Common Questions

Prior to moving forward with cremation, we are required by law to have a signature from the decedent’s legal next-of-kin and primary care physician, as well as the medical examiner from the county where the death occurs. The process of obtaining these signatures does not start until we have met with the legal next-of-kin. On average, it takes 3-4 business days following the initial meeting with the legal next-of-kin for us to obtain the necessary signatures from the primary care physician and medical examiner. Holidays can further delay the process. At the time of the initial meeting with the legal next-of-kin, our licensed funeral director will provide a timeline most appropriate, given the circumstances for each passing vary greatly.

On average, the cremation process takes 2 – 2 ½ hours.

If you weren’t present when the team from Cremation Society of Minnesota arrived to take your loved one into our care, you might be confused where they are brought to be cared for.

Our state-of-the-art care center is located at 10925 Nesbitt avenue S, Bloomington, MN 55437, and serves all of our chapels in the Minnesota metro area. Your loved one is brought here, and it is also the location of our crematory equipment. Our care center staff is all part of the Cremation Society of Minnesota organization

Cremation Society of Minnesota locations are funeral homes. They are registered as funeral homes, and the funeral establishment license number is conspicuously displayed in each of our locations.

There is a common misconception that you only need a funeral director to be involved in planning a funeral service, or for planning the burial of a casketed person. In Minnesota, the paperwork for a cremation is also overseen and authorized by a funeral director. That means that if you make an appointment to complete cremation paperwork with Cremation Society of Minnesota, you are working with a licensed funeral director who will help authorize the cremation in conjunction with other responsible parties.

Cremation Society of Minnesota offers a variety of interment and disposition methods; you do not have to have your loved one cremated. We can help you coordinate a casketed burial, alkaline hydrolysis (sometimes called “water cremation” or “aquamation”) or flame cremation. We can even help you with transporting your loved one out of the state, or out of the country for interment or disposition elsewhere.

Trying to capture all of the important things that made your loved one special in one obituary can be overwhelming. It can be hard to decide what fits in the notice, and what doesn’t.

Fortunately, there are guides and templates to help you along the way. The Star Tribune offers a very thorough guide on writing an obituary on their site.

You may also be curious about how to get an obituary “out there”, so that all the people that care about your loved one see it. For starters, Cremation Society of Minnesota hosts obituaries on the website for free, indefinitely. We can also help you place a notice in local newspapers. Posts on social media go a long way towards notifying broader audiences too.

If your loved one passes in the state of Minnesota, a funeral director can notify the Social Security Administration for you so long as they are provided your loved one’s Social Security Number. This notification will stop Social Security benefits, although you may still need to notify Medicaid yourself.

Additionally, if your spouse passes, you may be entitled to start receiving their social security benefits, if your spouse’s benefits were higher than your own. Usually this process is automatic. The surviving spouse of someone that has passed away may also be entitled to a one-time lump sum death payment of $255.00, by making an appointment with the Social Security Administration, and presenting a valid marriage certificate.

FEMA COVID-19 Funeral and Burial Reimbursement Program

In March 2021, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a new program to provide financial assistance to families for certain COVID-19 related funeral expenses. The FEMA COVID-19 Funeral and Burial Reimbursement Program will pay up to $9,000 in expenses for funeral, cremation, and interment costs. Families that have lost multiple family members may qualify for higher reimbursement amounts.  FEMA will begin accepting applications for Funeral Assistance on Monday, April 12, 2021 through a dedicated call center.

Fraud Alert: FEMA has received reports of scammers reaching out to people offering to register them for funeral assistance. FEMA has not sent any such notifications and does not contact people prior to them registering for assistance.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

To be eligible for funeral assistance, you must meet the following conditions:

The death must have occurred in the United States, including the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.
The death certificate must indicate the death was attributed to COVID-19.
The applicant must be a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified alien who incurred funeral expenses after January 20, 2020.
There is no requirement for the deceased person to have been a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified alien.

WHAT FUNERAL EXPENSES ARE COVERED?

COVID-19 Funeral Assistance will assist with expenses for funeral services and interment or cremation. Any receipts received for expenses that are not related to funeral services will not be determined eligible expenses. Expenses for funeral services and interment or cremation typically include, but are not limited to:

Transportation for up to two individuals to identify the deceased individual
Transfer of remains
Casket or urn
Burial plot or cremation niche
Marker or headstone
Clergy or officiant services
Arrangement of the funeral ceremony
Use of funeral home equipment or staff
Cremation or interment costs
Costs associated with producing and certifying multiple death certificates
Additional expenses mandated by any applicable local or state government laws or ordinances

More information is available on the FEMA FAQ page here.

HOW TO APPLY

844-684-6333 | TTY: 800-462-7585

Hours of Operation:
Monday - Friday
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time

If you incurred COVID-19 funeral expenses, we encourage you to keep and gather documentation. Types of information should include:

An official death certificate that attributes the death directly or indirectly to COVID-19 and shows that the death occurred in the United States, including the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.
Funeral expenses documents (receipts, funeral home contract, etc.) that includes the applicant’s name, the deceased person’s name, the amount of funeral expenses, and the dates the funeral expenses happened.
Proof of funds received from other sources specifically for use toward funeral costs. FEMA is not able to duplicate benefits received from burial or funeral insurance, financial assistance received from voluntary agencies, government agencies, or other sources.

