Refunds for Prepaid Funeral Services During COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited the size and duration of memorial celebrations, burials, and other gatherings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated nearly every part of life, including funerals, burials, and other memorial services. Prepaying for funeral services has benefits and drawbacks, but over the years it has increased in popularity as more people try to plan funeral services ahead of time. Consumer protections for funeral services vary from state to state, but some people may be able to get refunds for prepaid funeral services that funeral homes can’t deliver as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joshua Slocum is executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, a consumer organization monitoring the funeral industry nationwide. He wants people to understand that funeral homes must comply with federal and state guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19, even if people have already prepaid for funeral services. “It’s very simple,” Slocum said. For example, if a state health department prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, a funeral home in that state can’t offer the 100-person viewing purchased as part of a prepaid funeral package.

Pandemic Places Limits on Memorial Services

Not being able to gather with family and friends can be devastating for those already grieving the death of a loved one. Losing the financial investment of a prepaid funeral can be another shock.

Earlier this year, Slocum was contacted by a family who prepaid approximately $11,000 for a two-day viewing plus a memorial service at a funeral home. When they purchased the prepaid funeral contract, the family anticipated a total of 50–100 guests during those two days. However, when their family member died earlier this year, funeral homes were already complying with social distancing orders and limiting in-person gatherings due to the pandemic. The prepaid services in the family’s contract were greatly reduced, and only 5–10 people were allowed to gather for a viewing, according to Slocum. “Two days became 45 minutes,” he said.

People can seek a refund of a portion of their financial investment in a prepaid funeral for services reduced or eliminated because of the pandemic. Slocum encourages the loved ones of the deceased to reach out to the funeral home directly about a price adjustment. “It’s not the funeral home’s fault if they can’t deliver that service because of [federal and state] guidelines,” he says, “[but] it’s not the customer’s fault either.”

Slocum has found funeral homes are open to discussing prorated refunds with people who have purchased prepaid funeral contracts. The family who originally reached out to Slocum talked with the funeral home they had contracted with, and the funeral home agreed to prorate a portion of their prepaid costs. Slocum says the family’s refund ended up being around $3,000, based on the specific services the family paid for and the funeral home couldn’t provide. The family felt the refunded amount was reasonable, and Slocum did too.

Refunds on a Case-by-Case Basis

Joshua Slocum, executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance

Each state has its own consumer and health protections with regard to funerals, and even without considering the pandemic, “protections vary widely from state to state,” as the Federal Trade Commission acknowledges. The pandemic has only increased confusion, and information can be hard to find and may change quickly.

As of this writing, the New York State Department of Public Health has not updated New York’s consumer guide for prepaid funerals or their ”Frequently Asked Questions” to address the impacts of the pandemic on funeral services, even though New York City was hit hard by a dramatic COVID-19 surge in March and April of this year. The Texas Funeral Service Commission has revised Texas’s “Recommendations for Funeral Practitioners during Covid-19 Outbreak” several times as state lawmakers have changed business closure and social distancing orders, and the TFSC website stresses “there is no possible method of addressing every scenario or situation” that consumers and funeral directors in Texas will experience.

When people who have prepaid for funeral services ask Slocum about their legal rights during the pandemic, he says he can’t direct them to a particular law or statute. “No state law that governs prepaid funerals could anticipate a pandemic situation,” he says. Instead, the first step is for people to reach out to the funeral home directly. “It’s something you’re going to have to work through on a case-by-case basis,” he says.

Slocum has not yet encountered a situation in which a funeral home has refused to talk with the loved ones of a deceased person about the possibility of a prorated refund for prepaid funeral services. If people aren’t satisfied with the funeral home’s response to their request for a refund, they can reach out to the consumer protection agency in their state.