AG Brnovich calls on FTC to enhance funeral service consumer protection
AG Mark Brnovich on Thursday joined a coalition of 22 Attorneys General calling on the FTC to better protect consumers purchasing funeral home services.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 22: Bodies wait in an overflow room at the Gerard Neufeld funeral home on April 22, 2020 in the Elmhurst neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City. The funeral home, which is close to Elmhurst Hospital, often has to take the phone off the hook as it rings continually. The owner's son, Joe, often sleeps on a couch in the hall where the phone will wake him at 3 am with a call inquiring about burial information for someone who has recently passed away. Ray Neufeld, who had recently retired after 40 years of work at the home, came back to work as he couldn’t stand to sit and watch as his brother was overwhelmed with bodies needing burial and cremation. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Thursday joined a coalition of 22 Attorneys General calling on the Federal Trade Commission to better protect consumers purchasing funeral home services.
Enacted in 1982, the FTC Funeral Rule protects those purchasing funeral home services from deceptive and unfair practices, as funeral expenses have gone up nearly twice as fast as consumer prices, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The coalition sent a letter to the FTC in response to its proposed Funeral Industry Practices Rule, warning that a lack of pricing transparency in the industry prevents those comparing prices accurately and even exposes them to overpayment.
The letter requests: itemized price lists and average costs of services be publicized online; format standardization of price lists and other disclosures, protect pre-need funeral payments, provide consumers electronic copies of price lists before selecting services, receipts for services paid to third parties and repay any funds in excess of final costs.
The Attorneys General also suggested that embalming requirements be disclosed as well, as embalming is not required in Arizona if remains are refrigerated, cremated, or buried within 24 hours.
Currently, providers are required to give up-front itemized price information along with explanations for those prices, but there is no standardized format that must be followed.
The rule also allows consumers to use caskets that are purchased elsewhere for no added charge, forgo goods or services not wanted or needed and provides some protection against misrepresentations around services like embalming.
The FTC is reviewing its 1982 Funeral Industry Practices Rule that regulates funeral homes, as it has not been updated since 1994 and does not mandate that providers post this information online or offer context around average funeral costs.
As a result, consumers can be left vulnerable to overpayment or fraud if they were to pay for services in advance, such as through a life insurance policy.
“Most of us don’t have experience in planning a funeral, but losing someone we love can be one of the most difficult times in a person’s life, and it shouldn’t be made any harder by incomplete information or inconsistent pricing,” Brnovich said in a press release.
“I urge the FTC to adopt new rules to further protect grieving consumers against fraudulent or overbearing demands made by the funeral industry and increase transparency for people who are in need of funeral goods and services.”
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