Final expense coverage sounds simple on paper: a smaller policy meant to cover funeral and burial costs so a family isn’t left scrambling for cash during an already difficult time. In practice, Kelby Strohm sees the same handful of mistakes come up again and again when Everett-area homeowners shop for this kind of plan on their own. This final expense planning guide walks through what he most often sees go wrong, and how the insurance and financial solutions he offers are built to close those specific gaps before they become a problem for the people left behind. Most of the mistakes below aren’t complicated once someone points them out, but they’re easy to miss when a family is shopping for coverage on their own without a second set of eyes reviewing the numbers.

Underestimating What Funeral Costs Actually Look Like Today

The single biggest mistake he sees is picking a coverage amount based on an outdated number, often one a family remembers from years ago rather than current pricing. NFDA’s most recent cremation and burial report shows how much funeral and burial costs have shifted in just the past few years, and earlier NFDA pricing research found that these costs have been climbing faster than general inflation. A policy sized for what a funeral cost a decade ago often leaves a real, uncomfortable gap for whoever is left to cover the difference out of pocket. He always starts by asking clients what number they have in mind, and more often than not, they adjust it upward once they walk through current service, burial, and cemetery costs together line by line. Cremation costs less than a traditional burial in most cases, but even cremation-focused families are often surprised by how much a service, urn, and memorial gathering can add to the total once everything is accounted for.

Assuming Medical Qualification Will Be A Problem

Another mistake is assuming final expense coverage requires the same rigorous medical underwriting as a large term policy, and skipping the process entirely out of fear of being declined. In reality, most final expense plans are built specifically for easier qualification, with simplified health questions rather than a full medical exam. The NAIC’s tips for purchasing life insurance point out that coverage type and underwriting requirements vary widely across the market, which is exactly why comparing multiple carriers matters more than assuming one company’s rules apply everywhere else. He’s had clients come to him convinced they’d be declined based on a past health issue, only to find a carrier willing to offer coverage at a reasonable rate once they actually went through the real application together instead of guessing. Guaranteed acceptance options exist too for clients with more serious health histories, though they typically come with a graded benefit period and a smaller payout, which is worth understanding upfront rather than discovering after a claim.

Buying Coverage Without Comparing Carriers

A lot of homeowners buy the first final expense policy they’re offered, often through a direct-mail flyer or a single-carrier phone call, without ever comparing it against other options. Because he represents Farmers Insurance while also maintaining access to additional A- and A+-rated carriers nationwide, he can walk clients through several real quotes side by side instead of one. The Insurance Information Institute’s guidance on choosing a policy type reinforces that the right fit depends on a household’s specific health picture and budget, not on whichever offer happened to arrive in the mail first. Mail-order and direct-response policies often carry higher costs for the same coverage amount specifically because they’re priced for broad, unscreened marketing rather than a relationship with a licensed local advisor who can actually answer questions as they come up.

Forgetting To Plan For The Time Between Diagnosis And Death

Final expense conversations often focus only on the funeral bill itself, overlooking the medical bills, lost income, and caregiving costs that can pile up in the months before a death occurs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s resources on planning for illness highlight how much financial strain this window can create for a family, even when the eventual funeral costs themselves are fully covered. He builds final expense plans that account for this stretch of time, not just the very end of it. In practice, that often means pairing a smaller final expense policy with a critical illness rider or a separate short-term protection product, so a family has resources available well before the funeral costs themselves ever become relevant. He’s seen households drain most of their savings covering hospital bills and lost income during a prolonged illness, leaving very little left over by the time the final expense policy was ever needed at all.

Not Revisiting Coverage As Costs And Circumstances Change

The last mistake he sees often is treating final expense coverage as a one-time purchase instead of something to revisit every few years. Funeral costs rise, health situations change, and a policy bought a decade ago may no longer reflect either. He schedules periodic check-ins with clients specifically to review whether their existing coverage still lines up with current costs and their current household picture, adjusting where needed rather than letting a policy quietly fall out of date without anyone noticing until it’s too late to fix easily. He typically suggests a review every two to three years, or sooner if a client’s health, location, or family situation changes in a meaningful way during that window.

Getting Final Expense Coverage Right The First Time

Most of the mistakes homeowners make with final expense coverage come down to the same root issue: buying based on outdated assumptions instead of current numbers and a full comparison of options. Kelby Strohm helps Everett-area families avoid that by building final expense coverage around real, current funeral cost planning data, and by comparing affordable protection options across multiple carriers instead of settling for the first one offered.

Get in touch with him to review your current coverage or start from scratch, and he’ll make sure the numbers actually reflect what your family would need today, not what a policy purchased years ago was originally built to cover. A short review now is a lot easier than a difficult conversation with grieving family members later about a shortfall nobody expected, and most reviews take less time than people assume once the paperwork is in front of them. Visit Kelby Strohm anytime to learn more about his full range of insurance and financial planning services.