Before you hire a funeral director, it is important to know their roles so as to know the services you should expected from them. The fact is that funeral directors have a variety of responsibilities and they help many families to sendoff their loved ones easier than they could have done during the grieving period.

Preparing and transporting the deceased body

According to funeralhelps, “funeral directors help families to transport the deceased body from the place of death to the funeral home, family home or funeral service place or burial place in a professional, secure and safe way.” Besides deceased body transportation, funeral directors also help in preparing the body by washing, performing restorative art, dressing, conserving or casketing. They may not be the ones who perform these activities but they are responsible for organizing how they are done

Funeral arrangements

Funeral arrangements entail a lot of activities that may be overwhelming for the family to do when they lose a loved one. Funeral directors make things easier by helping families with most of these activities. They help families to complete required paperwork, such as obtaining the death certificate and burial permit, selecting and organizing for the location where funeral service will take place, organizing on how to bring back the deceased body legally and safely if the death occurred in a foreign country, organizing where the body will be incinerated or buried, etc. The funeral director maintains constant communication and consultation with the family and close friends to ensure that all these arrangements are done in accordance with the family’s wish.

Assists the family in celebrating their loved ones

Funeral directors use their experience to help families and friends celebrate their loved ones even if they are grieving. They speak to the families, encourage them, help them make donations in respect of the deceased, help to prepare obituaries and distribute them to various media outlets, and encourage grieving families to be strong and celebrate the deceased’s life.

Funeral service planning

Planning for the actual funeral is very challenging and funeral directors help in these activities. The funeral directors develop a plan on how each activity will be performed during the actual funeral. This includes people who will attend the funeral, their seats, those who will speak during the funeral, and the time for each activity. The funeral directors contact all attendees, including officiants, coffin bearers, singers/musicians, florists, etc. In other words, funeral directors help in preparing the programme for the actual funeral.