The FTC filed a brief in the case pitting casket-selling monks against the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors. The FTC argues Louisiana's prohibition on retail casket sales undermines the intent of the federal Funeral Rule. 

A joint friend of the court brief by Funeral Consumers Alliance and the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association, a trade group. It urges the 5th Circuit Court to uphold a ruling against the state of Louisiana. Monks at St. Joseph's Abbey sued the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors after the Board sent the monks a cease-and-desist order telling them it was illegal to sell caskets without employing a licensed funeral director and installing an embalming room. 

Legislative testimony from Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota. Delivered in 2009, this letter debunks claims from the funeral industry that dead bodies pose a public health risk.

Opinion overturning Louisiana's law banning the sale of caskets by anyone other than a licensed funeral director with a full-service funeral home. The monks of St. Joseph's Abbey sued the state after the embalming and funeral director's board threatened them with fines and jail time for selling simple handmade wood coffins.

FCA supports California's bill to require funeral homes to post price lists on their websites.

A first-in-the-nation bill that would require funeral homes to post their price lists online if they have a website.

A bill that would extend the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule to cover cemeteries, crematories, and third-party merchandise vendors. Introduced by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush on March 1, 2011.

2010 regulatory audit showing the state's largest preneed trust institution misused $70 million in consumers' prepaid funeral money.

A new law requiring funeral homes to refrigerate or embalm bodies after 48 hours. The law bars embalming without express permission, so families will have the choice of refrigeration.

FCA rebuts CCC's letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee asking for religious exemption.

Letter from CCC protesting HR3655 and asking for exemption for religious cemeteries.

FTC letter states funeral homes may not:

• Refuse to accept a third-party casket if it's delivered in more than or fewer than any certain number of days before the funeral
• Require third-party caskets to be delivered by appointment only during normal business hours
• Refuse to accept a third-party casket at a specified time, during normal business hours, unless funeral home staff are occupied with a funeral at that time
• Refuse to allow a third-party casket retailer to use the funeral home's ordinary, standard equipment (such as rolling carts) to bring the casket into the funeral home

A compelling letter from a monument company detailing abuse of consumers by cemeteries and urging passage of HR3655, the Bereaved Consumer's Bill of Rights Act of 2009.

HR 3655, introduced September 25, 2009, by Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL). The bill expands the FTC Funeral Rule to cover cemeteries, monument dealers, and casket retailers.

FCA delivered this testimony to the House Sub-Committee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection on July 27, 2009. We asked lawmakers to expand the FTC Funeral Rule to cover cemeteries, to set national standards for cemetery regulation, and to require complete deposit and consumer-right-of-refund for all prepaid cemetery and funeral money nationwide.

The Federal Trade Commission ruled that independent crematories - those not affiliated with a full-service funeral home - that do business directly with the public have to abide by the Funeral Rule.

Iowa Body Disposition Agent Form