Report: Funeral prices hard to get, vary widely

Comparison shopping for funeral services usually is the last thing on someone’s mind when a family member dies. And a dearth of easily available pricing information from funeral homes doesn’t help matters, according to a report from two nonprofit advocacy groups.

An analysis of 10 markets by the Funeral Consumers Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America found that funeral pricing information is often hard to obtain — and that when it is available, prices vary widely for the same services.

Funeral industry practices have been a topic of scrutiny since Jessica Mitford’s examination, “The American Way of Death,” was published in 1963.

Five decades later, even after the advent of the Internet, consumers still have to work hard to obtain pricing information, said Josh Slocum, the alliance’s executive director.

“It’s still too difficult for consumers to compare prices and practices,” Slocum said.

The alliance and its affiliates examined pricing information from 150 funeral homes in 10 markets.

Fifteen funeral homes in each market were selected from an alphabetized list of operators. The sample was amended if necessary to include at least one major chain operating in the area, Slocum said, since large chains sometimes, although not always, have higher prices.

A quarter of the funeral homes in the study fully disclosed prices on their websites while another 58 percent provided them after researchers sent emails or made phone calls. But 16 percent failed to disclose the information even after researchers followed up by email or phone, the report found.

In some cases, the researchers had to visit the funeral home in person to obtain the information. The Federal Trade Commission requires funeral homes to make pricing information available by telephone and during in-person visits. But its rules predate widespread use of the Internet, so they do not address online disclosure, Slocum said.

Researchers sought information about three separate services: cremation without a ceremony; immediate burial without a ceremony or the cost of a coffin; and a full-service funeral, including services like embalming, calling hours and transportation of the coffin to the cemetery. The cost for the same service varied widely.

For instance, in Seattle, cremation ranged from about $500 to $3,400. In Atlanta, a simple burial ranged from $1,200 to $5,200. And in Washington, a full-service funeral ranged from $3,800 to $14,000.