The Bureau licenses funeral directors, regulates funeral homes and crematoriums, and investigates complaints against them. It also provides information and assistance to consumers.
If you enter into an agreement with a government agency to handle arrangements for indigent persons, you can offer package funeral arrangements as long as the packages are offered in addition to, not in place of, your regular General Price List (GPL) and itemized prices.
Licensing
In addition to passing a law exam, funeral directors, embalmers and undertakers must pass a criminal background check and a drug test. Funeral homes are also required to meet various permits and licensing requirements.
Consumers can find extensive information on funeral practices and options from many sources, including the Internet. As a result, many consumers are seeking alternatives to traditional funeral services.
You must offer consumers a written General Price List. However, you cannot merely verbally offer the GPL or include it in a binder. You must physically offer it to consumers in order to comply with the Rule. You also may not include any non-declinable fees for facilities or unallocated overhead in the basic services fee.
Arrangements Conferences
The arrangement conference is the time set aside for consumers to work with a funeral director and determine their service needs. This may be done in person, or remotely by telephone or email.
The funeral director will discuss the available options for memorialization, final disposition and arrangements for a funeral or memorial service. They will also provide a General Price List and describe merchandise and services offered.
This is a good time to gather important information such as legal paperwork, clothing and personal items, music preferences, details for the obituary, and other important factors that must be considered. The more prepared a family is for this meeting, the smoother the process will be.
General Price List
Some funeral homes enter into agreements with government agencies to provide arrangements for indigent persons or persons who qualify for a particular program. In such cases, you may offer package funeral arrangements on a limited basis but must still comply with the Rule’s requirements.
You must give a GPL to consumers who inquire in-person about prices and arrangements, even if the discussion takes place outside of your establishment (for example, while removing a body from a hospital or nursing home). This requirement applies whether the arrangement is made on an at-need or pre-need basis.
You must also give a GPL to anyone who wants to modify funeral goods and services already purchased under a pre-need contract.
Casket Price List
Caskets (or alternative containers, such as a cardboard or pressed wood box) and funeral wreaths vary widely in price. Some states require that funeral homes disclose the average cost of these items.
You must give a GPL to anyone who asks about your prices for funeral goods and services, whether the inquiry is made by telephone or in person. (You don’t have to send a GPL in response to requests for information that are made by mail.)
Some funeral providers enter into agreements with religious groups, burial societies or memorial societies to arrange funeral arrangements for their members at special prices. The Rule requires you to follow the same requirements for these arrangements as for all other arrangements.
Outer Burial Container Price List
Outer burial containers are receptacles that house the casket and protect it from outside conditions. They are not required by law but many cemeteries require them. They are available in a variety of models.
Cash advances are fees charged by funeral providers for goods and services that they buy from outside vendors on your behalf, such as flowers, obituary notices, pallbearers, officiating clergy and organists and soloists. The Funeral Rule requires funeral providers to disclose any cash advance fees on their Good Faith Estimate.
Some funeral homes may attempt to hide the cost of a cash advance by rolling it into the price of another service, such as cremation or a casket. This is illegal.
Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected
When consumers make arrangements in person, they must be given a completed Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected at the end of the arrangements conference. The funeral establishment must also send a Statement to consumers who make all their arrangements by telephone.
Some funeral homes present their outer burial container selections through a book containing photographs of the containers they offer for sale. This approach is acceptable as long as the Statement includes all of the information required by the Rule.
You cannot tell consumers that federal, state, or local law or a cemetery or crematory requires them to buy certain goods and services unless this is true. You must list any such requirement on the Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected.