Insurance Assignments Gone Bad

Insurance Assignments Gone Bad

As a funeral home owner, how do you determine which insurance assignment cases to take? Which ones will take months to collect and which assignments will pay short?  Which insurance policies won’t pay at all; and which ones will require a lot of time and energy to collect on?

These are questions that funeral directors face every day.  Recently we learned that a funeral home accepted an insurance assignment for $14,000; they provided the services and then found that the policy would only cover $2300.   How do you protect your funeral home?

There are many funeral home owners who reluctantly accept insurance assignments and enjoy a great batting average on collections.  Many however have grown tired of the ever changing processes insurance companies require and the delays they causes.  Some directors even discourage their families from utilizing insurance assignments at all, or only as a “last resort”.  This approach hurts business because utilizing insurance assignments is actually a big boost to business when handled correctly.  

Let’s say the cost to use a 3d party “insurance assignment funding company” costs an average of $300.00 and a funeral home received full payment for services in 2 days, prior to providing any services.  3 things happen: 1) cash flow is optimized, 2) the family will increase the services by 25-30% on average and 3) the funeral home is normally out of pocket $0.00, as nearly all funeral homes include this cost on their invoice itemized as financing or funding cost.

At Trinity Funeral Funding, our best clients have come from funeral directors who have come to realize the time and risk of taking on in-house insurance assignment funding is really not worth it.  After a short time working together, directors really appreciate having an assignment funding specialist handling this important aspect of their business.  As we near the half way point in 2016, perhaps considering an insurance assignment funding company could be a meaningful discussion to have?

About Assignments:  Insurance Assignment Funding is a simple process where a 3rd party like Trinity Funeral Funding pays the Funeral Home the cost of funeral services upfront through an assignment of proceeds from an insurance policy. Here’s how it works.  A one page insurance assignment is completed by the beneficiary and the Funeral Director, a claim form provided by either the insurance company or Trinity, and a death certificate are sent. Trinity Funeral Funding will advise on what if any added forms are needed for each claim. Once these documents are completed the policy is verified (normally within a day or two), funds are wired to the funeral home. The payments from the insurance company are then sent to Trinity and any additional proceeds are sent directly to the beneficiary. For more information visit http://www.trinityfuneralfunding.com/ or call Cristina at 201-750-1117.