The problem
When a family arrives with a prepaid funeral plan, the arranger needs to know what it covers, which disbursements are included or capped, what may be charged to the family and how to claim from the provider. The answers sit in each provider's funeral director agreement, service schedules and claims guide, often 60 pages or more per provider. If 4 of a month's funerals are plan funerals and finding the answers takes about 45 minutes each, that's 3 hours a month, and a family can be told something about costs that turns out to be wrong.
What the AI does
Claude reads long documents in one go and keeps them in Projects, so every chat in a project works from the same files. The office manager sets up one project per plan provider with the agreement, the service schedules and the claims guide. Before the arrangement meeting, the arranger asks something like 'For a cremation plan of this type bought in 2019, what is included, which disbursements are covered and up to what amount, and what must be sent with the claim? Give the clause and page for each point.' The arranger reads each cited clause, confirms anything unclear with the provider, and explains the position to the family plainly and gently. Only the plan type and date go in, never the family's details or those of the person who has died. Free has up to 5 projects; Pro (about $17£13€15A$25C$24 a month billed annually) has unlimited projects and more use.
A worked example
An independent funeral director in Dorset with one branch arranges about 10 funerals a month, 4 of them paid for by prepaid plans from 3 different providers. The office manager keeps each provider's documents in its own Claude Pro project, and arrangers check them before meeting the family.
Before
About 45 minutes searching provider documents or waiting on a helpline for each of 4 plan funerals: 3 hours a month
After
About 15 minutes reading the cited clauses for each: 1 hour a month
What it's worth
About $67£50€60A$96C$94 a month in arranger time saved, against about $17£13€15A$25C$24 to $20£15€18A$29C$28 for Claude Pro. 30 minutes saved on each of 4 plan funerals is 2 hours, at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour.
How to set it up
- Check each provider agreement's confidentiality clause allows it to be stored in an AI tool, and ask the provider if it isn't clear.
- Sign up for Claude Pro, $17 (about $17£13€15A$25C$24) a month billed annually or $20 (about $20£15€18A$29C$28) monthly, and opt out of model training in the privacy settings.
- Create one project per plan provider and upload the current agreement, service schedules and claims guide, with older versions labeled by the dates they applied.
- Before a plan funeral arrangement, ask the project what that plan type and year covers, what is capped or excluded and what the claim needs, with the clause and page for each point.
- Read each cited clause, confirm anything unclear with the provider, and explain any extra cost to the family in plain words and in writing.
What goes wrong
- Plan terms depend on when the plan was bought, and providers update their agreements. Replace the files when new versions arrive, or answers will come from the wrong terms.
- Claude can misread a cap or miss an exclusion. Never tell a family what a plan covers until you've read the clause yourself.
- Pro is for one person, and project sharing needs the Team plan (about $20£15€18A$29C$28 per user a month billed annually, from 2 users), which also doesn't train on business data by default. Free and Pro chats can be used for training unless you opt out.
- Keep names, the cause of death and any health details out of it. The plan type, the date it was bought and the question are all it needs.