Funeral Homes Editing and Proofreading Services

A family sits down at eleven in the morning, two days after a death, and makes about forty decisions in ninety minutes. Some of them cost money and some of them cannot be undone. What they take away is a written estimate, and in three weeks — when the shock has lifted and the invoice arrives — that estimate is the only record of what was agreed and why.

We edit what funeral directors produce — written estimates given at the arrangement, itemised confirmations of what has been agreed, third-party cost explanations and their pass-through, coffin, service and vehicle option descriptions, viewing, care and preparation information, order of service and notice content, timeline and what-happens-next documentation, changes and additional cost communications, invoices and their reconciliation to the estimate, and aftercare and bereavement support information. Our editors work on the estimate a family reads three weeks later.

The written estimate given at the arrangement is the document that protects a family from their own decision-making, and its failure is a total with a list. A family who chose an oak coffin at eleven in the morning has no memory of the price by the afternoon. We write these so each item carries what was chosen and its price on the same line, in the words the family used rather than the trade's, since a family who reads "solid oak, brass fittings, as you chose — £890" recognises the decision and a line saying "coffin, superior" does not; so the third-party costs are shown separately as sums the firm collects and passes on, with the payee named, given that a family reconciling the invoice needs to see which money was yours; so anything not yet fixed is marked as an estimate with what it depends on and when it will be confirmed, because the doctors' fees, the number of cars and the crematorium slot are the three that move; so the items the family declined are listed as declined, as this is what protects a firm when a relative asks in a fortnight why there were no limousines; so the total is given as a range where any element is unconfirmed rather than as a false precision; so the point at which a decision becomes final is stated, particularly for the coffin and the notice; and so the family is told they may change their mind about anything not yet ordered and how to do it. Estimates written this way are read with gratitude rather than surprise.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including estimates, family correspondence and records. We are editors rather than funeral directors or regulatory advisers, and we offer no view on pricing, disclosure or practice. What we can do is make the estimate legible to a family in shock and to the same family in three weeks.