the holidays and into the new year, instead of worrying about the funeral payment.
Life Insurance Assignments Have Never Been This Easy.
We partner with Tribute Insurance Assignments to offer 2-Minute Insurance Assignments. As the name suggests, our life insurance assignments program makes the process quick for you, as it typically takes two minutes to submit a claim, one hour to verify a policy, and 24 hours to receive the funds. It's also fully integrated with your SRS software to save you even more time, and your families get competitive rates, so they get peace of mind and more options.
Click here to learn more about 2-Minute Insurance Assignments.
With life insurance assignments as funeral payment, you can give them a way to pay for their loved one’s funeral. If you’re not yet convinced, here are six ways that your firm’s families benefit from life insurance assignments as funeral payment.
1. Keep Emergency Savings Instead of Using It Up.
When faced with an unexpected expense like a funeral, you don’t want your savings to be your first and only payment option. If your firm has the option to use a life insurance assignment as funeral payment, families can keep their savings for other expenses like medical bills, memorial funds, and other living expenses. Or with their life insurance assignment, depending on their policy’s worth, they can even get more than just the cost of the service assigned and use those funds to cover other expenses during the holiday season.
2. Eliminate Awkward Conversations About the Funeral Payment.
If a family’s loved one didn’t prepay their funeral arrangements, have funds set aside, or document where they want the funds to come from, this can be an awkward conversation among family members. The death of a loved one, especially during the holiday season, is already stressful enough, so families don’t need the added tension of deciding who is going to pay. By assigning a loved one’s life insurance policy to cover the funeral expenses, they can avoid this uncomfortable situation. This also means your firm wouldn’t have to bring up the topic if you were still waiting for the payment decision.
Funeral financing is another payment option that lets families keep their savings. However, if they want to avoid having a recurring payment but can’t afford to pay the expenses all at once, then paying with a life insurance assignment may be right for them. With this option, they still get the satisfaction of knowing that the expenses are taken care of, and they don’t have to take on a loan if they’re tight on funds. Or if they would have some extra funds for a loan, they can use that for other expenses around the holidays instead.
Depending on who you work with for your life insurance assignments program, their team may handle completing the bulk of the paperwork and contacting the insurance company on your family’s behalf. This means that burden doesn’t fall on your families or staff, so you can spend more time making the funeral special. You also can dedicate more time to helping them grieve their loss and honor their loved one. Like we mentioned earlier, you’re extra busy this time of year, so any time that you can put back into your day is helpful.
5. Plan the Funeral That They Want Without Worrying About the Payment.
Using a life insurance assignment for the funeral payment means that your families can plan the funeral that they want to; they don’t have to choose things just because they cost less. Instead of feeling limited by their small budget, they can plan the funeral that meets and even exceeds their expectations. If they choose a funeral element, it should be because it’s what they think will best honor their loved one or what their loved one said they wanted.
6. Get Peace of Mind That the Funeral Expenses Are Paid For.
Lastly, not having to worry about how they’re going to pay for the funeral gives them the peace of mind that they need when going through one of life’s most difficult moments. With life insurance assignments, they still have their savings, no extra tension, can pay all at once, and focus on planning the funeral that they want to. They also can focus on honoring their loved one during the holidays and into the new year, instead of worrying about the funeral payment.
Life Insurance Assignments Have Never Been This Easy.
We partner with Tribute Insurance Assignments to offer 2-Minute Insurance Assignments. As the name suggests, our life insurance assignments program makes the process quick for you, as it typically takes two minutes to submit a claim, one hour to verify a policy, and 24 hours to receive the funds. It's also fully integrated with your SRS software to save you even more time, and your families get competitive rates, so they get peace of mind and more options.
Click here to learn more about 2-Minute Insurance Assignments.
