To make preparations for a funeral ceremony, you need a funeral director who will be there to help and guide you. As many would know, planning a funeral is not an easy job. You have to manage many important tasks such as inviting guests, selecting a place to hold the wake, choosing a casket and many more. Familiarising yourself with some important facts about a funeral director or a funeral service provider can help you decide who to hire for your funeral arrangement needs. Here we discuss the role and responsibilities of a funeral director in arranging the funeral ceremony.

Funeral Director Responsibilities
A funeral director must have good management skills because they will have to work to coordinate and execute all the family’s instructions and wishes for the funeral from beginning to end. Regardless of the scale of the funeral and the family’s requirements, the funeral director must be able to delegate efficiently to his/her team in order for smooth operations. The funeral director must have compassion and empathy as they interact with families of the deceased, to provide calm and assurance during their time of grief. The funeral director usually oversees the funeral ceremony to ensure that everything goes smoothly and is contactable 24 hours. The funeral director will ask the family of the deceased for their requirements for the funeral unless a will in testament is left behind with specific instructions for the funeral, in which case, the funeral service provider will follow all the instructions first to execute the funeral ceremony. Not all funerals are carried out in the same way. It is the duty of funeral directors to inform family members of the options and services available to them.

Some of the specific tasks that a funeral director is responsible for include managing the team members that are usually made up of embalmers, cosmetologists, funeral attendants, death certificate clerks and pallbearers. A funeral director oversees every single detail from organising the funeral proceedings, transporting the body for burial or cremation, writing and publishing the obituary, booking the place of the wake, preparing and decorating the location for funeral services, collection of cremated remains, arranging an officiating minister and more. With the help of a cemetery representative, he schedules the opening and closing of a grave. A funeral director should also have some legal knowledge to advise bereaved families on various legal documentations such as obtaining a death certificate and writing or executing a will. At the time of the funeral ceremony, all these key documents should be in place and the funeral director ensures everything is in order. Overall, the funeral director is responsible for taking care and respecting all wishes of the deceased and his/her family.