FAQ

We at AFS have met with funeral homes all over Maryland, along with unique venues that welcome viewing and funeral events. Our business model allows us to contract with other funeral establishments and venues to get great pricing. Funeral homes have a lot of downtime which creates a high overhead. This overhead is then worked into the pricing of their services. AFS only uses the time we need, when we need it, meaning you do not pay for the downtime and overhead of a traditional funeral home.

Many times this is true due to all of the costs associated with cemeteries and downtime (time spent sitting around with no services scheduled), people can't afford traditional funerals so they resort to a type of service they may not want.  That means the funeral home either charges an astronomical rate for cremation and hope you buy in, or they get nothing at all. Most funeral homes are happy to let us use their viewing room.  Our team of experienced professionals supply the staff and you get the same great service, but at a lesser cost.  When talking to a veteran funeral home owner recently and discussing our business model, he made the comment, "Well, you know what, I'd rather have some of the business than none, let's do it." 

Simple, families should be able to choose what they want when their loved one dies.  So many people say cremation is up no one wants to be buried.  That is fallacy, while many people want to be cremated and there is nothing wrong with that, many want to be buried, but they can't afford it.  Our goal is to get pricing down to a point that cremation, burial and all of the merchandise are so reasonable that you really can get what you want, not what you have to.

Absolutely, you should be comfortable when you are making arrangements not stressed.  There's not many people that say, "Honey I can't wait to go to the funeral home tomorrow and talk about when we die, it's going to be so  fun!"  Nope..that doesn't happen.  We can't make things as fun as buying a new car, but we can make you as comfortable as possible in your own home, in a nursing home, or in a hospice.  

Sadly yes, it does happen.  I recently worked with a well known funeral home that took part in practices like this and it is disappointing.  The key to ensuring that this does not happen is finding funeral companies that hide nothing.  Ask any question, you should get the answer and not a bunch of fluff that the director thinks you need to hear.  At AFS, we work with the best crematory in town and can guarantee honesty and integrity as well as preservation of dignity.  And guess what, you still get crematory pricing at just $985.00.  Not that massive funeral home charge.