It’s 2022. If you haven’t realized it already, it’s time to understand the importance of your funeral home website for your firm and community. From making funeral plans and paying the expenses to expressing condolences and learning about coping with grief, your website can do it all and so much more. Want to learn how? See how you can take your funeral home website to the next level in 2022 with these 22 must-have features. Create the Ultimate Interactive Obituary Experience . Give your families a space to grieve their loss, show their support, and honor their loved one with interactive memorial walls. With features for expressing condolences, posting photos, and sharing memories, everyone can heal and remember their loved one. Make Ordering Funeral and Sympathy Flowers Easy with an Online Store. By having an online store built directly onto your website, families can conveniently order funeral and sympathy flowers while visiting their loved one’s memorial page. Spread the Word About a Loved One’s Passing Through Social Sharing. With easy social sharing, you can let your families share their loved one’s obituary and condolences on social media to spread the word about their passing. Support Families Through Crowdfunding Campaigns. Another way to let families show their support is to have the option to donate to a funeral crowdfunding campaign directly on their loved one’s memorial wall. Include Your General Price List (GPL) on Your Funeral Home Website. Along with a breakdown of your products and services, you should include your GPL to be transparent with your families and build trusting relationships with them. Let Families Pay Directly on Your Website with an Online Payment Center. Many families want the convenience of online payments, so you can give them this with an online payment center for credit card payments and more . Give Your Families an Easy-to-Navigate Design on Any Device. No one wants to waste time finding what information they need, especially while at-need planning, so make sure your website is easy to navigate of any device. Have Forms for Families to Easily Enter Their Information. Instead of families calling your firm for everything they need, have forms that families can submit for preplanning, downloading resources, and more. Put Your Contact Information in an Easy-to-Locate Spot. If families want to call or visit your firm, don’t make it difficult for them to locate this information. Along with a Contact Us page, you should also include this information on your homepage. Provide Your Community with Grief and Funeral Planning Resources. Your website can be like an online library for families to learn about funeral planning and grief. For example, create a Resources page for your content and link to any other educational resources. Help Families Grieve and Stay Informed Through Email Subscriptions. Without any work required from your employees, let your families sign up for email subscriptions directly on your website, such as for grief support and obituary notifications. Share Frequently Asked Questions with Your Community. Many times, your employees repeatedly answer the same questions from families. To eliminate some of these repetitive questions, have a FAQ section on your website. Post Useful Information on Your Website’s Blog. Your firm’s website should have a blog for regularly sharing content about preplanning, at-need planning, personalizing a funeral, grieving, memorialization, and more. Secure Your Website with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate. Giving your families a secure connection when entering sensitive information on your website is a must-have. To do this, your website should have an SSL Certificate. Eliminate Spam Through Sophisticated Spam Filters. Eliminate spam comments and messages with sophisticated spam filters. This way, grieving families don’t have the added pain of rude comments. Develop an SEO Strategy to Get Found by More Families Online. Make sure your website gets found by more families online by including things like meta descriptions for your webpages and keywords. Design a Logo that Represents Your Firm’s Brand. Your logo should be visually appealing and reflect your firm’s brand. If it’s been a while since you’ve revisited your logo design, it’s probably time to explore some new ideas. Tell Your Families About Your Firm’s History, Employees, and Mission. Your families want to know the people behind your firm and what you stand for , so make sure to include things like your firm’s mission to serve families, history in your community, and employee bios to help them better understand your goals. Take Professional Pictures of Your Firm and Merchandise. If your website photos are low quality, this can reflect negatively on your business. To prevent this, draw families to your firm by taking professional photos of your facility and merchandise. Showcase Testimonials from Your Firm’s Client Families. Give your community real-life examples of positive experiences families had working with your firm, whether they’re text or video-based testimonials. Route Families to the Funeral Location Through Text Directions. One way to make things easier for families is to have a tool directly on your website for sending directions to the funeral or graveside service right to their phones. Integrate with Your Other Favorite Funeral Technology Solutions. Lastly, your funeral home website should integrate with your other funeral technology solutions to save you time, such as your case management software and marketing automation software. Take your firm to the next level in 2022 by upgrading to an SRS Website. Click h ere to book a free demo .
