Dale-Time

Last week I had the pleasure of touring the new Genesis Casket Company plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. My wife, Jodi, and I have been good friends of the president of Genesis Casket, Tony Colson and his wife Margie for many years. I had to make a funeral home road trip to Indy so Tony invited us to stay the night at his place and then he’d give us the tour in the morning. And let me tell you, I’m really glad we did.

Genesis Casket Company is a brand new casket manufacturing company that will be ready to start making caskets in just a few short weeks. The plant is very close to being finished and it very impressive. This plant will take the rolled steel, cut it, form it, weld it, paint it, install the hardware, manufacture and install the interiors and get them ready for distribution all under the same roof.

They are using the latest in robotic computerized welding and custom made forming machines to make their caskets. As someone with an engineering degree I was amazed at the equipment Genesis has put together for this operation. The robots look like they are straight out of a “Transformers” movie, able to pick up the pieces and perfectly assemble the parts perfectly down to the smallest details. The assembly line then takes the parts into a high tech paint booth that will give the caskets a finish that will rival any sports car.

I have seen the prototypes and there is no doubt that the Genesis caskets will give the big three casket companies (Batesville, Aurora, and Mathews) a run for their money. But what Genesis is also hoping to do is give the Chinese imports some competition. Through the use of the latest technology Genesis is sure it will be able to realize a major cost savings and in turn pass that savings along to its customers.

Genesis plans to start out offering its caskets in the middle of the country first while it sets up its distribution centers. It will no doubt expand to the rest of the country as it grows. Tony has  assembled a team of casket and funeral industry veterans that seem ready and capable to make this project a huge success.

I could tell you more about what the units will look like but I’ve been sworn to secrecy. I can tell you that they have some neat innovations they are working on that will make the caskets much more user friendly for funeral directors. The kind that will make you say “Gee, why didn’t anyone think of this before?”

Genesis promises to be at the NFDA convention in Chicago in October where the rest of the world will get a chance to see what I had a sneak preview of. I’m sure they will create a major Buzz.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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Lately we have had some major issues with nursing home social workers, senior center volunteers and estate lawyers giving people bad information on Medicaid qualifications.

We hear this story all the time. A person enters a nursing home and the family realizes that they probably aren’t coming home. They meet with a social worker, a volunteer or a lawyer that tells them that they have to spend all their money down to $2000.00 before Medicaid will take over payment for the nursing home. They also tell them they have to cash in whatever life insurance they have and use that to pay the nursing home too. Then when the death occurs the family has no money left to even have a simple cremation and a memorial service.

Folks, this information is just not true. There are multiple different ways for families to prefund funerals that are completely within Medicaid guidelines and are considered legitimate spend down options. Myself and my wife, Jodi, have been doing this type of thing for over 25 years. We know nearly every nuance of every law and regulation that governs these situations. We are here to help people get qualified and get the assistance they need from the government without going broke in the process. We know that laws can be different in different states but much of what happens is very universal.

Here are just a few rules that apply.

Pre-paid funerals plans are not considered an asset when applying for Medicaid. In Michigan the upper limit allowable is a little over $11,000.00. These prepaid funerals can be purchased at any time, even after the person has entered the nursing home.

Term Life Insurance Policies have no cash value and are not considered assets. So if you have a term policy in place you can continue to make the payments.

Whole Life Insurance policies have cash value. If the cash value (not the face value) is more than $2500.00 you can borrow against the policy to bring the cash value down, to say $1000.00, and then use the borrowed money to purchase a pre-paid funeral plan from the funeral home. The same is true if you do decide to cash in the policy.

There are also many other options available and ways to divide assets up between family members and spouses that can keep the assets in the family instead of using it all at the nursing home.

Please remember this; Social Workers come and go all the time at nursing homes and government agencies. They are usually overworked and underpaid. They are taught some basic rules and given a huge manual that they never really read. They’re good people but they are not experts. They also are looking out for the nursing home or the government agency and it’s not in their best interest to help the family save money.

Not all lawyers are created equally. Many folks rely on a general attorney or estate planner. These folks know about wills and trusts but don’t have to deal with Medicaid rules the way the funeral homes have to everyday. Just because they are a lawyer doesn’t mean they are a specialist in eldercare issues. You wouldn’t go to your family doctor to do a hip replacement would you?

Jodi Clock, my wife, has written a book called “Navigating the Eldercare Journey – Without Going Broke”. It’s in its final edits and is due to be published this fall. It follows the story of “Russ & Yvonne” as they age through their 70’s and 80’s, have health issues, blended family challenges, enter a nursing home, qualify for Medicaid, have a funeral and all sorts of other challenges in-between. Each chapter will have a story section and then practical advice for how to handle similar situations.

