Funeral-related industries: complaints and state laws vary, and FTC could better manage the funeral rule: report to congressional requesters

Original publisher: Washington, D.C. (441 G St., NW, Rm. LM, Washington, 20548) : U.S. General Accounting Office, [1999]. OCLC Number: (OCoLC)43724657 Subject: Funeral supplies industry -- United States. Excerpt: ... B-281214 11 consumer problems. The report also stated that even at the time the Funeral Rule was proposed and under consideration, the number of consumer complaints filed against funeral directors was modest. Despite the low number of complaints, FTC was able to promulgate the Funeral Rule because, among other things, it believed that " the emotional trauma of bereavement, the lack of information, and time pressures place the consumer at an enormous disadvantage in making funeral arrangements. These conditions mean that the funeral consumer lacks much of the information and freedom of choice available in most other consumer transactions. " Over the last 5 years, FTC has taken steps, including distributing FTC's Efforts to compliance guides and working with the funeral home industry, to Promote Compliance promote compliance with the Funeral Rule. FTC took these steps because it was concerned about what it perceived as a relatively low level of Include Distributing compliance. For the late 1980s, FTC reported that only about one-third ( 36 Guidelines, Test-percent ) of funeral providers complied with two key requirements of the Shopping, and Working Funeral Rule - giving consumers a general price list ( GPL ) and an itemized With Funeral Home final statement of goods and services selected. FTC based this compliance rate on a study it did in 1987 during a review of the Funeral Rule. To Industry conduct its study, FTC questioned selected consumers who had arranged funerals in the past 18 months about their experiences with the funeral homes and what was done by the homes to comply with the Rule. During the early years after the Funeral Rule became effective, FTC's enforcement of the Rule was complaint-based. FTC filed 41 civil penalty cases from 1984 ...