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Guardians
An ICFA newsletter published semi-annually, Guardians is distributed to regional and state cemetery and funeral trade associations, federal officials, elected representatives and selected media. Each issue highlights recent ICFA activities on a variety of projects, including government relations, public service and consumer education.
Guardians (August 1999)
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Cemetery Consumer Service Council Releases Annual Activity Survey Data
ICFA Publishes Model Guidelines for State Laws and Regulations
Surveys Measure Consumer Attitudes Toward Prearrangement, Industry
State Cemetery Regulators Develop Model Policy Statements, Hold Forums for Industry Trade Associations, Consumer Groups
ICFA and National Kidney Foundation to Partner in Program to Increase Organ Donation; Seek DHHS Grant for "Taking Time to Talk"
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Cemetery Consumer Service Council
Releases Annual Activity Survey Data
The Cemetery Consumer Service Council (CCSC), an industry-sponsored consumer assistance organization, recently published the results of its Annual Activity Survey Report. Polling participating state associations for 1997, the last year for which complete numbers are currently available, CCSC found that a total of 113 complaints and inquiries were processed during the year. Of that number, 93 were resolved. Six complaints and inquiries were pending at the beginning of the year while 14 remained at year's end. These figures are based on the responses provided by 22 of the 38 state CCSC committees. Unlike past years where the tally included totals reported by a few state cemetery boards to which CCSC referred inquiries and complaints, this year's responses were received entirely from the volunteers at state cemetery trade associations.
CCSC is a non-profit organization created in 1979 by the American Cemetery Association (now the International Cemetery and Funeral Association), the Cremation Association of North America, the Central States Cemetery Association and the Southern Cemetery Association. The sole purpose of CCSC is to assist consumers, without charge, in resolving complaints or answering inquiries regarding cemetery services or policies. Participation in the complaint resolution process is voluntary for both the consumer and the cemetery.
The Cemetery Consumer Service Council is now in its 20th year of operation and continues to improve its effectiveness to assist consumers. Last year, a network of contacts was created with the three largest public companies, Service Corporation International, The Loewen Group and Stewart Enterprises, in order to quickly answer consumer inquiries and address their concerns involving cemeteries owned by these companies. During 1998, the CCSC also contacted members of Congress to advise them of the resources that the Council can offer their constituents.
Among the various types of complaints and inquiries received from the survey, 34 dealt with improper cemetery maintenance, 30 dealt with deceptive or questionable sales practices, 10 with Truth in Lending matters and other contractual issues, 24 with cemetery rules and regulations and another 11 with a variety of other issues including simple inquiries into cemetery practices.
Industry members volunteer their time and experience to serve as CCSC representatives in their respective states. The Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, various state consumer protection agencies and offices of attorneys general are periodically notified of CCSC activities and are among the major sources for consumer referrals. CCSC is listed in the Consumer's Resource Handbook, a U.S. Government publication that is circulated to public libraries and consumer assistance agencies throughout the nation.
Complaints are handled by the state committees with the national CCSC office in the Washington, D.C. area being the overall coordinator of the project and the central contact point. Complaints received by the national office are logged in and each is given a file number for tracking purposes. A copy of the complaint is then forwarded to the appropriate state representative for investigation and action. At that point, many complaints are informally resolved by telephone and the consumer is promptly notified of the results. It is rare for a cemetery to refuse to participate in the CCSC dispute resolution process. Where no state committee exists, CCSC works with the cemetery board or similar government agency to assist the consumer.
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ICFA Publishes Model Guidelines
For State Laws and Regulations
Last October, the International Cemetery and Funeral Association (ICFA) Board of Directors approved a series of new model guidelines at its Fall Meeting. The new guidelines, combined with several approved by the board the previous year, have been published in a 150-plus page binder together with an Overview of Preneed, an ICFA-commissioned survey of preneed consumers, an ICFA-commissioned economic study of minimum preneed trust deposit requirements, and various supporting documents including many advisory letters from FTC staff. Distribution of the fourteen Model Guidelines for Laws and Regulations to national and state trade associations, regulatory agencies, and other interested parties is occurring in several stages.
The guidelines were developed by the Government and Legal Task Force, a subcommittee of the ICFA Government and Legal Affairs Committee, chaired by Irwin W. Shipper, CCE. In his Introduction to the guidelines Shipper noted, "We believe that the fourteen guidelines plus the Glossary of Terms and related materials contained herein will help raise the level of debate concerning proposed state legislation from a largely anecdotal basis to one in which statistical and actuarial data will add substance to the discussion. However, in any project of this nature, it is important to understand the intentions of the sponsoring organization; therefore, some explanation is in order.
