States that are NOT Home Funeral friendly

Connecticut - Nebraska - Indiana - Louisiana - New York - Utah - Michigan

States You Shouldn’t Be Caught Dead In

As the director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly — from so-called regulatory boards that ignore consumer complaints to law-makers who’ve decided you don’t have the right to buy reasonably priced caskets, or even skip the funeral home and do it yourself. Here’s five of the worst offenders:

Alabama
Get out while you still can.  Not only does Alabama have some of the weakest laws in the nation on pre-paid funerals, its regulatory office is a shambles. A 2007 state audit found the Alabama Board of Funeral Service had no idea how many funeral homes were licensed — and the Board also appeared to be falsifying its inspection records. Also, the Board staff didn’t have Internet access. In fact most of the records were written in longhand, on paper!

Georgia
A state that’s just peachy if you happen to own a cemetery or funeral home. Cemetaries are now allowed to charge a $125 penalty if customers buy a headstone from an independent dealer.

The Funeral Consumers Alliance tried to help an elderly man who claimed that the funeral home he used to bury his wife substituted a much cheaper casket for the model he’d actually bought. The state board never answered his letters of protest (complete with documentation). On the other hand, the state board was indignant enough to fine those funeral homes that failed to keep the state-mandated 24 bottles of embalming fluid on hand at all times.

Louisiana
One of the few remaining states that still requires a funeral director’s license to sell caskets. The predictable results for consumers: a 200-600 percent markup over wholesale on the fancy boxes.

Oh — and you’re legally required to hire a funeral home in Louisiana, even if you want to carry out a family member’s funeral privately, or with church help.

Michigan
Like 6 other states (Utah, New York, and Connecticut among them), Michigan says you have to hire an undertaker even if you want a home funeral for your relative. The idea that a state could bar a family from laying out its own dead would have shocked your great-grandma who likely attended many home funerals. And it ought to shock you today.

Can you imagine a law requiring you to put Mom in a nursing home, even if you wanted to take care of her at home?

In addition, Michiganders are required to have a funeral home supervise every burial — and get a funeral director’s “certification” on every death certificate. Just what is this funeral director certifying? I asked. But the state doesn’t seem to know.

Hawaii
A great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to die there. Hawaii’s pre-paid funeral laws are neck-and-neck with Florida’s: ie. the worst in the nation.

Funeral homes in Hawaii get to skim 30 percent of your prepayment off the top before providing you with goods or services. If you change your mind about the arrangement (or move) — too bad.

Josh Slocum is director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a national non-profit 501 (c) (3) nonprofit watchdog organization dedicated to ensuring consumers get  affordable and dignified funerals. For more information check out the FCA web site www.funerals.org.