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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
until recently, the only place where you could purchase a casket was
from a licensed funeral home at a cost that could average well into the
thousands of dollars. Thanks to a 1994 ruling by the Federal Trade
Commission, you have the legal right to furnish your own casket to the
funeral home at a greatly reduced cost. By providing your own casket
and flowers through The Casket Company, you are saving a major portion
of the traditional funeral expenses.
The Federal Trade commission has ruled that funeral homes can no longer
not except the purchase of a casket and other funeral goods and
services. If you are purchasing a casket from a source other than a
funeral home, the funeral home of your choice must use the casket you
have provided without duress or embarrassment to you, the consumer.
What else should you know?
- You have the right to comparison shop by phone.
By law, funeral directors must give you specific answers to
specific questions regarding types of services available and
pricing fro all items.
- If you inquire in person at a funeral home about
arrangements, the funeral director must provide you with a
preprinted " General Price List"; a complete itemization of all
services offered and the corresponding prices.
- when you select a funeral home to handle the
service portion of the funeral, there is one item on the General
Price List that is non-declinable: the basic service fee of the
funeral director and staff. The basic service fee amounts to the
cost of doing business by the funeral home and does not include any
of the other services provided such as transfer of the remains,
refrigeration, embalming, use of the facilities just to name a few
of the many costs of a funeral.
- Embalming is not required by law
except in 3 specific circumstances; death by
infectious disease, a prolonged period of time between death and
burial, or most commonly, a public viewing of wake.
- If a funeral director is making a cash
advance for such items as flowers, obituary notices, grave
opening and closing fees, pallbearers, etc., it must be
disclosed to the consumer if any money is being made on the
transaction. It is advised to ask for
cash receipts.
- A casket is not required for a direct
cremation. An inexpensive alternative
container is all that is required.
- The funeral director must provide an
itemized accounting, known as the
statement of goods and services, showing the total cost of
the funeral merchandise and/ or services selected.
- Funeral providers are strictly prohibited
from making any claims that a product of service will
indefinitely preserve the remains.
- Many funeral homes are owned by large
corporations. Market research indicates that a corporately
owned funeral home tends to be significantly higher in cost.
Ask your funeral director if the
funeral home is independently owned and operated of is it
part of large nationwide corporation.
- Many funeral directors no longer do their own
embalming or initial pickup of the remains.
Ask the funeral director if he is providing these
services or if it is contracted to an outside source.
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