Wow, how things have changed! I started my funeral career in the old days when graves were dug with a shovel. I was 15 and, if memory serves, the fee for opening and closing a grave was $125. Now at 15 years old, I was a good soldier and I marched and did as I was told. My fellow gravedigger was a gentleman named Sidney and he was all of 65 years old. So as I worked through that long, hot, humid South Mississippi summer I was paid $50 for each grave using my pointed shovel to dig the grave and Sidney kept $75 and used his square shovel to fill it up after the committal service. Well, by the end of the summer I had a my first grave digging epiphany – “I only get $50 and have to do the hard work of digging the grave and Sidney gets $75 for the easy part of filling it up!” – the scales of fair and just had long since tipped in Sidney’s favor. So I confronted Sidney and without a moment’s thought he told me that the reason I was paid $50 and he was paid $75 was that he was “Management.” And that has been my quest ever since.
Unfortunately for me that is a true story – but what’s also amazing to me is how much the industry has changed. You sure can’t open and close a grave for $125 anymore, and for the most part no one’s digging graves by shovels either. I remember when I made the transition to Pre-need sales – I used to calculate premiums with a rate sheet, then technology stepped in and the industry moved to the Palm. Then Palm quit making Palm Pilots to focus on smart phones. Well, I am proud to say that the industry continues to upgrade and change and Security National Life has just introduced the industry’s first iPhone® rate calculator called iFuneral.
This application is designed to work with the iPhone® and iTouch® Apple products and will simplify the process of helping the families you serve. Simply select the state where the prepaid funeral is being sold...
Enter the funeral price, the proposed insured's age and select the funding plan...IT'S THAT SIMPLE!
Security National Life’s iFuneral Rate Calculator is an innovative way for our funeral home and agent base to take advantage of calculating our very competitive rates while utilizing current technologies. Please ask your Security National Life Pre-Need Representative about our iFuneral Rate Calculator or any of the other Pre-Need Products and services available from SNL.
