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Death Away From Home
When funeral arrangements must unexpectedly be made away from home, and family hearts are filled with mixed emotions, it is difficult to consider costs. If you want to limit costs, the best practice is to contact the funeral firm in the area where the funeral service and burial is to take place.
If you need to make travel arrangements to attend a funeral, visit Bereavement Travel for information.
WHAT TO DO FIRST
CALL A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Homes day or night, at 1-800-210-7135 (Troy) or 1-800-294-5668 (Royal Oak).
We take charge from then on and make all the arrangements for conveying of the deceased to the local funeral home for embalming and preparation for return to the home state. You only need to contact us with some basic information and notify us upon your arrival to set a time for an arrangement conference. For us to assume the costs as outlined, the death must have occurred in one of the forty-eight contiguous states and you must call us direct so we can engage our representatives at the place of death. (DO NOT contact a funeral firm where the death occurs. WE MUST DO THIS.)
The standard receiving policy in many other funeral homes is to give you a credit for the embalming against their standard prices. You may have to pay all other charges such as transfer casket, transfer container, out-of-town funeral home facilities, professional and staff services, transfer documents and transportation charges. These costs can easily mount up to $1200 dollars or more, depending on the cost of transportation and charges of the out-of-town funeral home. Transportation costs differ and fees are not uniform from funeral firm to funeral firm, so we cannot say exactly how much this might be.
WHAT DO YOU SAVE?
We pay most normal out-of-town costs, including standard embalming, all documents for transfer and burial, out-of-town funeral facilities, and professional staff and services. We bill you one time for additional services because of the death occuring out-of-town. These additional costs include a small professional service fee, extra auto transfers, and when necessary the required airline outer container and airfare. We use a light weight transfer casket and outer container to help keep the airfare to a minimum.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
If a family member dies while traveling outside the United States, contact the U.S. Embassy and they will come to your assistance. Then call us immediately; we are well-versed in the procedures for returning the deceased to the United States
OTHER CONDITIONS
If the death occurs outside of the forty-eight contiguous states or your family has already engaged another funeral firm, we will apply liberal credits to services provided by others when selecting one of our complete full-service funerals. Our membership in the National Funeral Directors Association and other national organizations provides us with funeral service contacts worldwide.
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