"These guidelines, together with additional guidelines that the ICFA will be publishing in the near future, are intended for use at the state and local levels. Although drafted by industry members, the goal throughout this project has been to combine a sensitivity to consumer protection issues with the need for all industry members, whether for profit or not-for-profit, cemeteries, funeral homes, retail monument dealers, or crematories, to conduct their operations according to sound business principles. For example, a review of negative media coverage in recent years has revealed a consistent theme regardless of the specific misconduct involved, that theme being that the industry member did not practice sound business principles. The Guidelines seek to remedy this problem.
"These guidelines are advisory in nature and set out general concepts rather than precise statutory language. The ICFA is not recommending that the guidelines be codified into law as a whole. Instead, the guidelines are intended for consideration as a series of options to be selectively chosen by interested parties to address particular concerns. The recommendations contained in the guidelines represent compromise positions that some parties believe may go too far while others feel may not go far enough. However, the goal of the guidelines is to foster an informed debate of various issues of interest to industry members, to government regulators and to the general public."
The guidelines are focused on a variety of issues including prepaid contracts, endowment care trust funds, alternatives to trusting, insurance-funded prearrangements, cemetery and funeral establishment combinations and authorization to control final disposition, among other topics. Commenting on the work of the Task Force, Shipper stated, "Chair Diane Kauffman was a real Task Master of the Task Force. The members of this group somehow managed to complete in two years a work product which normally would have taken anywhere from four to five years to produce. Larry Sloane spent an enormous amount of time coordinating the trust study with two New York college economics professors and the consumer survey with a professional polling organization. The commitment of time and energy shown by all the members of the Task Force is remarkable."
State and national associations and regulatory boards will be offered copies of the guidelines without charge. Additional copies may be ordered from the ICFA at cost. Inquiries should be made to ICFA headquarters at 1-800-645-7700.
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Surveys Measure Consumer Attitudes
Toward Prearrangement, Industry
Survey data collected in recent years persuasively show that consumers favor the prearrangement of their own funerals and burials and hold industry members in high regard. For example, a 1995 study was conducted by the University of Kansas Medical Center on Aging among families that experienced the death of a loved one, age 50 or older, within the previous five months. Of the 163 families surveyed, one-third had no previous experience with funeral homes while 46 percent had no previous experience with cemeteries. According to the study, "in general, families who discuss(ed) final arrangements prior to death had much lower costs than families who did not."
The University of Kansas study, which was funded through a grant by the American Association of Retired Persons, now known as AARP, also found that 67 percent said that making funeral arrangements before death was helpful to the survivors while only nine percent said it was not. Asked whether they were treated with respect, dignity, and concern by the funeral home staff, 94 percent said that they were treated "very well."
Many of the findings in the University of Kansas study corroborate earlier findings made by Wirthlin Worldwide, a well-respected polling organization, in two industry-sponsored telephone surveys. A benchmark national survey conducted in 1990 polled 1,000 consumers on their experience with and attitudes toward the industry. Three out of four believed that prearranging their own funeral or burial made good sense and over half, 53 percent, already owned cemetery property. More than one in four had already preplanned their own funeral and over half of that number had prepaid them. Sixty-five percent had positive remarks about industry members while only 11 percent mentioned anything negative.
Wirthlin conducted a follow-up national telephone survey in 1995 among 1,000 consumers and found, among other things, that 80 percent believed that prearrangement was a good idea. However, the survey indicated that only 24 percent had actually prearranged their funeral or burial plans. As in the 1990 survey, just over half of that number, 58 percent, had prepaid them. Regarding their impression of industry members, 68 percent of those surveyed in the 1995 poll had positive remarks while only 15 percent had negative remarks. Wirthlin has been commissioned to update the 1990 and 1995 surveys for publication early next year.
More recently, ICFA commissioned a telephone survey by Walker Information in 1997 of consumers who had pre-planned and prepaid either their funeral or burial arrangements. A total of 400 interviews were conducted of purchasers in the Indianapolis, Indiana, area -- equally divided between cemetery and funeral home consumers.
The purpose of the survey was to measure whether preneed customers found their purchases to be beneficial. Seventy-five percent of cemetery pre-planners rated the experience as excellent or very good. Only three percent rated the experience poor. Among funeral pre-planners, the rating of excellent and very good climbed to 81 percent, with only one percent finding the experience poor.
