What’s Your Protocol?

When I first started making funeral arrangements it was in the day of over 90% earth burials in my community.  I remember many times when making the removal of the deceased at the nursing home, hospital, or private residence that the next of kin would say to me, “When do we come in to pick out the casket?”  We all know that when families come in for arrangements it was for much more than “picking out a casket”, however, that is what they remembered of it.

In today’s world where even our small town funeral home is pushing 60% cremation services, many of the younger next of kin say something to this effect at the removal site, “When can we come in and look at the jewelry you have available?”  It’s remarkable to me how times have changed and even some of the hostesses that we employ now, only somewhat kiddingly, refer to the arrangement rooms as “the gift shop”.

Many funeral homes are bringing in ancillary revenue in cremation cases by the sale of personal urns and cremation jewelry, including some items personalized by the fingerprint of the deceased. I was reminded today by this article that you can read from the Boston Globe, however, that how you make your presentation for this merchandise matters.

The article pertains to one family’s disappointment that they were presented information with the fact that the funeral home had already “fingerprinted” their deceased father “for the archives” just in case they wanted to purchase the items available now or in the future.  The funeral home, with what I believe was all good intent, mentioned that by having the fingerprinting done and archived they would have it available if the family ever made the decision to purchase the items.  The family argued that fingerprints are personal and distinctive and no one should be able to take them without permission.

According to the article, the National Funeral Director’s Association and the Massachusetts State Association both recommend that a funeral home get written permission and formal consent before taking fingerprints for any purpose.  The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Embalming and Funeral Directing also recommends obtaining permission before taking fingerprints.  They have also scheduled a discussion of this issue at their next meeting.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I side with the NFDA and others on the side of obtaining consent.  In today’s world doing anything that may be deemed as an invasion of privacy without consent is asking for trouble.  I’m also of the opinion that it may not hurt your sales one bit. . . many times in the death care business, I have found the soft sell works just as good or better than the hard or direct sell.

Finally, it may be another item for your pre-arrangement counselors.  Maybe their forms could include a form allowing for fingerprinting of the subject for the idea of creating memorial items, some of which have not even been invented at the time of the pre-arrangement.

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