Teaching Our Students to Counsel Against Funeral Poverty

In many estate planning courses in law schools across the country, death event planning is not discussed. An odd fact considering the courses focus on death-related content. Professor Haneman, a professor at the Creighton University School of Law, wrote an article titled Funeral Poverty, in which she discusses the importance of teaching students about death event planning. 

Haneman explained that families often find themselves “begging or borrowing” to cover death service expenses. “Crowdfunding has become common among families dealing with unexpected funeral expenses, with GoFundMe staff members coaching funeral organizers on how to optimize the chances of their fundraising campaigns going viral.”

“Central to Professor Haneman’s analysis of why Americans spend so much on death services is her assertion that we are ‘extraordinarily distanced from death and have moved the process from home to institution.'” 

Many of us are uncomfortable with death, and are even more uncomfortable facing the reality that we and our loved ones will die some day. Due to the discomfort, many of us distance ourselves from death, which leaves us ill-prepared when death does strike. 

It is important to stress the importance to prepare for these moments, so that our clients, and especially our loved ones will not have to scramble around looking for away to pay for death service expenses. 

See Sarah Waldeck, Teaching Our Students to Counsel Against Funeral Poverty, JOTWELL (November 2, 2020) (reviewing Victoria J. Haneman, Funeral Poverty, __ Univ. of Richmond L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2021), available at SSRN), https://trustest.jotwell.com/teaching-our-students-to-counsel-against-funeral-poverty/.