Asked whether they would recommend making cemetery/ funeral prearrangements to others, 89 percent of cemetery pre-planners and 84 percent of funeral pre-planners said that they definitely or probably would. With respect to the reasons for pre-planning cemetery or funeral arrangements, 81 percent and 80 percent, respectively, felt that prearrangement "eases the loss of a loved one" while 67 percent and 68 percent, respectively, agreed that "it saves money." In response to the question, "How satisfied were you with the prearrangements that were made?" 94 percent of cemetery and 97 percent of funeral pre-planners were either satisfied or very satisfied with the plans. Additional information on the Wirthlin and Walker surveys may be obtained by calling the ICFA at 1-800-645-7700.
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State Cemetery Regulators Develop
Model Policy Statements, Hold Forums
For Industry Trade Associations, Consumer Groups
The North American Cemetery Regulators Association (NCRA) Law Review Committee recently held meetings between industry and consumer advocacy organizations. These meetings, consisting of an October session in Boston and a March session in Houston, provided a forum for attendees to discuss issues of mutual concern with state regulators and to debate proposed remedies. Among the groups represented were AARP, the Funeral and Memorial Societies of America, the Monument Builders of North America, the National Funeral Directors Association, the Cremation Association of North America and the ICFA.
Presentations to the regulators were made by several representatives of the organizations and a question and answer period facilitated a discussion of the various points raised in each presentation. The ICFA representatives presented the Association's newly published Model Guidelines for Laws and Regulations, pointing out that the various guideline topics addressed many of the concerns expressed by the consumer advocates at the meeting. Representatives from the Cremation Association distributed drafts of its revised model cremation law for comments from the group.
The regulators circulated working drafts of NCRA's proposed policy statements including "Cemetery Management," "Cremation and Cremated Remains," and "Disclosure of Price Information." The policy statements are being drafted by NCRA "in the interest of encouraging uniformity among the various states in the United States and the various provinces in Canada, in laws and regulations related to the death care industry." NCRA is seeking comments from consumer groups and industry associations prior to finalizing the policy statements. Founded in 1985, the NCRA will be holding its 1999 annual meeting in early November in Kansas City, Missouri.
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ICFA and National Kidney Foundation
To Partner in Program to Increase Organ Donation;
Seek DHHS Grant for "Taking Time to Talk"
The ICFA and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) have initiated a joint effort to promote family discussion of the decision to donate organs and tissue after death. The program, entitled Taking Time to Talk, was designed by NKF and consists of informational materials that both inform about organ and tissue donation issues and help facilitate a family discussion. Select ICFA-member cemetery and funeral prearrangement counselors will incorporate the Taking Time to Talk materials into their prearrangement planning conferences with potential customers. As current partners with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Transplantation, ICFA and NKF have requested a grant from the DHHS Extramural Support Program "Model Interventions to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation" to expand Taking Time to Talk throughout the U.S.
While the majority of Americans believe their families support the idea of organ donation, Gallup polls and experience within the transplant community reveal that many people do not know their family's position on the subject and have not discussed it with family members. The rationale for Taking Time to Talk is that, if people who wished to donate would inform their family and friends ahead of time, more organs and tissue will be available for transplants.
Currently, 60,000 people across the country are on the waiting list for organ or tissue transplants, underscoring the tremendous shortage of donors. The principal reason for the shortage is that, in order for organs or tissue to be removed from a recently deceased person, the person's next-of-kin must consent, regardless of the deceased's expressed wishes via their driver's license or any other instrument of declaring intent. Unfortunately, the scenario in which that family decision must be made is often stressful. Typically, medical staff meet with the family immediately before or after the death has occurred, and the notification of death and request to harvest organs occur nearly simultaneously. Under such circumstances, the family is often unable to approve the donation of their deceased loved one's organs or tissue.
One possible reason that Americans do not like to discuss organ donation is because of the cultural aversion to death -- to speak about donation one must speak about the other. Therefore ICFA members can play a crucial role in the educational process. Funeral and cemetery employees, specifically prearrangement counselors, are in a unique position because unlike almost any other profession, they meet with healthy family members and engage them in end-of-life discussions on a regular basis. Counselors discuss with their customers the wisdom of pre-arranging funeral and burial services, counsel them on burial and cremation choices, and provide them with information about end-of-life services, including living wills, Social Security and veterans benefits. The Taking Time to Talk program is a natural extension of the prearrangement conversation with the family.
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Click here to see Fall 2000 edition
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