I read two articles in the past couple of days, that, while not pertaining to funeral homes and funeral home owners directly, do, in my opinion need to be known about by funeral directors.  It is my opinion that funeral home business owners and their staffs are the experts on death care in their communities and need to be involved in decisions made by municipalities that may directly influence their businesses.

The first article that you can read here pertains to the City of Atlanta and a corruption probe into how the Mayor’s office has handled financial situations that may arise.  This article, in particular, points out that in at least one case, the Mayor’s office paid out over $21,000 in funeral and funeral related expenses for a staff person that died of natural causes.  The backlash and question posed is why would taxpayer money be spent on this?

The second article that you can read here deals with the City of Chicago and an apparent fund for victim’s of violence.  According to the article, families of those who have died as a result of violence in the city are then recipients of up to $7,500 of municipally paid funeral expenses for that victim.  The article goes on to accuse Chicago funeral homes of taking advantage of this payment by bringing up expenses to reach that amount.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’m certainly not close enough to either of these situations to render an opinion on such.  My point is, however, that funeral directors in communities have to be leaders when it comes to the death care industry.  No one understands the families you serve as well as you do.  Don’t be afraid to offer advice to municipal leaders in these types of situations.

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