Category: In the News

Screenshot 2025 06 18 080548
Funeral costs in the spotlight

A funeral bill is one you never want to pay, but there's a push to make the whole ordeal cheaper and better.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 06 09 162208
'Changing paperwork is not going to fix funeral debt': Association slams call to remove funeral directors as cremation middlemen

Funeral Directors Association chief executive Gillian Boyes said reducing the amount of paper work is not going to fix funeral debt for families.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 06 09 085536
Life changes - and death changes, too

With New Zealand's first water crematorium opening for business today, President of the Funeral Directors Association Andrew Malcolm joins Emile Donovan to discuss how our attitudes to going out in style are changing.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 06 06 092007
Eco-friendly deaths - how to have less of a final carbon footprint

Water cremation is now available in Christchurch from this week at Bell Lamb and Trotter funeral directors.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 06 03 080945
How the cost of living is increasing the cost of dying

From the wages to the casket to the embalming fluid, Funeral Directors Association chief executive Gillian Boyes said every element of a funeral had gone up.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 05 19 103200
The secrets, shame, and stories that led to unmarked graves

More than a century after Frank Renall reportedly beat John Henderson to death with his fists and a chair, both men lie in unmarked graves near the asylum where it happened.

More than 1700 other patients lie there in the same way: unacknowledged, unclaimed, and publicly unnamed.

Now though, that’s set to change.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 05 15 134802
Water cremation a New Zealand first

In what is being called a significant change for the funeral industry, New Zealand’s first water cremation service is being offered in Christchurch from next month.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 05 09 100027
Pacific families are vulnerable under current funeral rules, says industry leader

The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ) is calling for more transparent standards for pricing and standards after further details of a former funeral director's misconduct were revealed.

Read more
Screenshot 2025 04 28 082339
Angel Casts helps bereaved mum replace baby son’s headstone

Well done to member firm, Pellow & Hill for their compassion and generosity in stepping up to fully support a grieving family when it mattered most. 

Read more