For the latest information from FEMA, please click here.

To start the process of setting up your arrangements, just give us a call: 612-200-2777. You’ll be prompted to select an option for “preplanning”.

We will help connect you with one of our preneed specialists, who can answer your questions about preplanning and set an appointment to talk about your wishes.

A few things you should know about prepaying your funeral expenses before you do it:

Federal regulations stipulate that prepaid funeral expenses go into an insurance trust. This ensures that your prepaid funds are protected.
Cremation Society of Minnesota can guarantee your cremation costs if you prepay them in full. That means that even if our price for a cremation goes up, the price you paid is “locked in” -- no one is stuck paying the difference on cremation costs.

The first benefit of preplanning is becoming a member with Cremation Society of Minnesota. When you do that, we collect all of the most important information needed for your cremation paperwork, and you can authorize your own cremation. This puts you in the driver’s seat of your own cremation arrangements – your wishes are in writing and on-file with us. Pay the member ship fee once, and you receive our membership discount on your prepaid funeral arrangements as well. You can become a member online, or by mail by clicking here.

Once you become a member, we offer guaranteed pricing. If you prefund your cremation with Cremation Society of Minnesota, we can guarantee the price of the cremation costs: Once you pay for your cremation, if our prices for cremation go up, no one has to pay the difference.

Funeral goods and services can be financed over 4 payments using Lilypay. After a credit check, Lilypay will let us know if you qualify. We will still need to collect your signature and information on a formal contract prior to applying for Lilypay.

Yes. Any item or service seen on our General Price List can be pre-paid for; however, only those costs under our direct control, such as the cost of cremation, an urn, the use of our facilities, etc., are guaranteed. No third party expenses, such as obituaries, flowers, etc. are guaranteed. If the costs of these items or services are higher at the time of death than the original payment, the individual’s survivors will be responsible for the difference in cost.

Any funeral home that offers prepayment of funeral service expenses is going to help you set up an insurance trust for the money you are prepaying towards your funeral expenses. Some funeral homes offer guaranteed prices for funeral goods and services, some offer non-guaranteed prices.

Items that are guaranteed on the prepaid funeral contract you set up are protected from prices going up. We offer guaranteed direct cremation pricing. That means that when you prefund your cremation, even if our prices go up, your family won’t be paying the difference.

Non-guaranteed items are subject to changes in price. For example, death certificate costs are set by the state of Minnesota, and subject to change as the state decides the price. Cremation Society of Minnesota does not guarantee the cost of death certificates, but you can still put money into your prepaid funeral expenses for them.

Prepaid funeral or cremation expenses can be revocable, or irrevocable. Revocable policies allow you to withdraw the cash value from the prepaid funeral expense account. The cash value offered by insurance companies is often less than the amount paid in. Irrevocable policies do NOT allow you to retrieve the money you set aside for funeral or cremation expenses.

Revocable policies are good to have if you ever want to retrieve the funds instead of using them for a funeral. Irrevocable policies are exempt from Medicaid spend-down limitations – they don’t count towards your total assets. Cremation Society of Minnesota offers both types of policy.

There are three options to register as a member. The membership form can be completed on-line, it can be printed, completed and mailed with the membership fee to any of our five locations or you can schedule an appointment at any of our five locations and one of our experienced staff persons will walk you through the process. The fee to become a member is $15.00.

No. Every person must individually register as a member to receive the benefits of membership.

Simply call us at 612-825-2435 and provide the individual’s name and date of birth; we can check our systems immediately to determine membership status.

Yes. The pre-paid insurance policy is transferrable to any funeral home in the United States. Should the payer or his/her survivors choose to utilize a funeral or cremation provider more accessible to them at the time of need, the full value of the policy is accessible by the chosen provider.

When you prefund your cremation expenses with the Cremation Society of Minnesota, you receive a guarantee for the price you paid. If you were to pass outside of Minnesota, Cremation Society of Minnesota can still handle arranging for your cremation, and honor your guarantee. You should instruct your family members that in the event of your passing, their first call should be to Cremation Society of Minnesota, because contracting with another funeral home can void that guarantee.

If you’d like to see the full list of affiliates that Cremation Society of Minnesota will work with in such a situation, take a look at Altogether, which shows locations across the United States that we can partner with.

Still have concerns about passing away outside of Minnesota? Cremation Society of Minnesota offers an Out of Area Protection (OAP) plan when you prearrange your funeral. Click here to check it out.

If you’re concerned about keeping the guarantees made in your preplanned funeral, the Out of Area Protection plan can be added to your prearrangements as a one-time fee. It protects you from any additional transportation expenses that would otherwise apply, whether you’re on a cruise, in Alaska, or up north in the Boundary Waters.

Transport from a foreign country back to the United States, or from within the United States to Minnesota can cost thousands of dollars. With an Out of Area Protection plan, you have access to SepioGuard, which handles the logistics and costs of transport for you.

Whether we can fill the containers that you provide with your loved one’s ashes has a lot to do with the interior dimensions of the items, and the method by which they are sealed. We cannot verify the integrity or quality of items purchased from other merchandisers, but if you bring them in for our team to look at, we can give you a better answer.

Generally, a container that can hold 200 cubic inches of materials will hold all the ashes of a person who has been cremated.