Beecher and Bennett Funeral Service- serving Hamden, West Haven and Meridan, CT, funerals, cremation, caskets, urns

Death Away From Home

WHAT TO DO FIRST

Call Beecher & Bennett at (203) 288-0800 day or night. A full-time staff member will answer your call, 24 hours a day.

Wherever the death occurs, call Beecher & Bennett immediately. There is no need to call an unknown funeral director in a place that you might be unfamiliar with. When you call us, we will ask a few questions necessary to take charge and then we will make the necessary arrangements, acting as you agent, to have the deceased returned to Connecticut. We are members of a network of Independent Funeral Homes across the country. You only need to provide us with some basic information to complete legal forms and call us when you return to the area to set a time for the arrangement conference. Of course we will help with any questions that you might have.

When we act as your agent, you only have to deal with someone you know. All costs are billed on one statement and the funeral home that we select will act as our agent in handling the preparation for shipment. (Do not contact a funeral firm where the death occurs. We will do this for you.)

Only if you plan to have services or visitation in the town where the death and you know a local funeral home, should you call them directly. We will certainly cooperate with them for transportation and services locally.

At Beecher & Bennett, you normally pay only our standard professional, facility and merchandise prices, as if the death had occurred in the local area, plus transportation fees. This represents a saving from having two separate funeral firms with some overlapping responsibilities for you to deal with. Transportation costs are not standard, so we cannot say exactly how much this might be, however we work to coordinate shipping schedules, using lightweight transfer caskets, to keep the airfare to a minimum.

International Travel

If a family member dies while traveling outside the United States, the U.S. Embassy will come to your assistance. You should call us as soon as possible, so that we can be of assistance. We have many contacts in foreign lands and are well versed in the procedures for returning the deceased to the United States.

Our International Network

Our membership in the Selected Independent Funeral Homes, The International Order of the Golden Rule, and the National Funeral Directors Association, all are valuable contacts for us. As active members of these associations we know many of the people personally and can trust their work.

Frequent Travelers

For people that travel frequently, we recommend a funeral pre-arrangement plan that includes an insurance policy that provides for the return of the deceased beneficiary if death occurs anywhere.