Is it safe and prudent to pre-arrange and pay for a funeral out of New York State?

It is well known that an overwhelming majority of all those that retire in the Sunbelt states are solicited constantly by chapels and cemeteries to purchase funeral packages. At times seniors are intimidated and coerced into believing that returning to a New York or New Jersey cemetery costs many thousands of dollars. What is not known by the unsuspecting consumer is that a large portion of the money they spend to pre-arrange these funerals is spent as commissions for the salesmen, the funeral director and the chapels. Should they change their mind they will never get back all of the money they may have paid. The loss can run into thousands of dollars per funeral. Furthermore, in Florida over a hundred million dollars was recently taken by well known corporate owners of chapels and cemeteries so that they can pay debts and Law suit losses. Newspapers have also reported other burial atrocities that has befallen the Jewish Community in Florida because the State is lax in regulating the ...  more