A survey of 142 funeral homes shows that nearly a quarter fail to tell consumers about their options for simple cremations.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule requires price disclosures on a list and verbally.
In addition, 22 percent are advertising prices for simple cremations that don’t include the cremation itself. Consumers at these funeral homes will be charged fees ranging from $200 to $595 above the advertised cost for “direct cremation.”
These anti-consumer practices affect hundreds of thousands of American families each year, said the Funeral Consumers Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America, the groups that sponsored the report.
The rate of cremation equaled the rate of burial for the first time in 2015. About 1.6 million American families will choose cremation for a loved one who dies this year.
“Since 1984, funeral homes have been required to tell customers they have the right to buy a simple, no-frills cremation, and that they have the right to purchase a container or casket from outside the funeral home,” said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the alliance. “We found a significant minority of businesses that fail to alert consumers to these options, depriving grieving customers of the ability to control costs through free choice.”
Cremation prices vary substantially
The alliance and federation analyzed 142 price lists from funeral homes in 10 metropolitan regions.
In the Atlanta area, direct cremation quotes ranged from $850 to $3,495 while in Washington, D.C., the range was $1,295 to $7,595. In the Philadelphia area, the low quote was $1,095 and the high was $3,200.
“This extreme price variation provides compelling evidence of the need for effective price disclosure,” said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the federation.
Some funeral homes violate current FTC funeral rule
While all surveyed funeral homes listed a price for direct cremation, more than 20 percent failed to list prices and options for consumers who buy an outside casket or container. These funeral homes often offered one price with the container included, not following the Funeral Rule’s requirement to “unbundle” merchandise and services.
For example, 13 of the 18 funeral homes in the Atlanta area failed to disclose direct cremation options and seven didn’t disclose true cremation costs. In the Denver area, six of the 15 funeral homes didn’t disclose the correct cremation costs.
Some funeral homes exploit a funeral home loophole to disclose a cremation price that fails to include the cremation of the body
The report also found that 31 of 142 funeral homes, 22 percent, are advertising a price for direct cremation that doesn’t include the cremation of the body. Many funeral homes use third-party crematories that usually charge $250 to $400 to cremate a body, a cost that’s passed along to consumers. Some funerals home are charging the family hundreds of dollars for a service they thought they were buying.
“Countless consumers have told us they were baffled at how a funeral home can advertise a price for a simple cremation that doesn’t actually include the cremation,” Slocum said.
The Funeral Rule doesn’t require funeral homes to include “cash advance” charges in their direct cremation fee. Funeral homes can list them separately, and there’s no requirement to list them directly next to the advertised price for direct cremation. Some funeral homes omit this fee from their advertised charge, making direct cremation prices seem low.
The two consumer groups want to see this loophole closed and will ask the FTC to amend the Funeral Rule to do so.
They’ve also requested that the FTC require funeral homes to publish their complete prices on their websites. An October 2015 survey found that only 25 percent of funeral homes fully disclosed their prices online.
“Accurate price disclosure on all funeral home websites would certainly restrain those homes that clearly are gouging consumers today,” Brobeck said.
