What is the Funeral Consumers Alliance? An Interview with Joshua Slocum

Joshua Slocum is the Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA), a nonprofit dedicated to education and advocacy surrounding funeral consumer rights. Coming out next month, his groundbreaking (sorry) book Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death digs deep into the funeral industry. Below, read Josh’s expert tips on planning a funeral your way and in your budget.

Aurora: Could you tell us a little about the Funeral Consumers Alliance? What services can you offer someone reading this blog?

Josh: The FCA was formed as a national organization in 1963 by local groups called memorial societies: people fed up with seeing a widow go to a funeral home and the funeral cost having a strange way of rising to meet the exact pay-out of insurance.  There are trade groups who lobby for the funeral industry; we exist because consumers need a voice in the regulatory process.

I tell people to think like we’re the Consumer Reports magazine of funerals. The FCA is an educational nonprofit, comprised of 90 affiliated local groups who do things such as price surveys for funeral, cremation, and sometimes cemeteries in their area. And many of these groups are able to point people in the right direction, to funeral businesses with reasonable prices or even discounts for our members. It varies from group to group, but if people utilize their FCA chapter, it saves a lot of stress and money. At the national level, we work to keep local groups connected and up to date, lobby congress when called upon, and advocate in the media and before agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission for better oversight of the funeral industry.

Aurora: What is currently available in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Josh: Right now, we’re actually looking to round up volunteers to resurrect the SF Bay Area organization that went defunct for lack of volunteer support — anyone interested in volunteering, please contact me. The last pro

ject the SF chapter completed in 2009 before they folded was an in-depth survey of 75 mortuaries in the Bay Area.

Aurora: What’s next for you and the FCA?

Josh: This year is exciting

for me because our book Fin

al Rights has finally been published. Obviously I’m going to say this beca

use I co-wrote the book [with Lisa Carlson, leader of the Funeral Ethics Organization], but there is no other book like it. It presents solid investigative journalism about what really goes on inside the funeral industry, and how it works to separate you from the maximum amount of money

possible; we demonstrate that the government is cooped by the funeral industry both at federal and state levels. The funeral industry has far too much influence, and the laws about funeral homes and practices far more frequently serve to protect

the funeral industry from competition and the public than the other way around.

Aurora: Congratulations! We’ll be reviewing Final Rights in our “Lending Insight” column soon. In the mean time, what advice do you have for SevenPonds readers who are planning or preplanning a funeral or disposition?

Josh: First of all, have a discussion. You can never be too young for this. I had a heart attack in December and I’m only 36 years old. It’s a topic that every family, no matter how your family is constituted (blood family, chosen family, gay or lesbian partner, closest of kin, etc.), must discuss. You should talk about what you want and what you don’t want — and part of that has to be what you can reasonably afford. I see far too many people getting involved in funerals costing more than they can manage. It doesn’t give a finer tribute or demonstrate more love; it just means that now you are grieving and in debt.

One thing people don’t do is price shop with funerals. We do with cars and insurance rates, but this American sensibility flies out the window when it comes to funerals. People tend to go to the last company they used, or the closest to their house. These are not wise criteria if you don’t want to be taken advantage of. How do you know these prices are reasonable without comparison?

Know your rights. The FCA website Funerals.org has dozens and dozens of articles on shopping tips and consumer rights. Most people don’t know that the Federal Trade Commission gives you the right to price quotes by phone; printed, itemized lists of costs; and the right to select which services you want. There is no such thing as a “standard funeral.” One of the chapters in Final Rights puts funeral laws in plain English, so you can plan a funeral yourself without having to hire someone. In eight states, there are legal barriers we are working on tearing down; but in most states, home funerals are perfectly feasible.

Aurora: Awesome. Thanks so much, Josh!

Related articles

• It’s Your Funeral! (ifrymineinbutter.com)
• 5 consumer tips for planning a funeral (msnbc.msn.com)