What Questions Should You Ask Before a Cremation?

For many people planning a funeral, the possibility of a cremation opens up a wide array of questions. Indeed, many people don’t even know what kinds of questions to ask, or where to go get the guidelines.

What follows should help. You need a checklist to help you with this process, so here are some basic ideas from Californiacremationcenters.com that should at least get you started.

If you are going to use a mortuary or funeral home, find out if they actually own the crematory. If they don’t, you need to know what firm they use and you need to know something about that firm’s reputation.

There are also specific questions that must be asked about the crematory. Is it family owned, and inspected regularly? Are all the licenses and permits

up to date, and how many operators are used? Also, these operators need to be trained the right way, which means they should be certified by the Cremation Association of North America if possible. There may also be local certification required, so you should look into that issue as well.

Most crematories have refrigeration, so that’s another area that may require some questions. Find out how long the body is held prior to cremation, and make sure the crematory has the appropriate liability insurance for any procedures that may be done.

The crematory should also be able to provide some specific answers if you want the cremation to be witnessed. Are family members allowed? If so, how many, and how far in advance does any scheduling have to be done?

There are legal questions that must be answered as well. In nearly all cases the body must be identified prior to cremation, so find out what the procedures are for doing that. What process is used to track the remains, and how often are they validated along the way?

You also need to know some things about the timeline. For instance, how much time typically passes between the crematory receiving the body and the cremation being completed?

What happens to the remains is yet another important issue. Are they returned in an urn provided by the crematory, or does the family need to supply one?

The crematory’s policy may come into play when it comes to the remains. You should know how long they usually hold the remains after the process is completed, and you should also know the policy for disposing of things like prosthetics following the cremation.

You can get the answers to all these questions from California cremation centers and the company itself will be happy to provide any followup.