Funeral Consumers Alliance

• Scatter-brained: Cremation Myths and Facts
• FCA v. SCI Class Action Lawsuit Update
• Bargaining for member discounts at funeral homes

• The Watchdog Sleeps: Federal Trade Commission goes easy on industry
• Congressional bill to rein body brokers
• Legislative watch
• Regulatory Capture: when state boards put profits ahead of consumer protection
• Tightwad tips: saving money for your FCA
• How to get a seat on state funeral regulatory boards
• A funny thing happened on the way to the morgue: interview with Mary Roach, author of Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

• Recap of FCA national Biennial Conference
• Newly elected FCA Board of Directors
• Legislative watch
• Preneed fraud
• The Undertaker's Burden - humorous industry self-promotion

The Consumer Self-Help Issue

• When best-laid plans go astray - helping consumers make last-minute funeral decisions
• Funeral shopping 101 - tips and stories from volunteer FCA educators
• Four-step funeral planning - where to start when you don't know where to start
• How to read (and use) a funeral home price list
• Funeral myths and facts
• Who has the legal right to decide on your funeral arrangements
• Death in one state, burial in another - do it without breaking the bank
• Backup and succession planning for FCA groups - who can get a hold of the important files if your group leader dies?

• You make me feel like a natural burial - interview with Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
• Minding your meeting - how to avoid a boring FCA annual meeting and bring in new attendees
• Legislative watch
• FCA and the Institute for Justice convince the state of Missouri to preserve the right to sell retail caskets, care for one's own dead
• FCA and consumers defeat Montana bill to put low-cost crematories out of business, strip citizens of the right to care for their own dead
• Review of Lasting Images, a DVD on alternative and creative funerals