The Neptune Society/Trident Society will take 2/3 of your money. Here's a quick telling of my story so you can see how it happens:
My dad died recently while I held his hand, and within 30 minutes of his death I was asked who should come pick up his body. I told the nurse I thought he had a Neptune Society policy but that I didn't know the details. We decided to call the on-call mortuary in the city to pick up his body. The next day I was told by the mortuary that I should have called Neptune, but not to worry because his policy could be transferred — it was standard procedure for all mortuaries. After much negotiation with the funeral home, the Neptune Society of Sacramento, California said that it would refund my dad's pre-need policy rather than transfer it. Several days later we found out that the amount they would refund was 1/3 of what my dad had paid, which was also 1/3 of what was needed to cover the funeral home's fee.
That's because Neptune/Trident does it differently than reputable, local funeral homes that have a stake in their local community and live or die by their reputation and service. Neptune/Trident takes the first 2/3 of your payment as fees and tranfers the remaining to a trust which can be transferred.
I'm not saying that they ripped me off in this one instance; I'm saying that their service is set up so that they keep as much money as possible in all situations like this — which is different than local mortuaries. It's all in the contract, but how many of the people making the decision within moments of their loved ones passing know the fine print in a contract signed by someone else? I didn't and now my family will pay for a simple mistake.
Don't let this happen to your loved ones. If you buy a pre-need contract do it from a local funeral home who will tranfer your trust to any funeral home in the country on demand.
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