Regulations
According to this article from the Los Angeles Times, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released final death statistics for the calendar year 2021 last week. It’s interesting to note that the death rate (the percentage of Americans who die in a given year) has risen at the same time that life expectancy…
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I recently read this story in the Buffalo (NY) News that is entitled, “Two men planned what would happen after their deaths. Why did they end up in unmarked graves?” The story documents the plights of two men who, by most death care experts opinion, did everything that they should have done about their future deaths…
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I was a little bit flattered and humbled when death care experts Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson picked up Funeral Director Daily’s article on the upcoming process of “retaining and modernizing” the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Funeral Rule” as the topic for their latest “Two Guys and a Question” podcast. You can click here to…
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If you are part of the Death Care business in North America part of your goal is to move families from grief to remembrance of their loved one. And, if we are honest about it, we should never want anybody to ever be forgotten. That’s why so many are so strong in recommending a place…
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The Federal Trade Commission issued the “Funeral Rule” in 1982 with an effective date of September 1984. Since that time it has operated as a consumer tool for price comparison in the funeral home market. This recent communication from the FTC asks for additional comments on several items by January 3, 2023, as the FTC…
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As you may know I have lived my entire life in Minnesota. . . and this past weekend winter arrived. We had a little brush with snow and then our first Zero degree day was Saturday. It made me think of my working years with committal services out at the cemetery following a church service…
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Earlier this week I was informed by a Funeral Director Daily reader that online price lists have started to appear on the websites of Service Corporation International (SCI) funeral homes. Just to be clear, I’m not sure that this is news or not — because I’ve never taken the time to check out individual SCI…
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November 11th brings back memories in many countries. It’s not just Veteran’s Day in America. . . it is a day of remembrance all over Europe. Originally referred to as Armistice Day (Armistice, in Latin, means to “stand arms”). It was at 11 am on November 11 (11/11) in 1918 that an agreement was reached…
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We’ve all talked about it and see it out in the profession — a lack of trained and licensed funeral directors to combat the coming years when America faces a wave of Baby Boomer deaths. Without the influx of new professionals, many funeral homes will be understaffed which can lead to a vicious cycle of…
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I’ve worked almost my entire career under the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Funeral Rule”. The rule, for all practical purposes, required me to introduce “price” into the conversation whenever someone either called the funeral home or walked into the funeral home and asked about funeral, cremation, or memorial services. It also required me to hand…
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