April 17, 2001 Myra Howard
FTC
600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20508 Dear Myra, Apparently, Service Corporation International (SCI) is now selling funerals to veterans via mail. See the enclosed sales material being sent to California vets. Read more

Beware of anything called funeral “insurance.” INSURANCE – A formal social device for reducing risk by transferring the risks of several individual entities to an insurer. The insurer agrees, for a consideration, to assume, to a specified extent, the losses suffered by the insured. Read more

Sales tips from one of the big-three, anonymously leaked to the FCA office: How often do you ask a prospect for the order? The answer, “One more time.” You should be prepared to ask at least four to five times. •46% ask once and quit •24% ask twice and quit •14% ask three times and quit •12% give up after the fourth attempt. Read more

Is SCI’s Marketing Plan
Set to Gouge the Poor? In press articles that appeared in Phoenix, Arizona and Louisville, Kentucky papers on October 19, 1999, SCI launched a new marketing plan—”Dignity” funeral packages. These plans run from about $2,000 to over $9,000 and can be financed at the rate of 12.9% to 21%, or so the article implied. Read more

The Jig Is Up (The following is an excerpt from the casket chapter in “Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love,” available through the FCA bookstore.) There is no amount of embalming or any particular casket that will preserve a body in a life-like condition forever. Read more

Pittsburgh Catholic Funerals Pennsylvania law states:   Funeral Director Law, PS 63: 479.2 . . . The term “funeral director” shall also mean a person who makes arrangements for funeral service and who sells funeral merchandise to the public incidental to such service or who makes financial arrangements for the rendering of such services and the sale of such merchandise. Read more

Rock of Ages Now that it is a publicly-traded company, it would seem that the Rock of Ages monument folks have abandoned their Vermont heritage and are opting for the ways of the money-hungry city-slickers. Their advice to the dealers they sell to: Set your prices at four times the cost. Read more