2021 was a revolutionary year for the funeral industry, but in 2022, it’s time to take it to the NEXT LEVEL. If you haven’t already, now is the time more than ever to embrace the mobile revolution . With a little help from your technology solutions, you can meet your families’ needs anytime, anywhere while creating a faster and simpler process for your firm. For the sake of time, we’ll focus on three important aspects of your firm: Funeral Options Business Management Aftercare 2022 is already here , so there’s no time to waste. Let’s start with funeral options. Take Your Funeral Options to the Next Level: Give Families Online Choices Families want online options. It’s as simple as that. They’re used to it now, so they won’t settle for anything less. The pandemic showed them that a lot of their in-person tasks can be accomplished online in less time, such as: Using an app to place your grocery order ahead of time instead of wandering the store. Scanning your check with your mobile device and depositing it without ever leaving your couch. Or simply entering your credit card number online and pressing submit. Having virtual appointments with your doctor, accountant, and other professionals instead of meeting in person. You can apply these same concepts to the funeral industry. Instead of meeting with families in person for every task, some things can be done virtually, such as selecting their funeral options on your website through a pre-planning form, signing forms, collecting files, making the payment virtually , and meeting through video chat. Of course, this doesn’t replace in-person meetings. The purpose of these features is to take tedious tasks like filling out paperwork and swiping credit cards to a virtual environment. This way, you can save in-person meetings for building more meaningful connections with your families. So going back to the question, how can you take your funeral options to the next level in 2022? Give families more online choices. Instead of driving to your firm to pay for the expenses, sign a form, or give you documents, let them do it virtually in a matter of seconds. Not to mention that this is more secure than documenting things on paper. Take Your Business Management to the Next Level: Say Hello to Case Management Software Do you want to way to offer your families everything we’ve just covered and more all in one place? Say hello to funeral home case management software. As the popular saying goes, behind every successful funeral director is a turnkey case management system. Okay, maybe people don’t go around saying that, but they should because it’s true. Without an organized and easy-to-access system, your firm couldn’t function. But you can’t use just any system. Meet 9Online , the funeral industry’s elite management software. Instead of using third-party integrations that cost you more time and money, it has built-in features for signing forms electronically, collecting the payment virtually, communicating with families in a safe, virtual environment, and so much more . Take Your Aftercare to the Next Level: Focus on Your Marketing and Website Lastly, we can’t forget about aftercare. As you know, a family’s journey with grief is long from over once the funeral takes place. It’s something that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives. Though this may sound daunting, you can make things much easier for them by focusing on how your website and marketing efforts can help them. By building up your aftercare resources, it could even be the reason someone chooses to work with your firm over another one. For example, these are a few ways your website and marketing can improve your aftercare efforts in 2022 and beyond: Share blog posts, guides, and other resources on your firm’s website . Engage with families on social media through posts and ads. Use email nurturing to further engage with them and provide them with grief resources. We know this sounds like a lot, so that’s why we partnered with Growth Engine. It’s the first marketing automation software designed specifically for the funeral industry and you and your families’ needs. How cool is that? Click here to learn more about this platform. Book a free SRS demo to learn even more ways to boost your business performance and better serve your families.
We want to give a shout out to our incredible clients and their brand-new SRS Websites! Thank you for trusting SRS with your funeral home's website . We’re proud of every design and make sure they accurately represent your firm and provide you with the tools you need for success. Below are just a few of our favorite SRS Website designs from this fall. Lighthouse Funeral & Cremation Owner and Manager Tate C. Goodwin opened Lighthouse Funeral & Cremation in 2013. Today, they have several Michigan locations. On their new SRS Website, families can use E-Pay to make an online payment for their loved one’s funeral service expenses.