The New York Time's Sarah Arnquist did a great job introducing readers to smart funeral planning in her blog The New Old Age:

Funerals mark a sad turning point in the emotional lives of families and, often, an end to years of caregiving. But they are also a major expense, often undertaken by stricken loved ones ill-prepared to make major financial decisions.

The $11-billion funeral industry makes arrangements for most of the 2.4 million people who die each year in the United States. Many of the deceased have pre-planned their own funerals, but most have not. Planning is particularly difficult if families avoid talking about death beforehand, said Josh Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance.

4/20/2009 - Reads like a headline from The Onion, doesn't it? Senate Bill 796, a bill that purports to better regulate the changing funeral industry, contains a remarkable provision:

“An individual may not practice as a death care consultant unless the individual is licensed as a death care consultant under section 4 of this 2009 Act. Regardless of any title used by the individual, an individual practices as a death care consultant if the individual offers, for payment, consultations or workshops to individuals or groups regarding funeral or final disposition services.”

Plain English ™ Translation - Consumer advocates, home funeral guides, or anyone else has to pass a test and get a license from the state before charging even a dollar to give a workshop on anything to do with funerals or funeral planning. And what creeping menace will this protect the funeral-buying public from? Private citizens (mostly women, some known as death midwives, others as home funeral guides or consultants) who teach people practical, common-sense ways to take on the final care of a dead relative in the home, by the family, mortuary-free. Yes, it's perfectly legal to do so, though we suspect there are some in the commercial funeral business that dearly wish it weren't.

The bill was introduced by Oregon Senator Vicki Walker. Here's FCA's letter opposing the unconstitutional provisions of SB 796. If you care about free speech and the right to free choice in funerals, contact your Oregon legislator. And if you appreciate what FCA does as the only nonprofit consumer watchdog on these issues, please consider supporting us. Without your donations, we wouldn't be here.

6/7/2009 UPDATE - We've been told by several people who've attended committee meetings in the Oregon House (yep, the bill made it through the Senate, astonishingly) that Senator Walker has amended it to read:

“An individual may not practice as a death care consultant unless the individual is licensed as a death care consultant under section 4 of this 2009 Act. Regardless of any title used by the individual, an individual practices as a death care consultant if the individual offers, for payment, consultations regarding funeral or final disposition services.”

We can't confirm this, since neither Senator Walker, nor more than a dozen of her colleagues have bothered to respond to our letters and emails. The amendment solves nothing, of course - it merely makes the wording vaguer, and thus more alarming. And it will not stave off likely legal challenges on First Amendment grounds.

3/30/2009 - The Federal Trade Commission issued a press release about its 2008 "sweeps," undercover shopping trips to see if mortuaries are complying with the Funeral Rule. The Rule, in place since 1984, requires funeral homes to give consumers printed, itemized price lists and disclosures at the very beginning of any funeral arrangments discussion. Sounds pretty simple, right? So then why did 26 of the 104 funeral homes secret-shopped last year not do it?