Jodi has been in the funeral pre-arrangement business for 25 years. She has worked for Forethought Life Insurance, Fortis, and NGL. She managed the pre-need department for all the Michigan Lowen Funeral Homes and has personally met with several thousand families to plan and prefund their funerals. She writes a monthly column in the Shoreline Magazine and is a member of the Senior Marketing Group in Muskegon. Her book is sure to become a “must have” source of information for anyone going through this journey.

If you have questions please give us a call.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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A few weeks ago I was in the Muskegon Civic Theatre’s production of “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” . For those of you that didn’t get a chance to see it here’s a clip of my performance. This is just so all of you know that funeral directors aren’t just boring guy’s in black suits passing out little folders at the back of the chapel. We can let our hair down (or put it up in  this case) and let it loose too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did performing it.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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A few weeks ago I listened to Michael Gerber, the author of the E-Myth, speak here in Muskegon. I’ve first read his book 25 years ago when my sister, Ann, worked for him out in California. Now he’s one the most famous small business consultants in the world. I’ve heard him speak several time through the years and read all his other books. His basic philosophy about starting a small business is that you have to set it up like McDonalds. Everything is systematized and you teach your employees how to do things the same way every time. You need to write instructions for how each job is done so you can train each person the same way.

He states that the reason most small businesses fail is because they are started by some one who does a job, like a florist or a carpenter or a funeral director, that gets tired of working for someone else and thinks that they can do it better and make more money if they have their own business. But what they don’t realize is that there is much more to running a business than just doing the job they did when they work for someone else. That’s what he calls “working in the business”.  Doing the jobs that need to be done to keep the place going from day to day.

Michael Gerber says that business owners need to “work on the business” more than in the business. Planning, dreaming, building systems, marketing and figuring out how to grow the business. I completely agree with him. I just wish I could make that happen a whole lot more.

I happen to be the builder of the systems at my funeral home. So before any changes are made I  have to try out different methods and test them. So I design new price lists. I try out new software. I install new audio and video equipment. I move furniture around to see how people flow in and out of rooms. I build prototypes of ideas that I have for displays and equipment. And in the middle of that I still wait on families, conduct funerals, prepare bodies and all the other stuff.

The challenge is I like to do both; work on the business and work in the business. I just wish there was enough time in the day to both.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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It’s been almost a month since my last blog post. I’ve been pretty busy with other stuff and haven’t had much free time to put new thoughts together. It was my expectation that I would write a new blog post every week or so, and this is the first time since I started this blog that I haven’t quite done what I expected of myself.

For the last 3 months I have been rehearsing for Muskegon Civic Theatre’s production of “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.  We did 4 performances at the end of April and now it’s all done. I had the role of the Pharaoh. It was a great part and I had a ton of fun doing it. There was something about that costume that turned me into another guy.

Dale as the Pharaoh

We had a cast and crew of over 100 people that all had to work together to put this show on. We all had certain expectations for each other to make this happen. And it was up the directors to let us know what they expected of everyone. The audience seemed to love the show so we all must have met everyone’s expectations to a certain extent.

It was my wife’s 50^th birthday a few weeks ago. She thought that she had clearly communicated her expectations for celebrating the event. And I thought I had clearly heard those expectations and planned a function, bought gifts and invited friends. Unfortunately what she thought she said and what I thought I heard were two different things and I failed to meet her expectations (again). I spent a few days in the dog house (again). I’m sure I’m not alone in this marital challenge. Many times we assume the other person knows what we want. But it all comes down to clearly communicating what we expect.

A while back we handled a direct cremation for a family and they planned a memorial service at a local club, on their own, for several Saturdays later. They called the club, ordered the food, talked to the minister and handled all the details of that function. I would have been more than happy to take care of all of those details but the family wanted to save some money. So we placed obits in the paper to announce the service and provided them with a few other things they requested. On the Monday after the service they called to say they were disappointed that I didn’t make an appearance at the service. There was an obvious miscommunication. They expected me to be there and I assumed they understood that if they wanted to save money and do the service on their own that I would not be attending. While what we do as funeral directors doesn’t seem that complicated to the casual observer there are literally hundreds of little details that we take care of that make the event go smoothly. Our expertise is what people pay for.

In all of these situations there were expectations. Some are expectations that we put on ourselves and some are expectations that other people have of us. And when those expectations are clearly communicated and met, everyone comes away happy. When the communication breaks down and expectations are misunderstood that’s when things don’t go so well.

I don’t have an easy answer to keeping this from happening. But communication is the key. And there can never be too much communication.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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