Written reports of research conducted by the FCA staff may be downloaded below.
Submission to the Federal Trade Commission re: amending the Funeral Rule December, 2022
This is FCA’s response to the Federal Trade Commission’s request for comments on updating the Funeral Rule. We asked the FTC to:
—require all funeral homes with websites to post their complete price and service lists online
—mandate that funeral homes tell consumers the true, all-inclusive cost of cremation
—clarify Funeral Rule language so that consumers understand their rights to decline embalming and to buy simple, no-ceremony burials
Online Price Posting At More Than 1,000 Funeral Homes In 35 State Capitals
A joint study (2022) by FCA and Consumer Federation of America. In brief:
-Only 18 percent of funeral homes surveyed post their price lists online
-All funeral homes who post are named in the appendix by city
-Consumers surveyed for this study support a mandate for funeral homes to post their price lists online
An Evaluation of Consumer Information Provided by State Funeral Regulators
A 2021 survey of the websites of all the state funeral regulatory agencies. The survey looks at what consumer information these state agency sites provide, and grades them on a scale of A to F for consumer helpfulness. The majority of states did poorly.
The Relationship between Funeral Price Disclosures and Funeral Prices: A California Case Study
A 2020 study of 120 California funeral home price lists, correlated to how prominently funeral homes post their prices online, or hide them from appearing online. Summary: price-hiding funeral homes charge much more for the same thing than price-disclosing funeral homes.
A Needle in a Haystack—Finding funeral prices online in 26 State Capitals A 2018 survey of 211 funeral homes in 25 cities. Just 27% of the 193 funeral homes with websites posted any prices online. But only 16% of the 193 homes posted their complete General Price List on their website.