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If you plan your funeral during your lifetime, you take the burden off the shoulders of your children or other descendants. If someone in the family dies, you are left to your own devices. The cost of a funeral is not usually considered, as a recent representative survey has shown. Many may feel ashamed of skimping on the last funeral service for a loved one. In any case, not everyone has the same choice. In rural regions, people usually go to their local mortician, while in urban centres, there has been a wide choice since liberalization in 2012.
Cost estimates are part of it. The Viennese companies list every detail of their own services, from pillows to burial shrouds, cleaning and disinfection of the mortal remains, burial, transportation, and music equipment. In addition, there are external services such as cemetery fees, death certificates, cremation and pathology fees, and even the stonemason. “Cost transparency is important,” says market researcher David Pfarrhofer from the Market Institute, explaining what customers want according to a representative survey in Vienna. “It doesn’t have to be the cheapest.” But that is only part of the truth. Because even the cheapest funeral—cremation an urn at home for around 2500 euros—is a lot of money for some. If you like, you can set up the urn in your living room after dealing with the authorities. Expensive cemetery fees or stonemasonry work are no longer necessary.
In any case, one thing is as certain as death: a funeral is expensive. Especially if it is to be traditional, for a burial with a dignified funeral service, flower arrangements, and a grave in the cemetery, you can expect to pay between 5,000 and 6,000 euros. The scale is open at the top, and only in exceptional cases does it exceed 10,000 euros. But they do exist, says funeral director Georg Haas. The final cover makes a big difference.
For example, if someone chooses the Monte Carlo model, the coffin alone costs 6,000 euros. Sometimes there are also special wishes. A billionaire once asked for a blanket made of a thousand roses! However, 50,000 euros is usually the upper limit. But the rise in prices does not stop at funerals. In September, funeral costs rose 9.1 percent compared to last year, far more than inflation. Funeral services now cost around a third more than in 2019.
Funeral directors are also noticing this, as Upper Austrian Federal Guild Master Martin Dobretsberger admitted at the presentation of the survey in Vienna: “More people are opting for urn cremation—without a funeral service, i.e., smaller and cheaper. Haas also confirms: “The gap in society is widening.” The industry has reacted. Some funeral directors offer low-cost services: Baba at Bestattung Wien and Cleverbestattung at Benu. They offer a basic package at a fixed price, including the option of a tree or Danube burial, for around 3,000 euros.
No longer a taboo
If surveys on this topic are to be believed, talking about death is no longer taboo. Anyone who has ever had to organize a funeral knows that it can quickly cost several thousand euros. Therefore, making provisions—in the form of money left behind for the funeral or in the form of insurance—makes perfect sense. Six out of ten Austrians have already made provisions for their own deaths, according to a recent Allianz survey.
86 percent of Austrians believe making provisions for their own deaths makes sense. The reasons for this vary: the majority (66%) want to relieve the burden on their loved ones, as this allows important decisions to be made in advance and reduces financial burdens. Financial security for funeral costs, outstanding bills, or other obligations is cited by 57%. This is closely followed (56%) by the desire for a clear estate arrangement so that the inheritance is divided according to one’s own wishes. For 29 percent, securing their own funeral wishes is a valid reason for making such arrangements.
According to the survey, a quarter of respondents would prefer cremation in an urn grave or urn wall in the cemetery. Eight percent of respondents stated that they would prefer cremation and that the urn should be kept at home with the bereaved. Three percent could imagine having their ashes pressed into a diamond or gemstone.
