Georgia's Funeral Consumers are Uniquely Vulnerable

ATLANTA - March 7, 2023 - PRLog -- Grieving relatives have long been uniquely vulnerable to being financially taken advantage of by funeral providers, because it can be difficult to obtain information about the options and costs of funerals. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission has considered a revision of the "Funeral Rule"—first created more than 40 years ago, which requires that funeral providers keep a General Price List (GPL), an itemized price list of funeral goods and services offered. This revision would require funeral providers to make their GPL available on the Internet. The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Georgia, Inc. (FCAGa), a volunteer non-profit organization founded in 2017, supports this effort as it has been working on this for some time, with now over 300 GPLs of Georgia funeral providers on its website (www.FCAGa.org).

The current Funeral Rule requires that a physical copy of the GPL be given to all customers in person before cost discussion. However, the federal law does not currently require the funeral home to post the GPL online, today a critically important space for public information. A recent study by the Funeral Consumers Alliance, Inc. (national organization) and the Consumer Federation of America investigated the extent of online funeral pricing information; out of over 1000 funeral homes with functioning websites surveyed from across the country, only 18.3% had posted their GPL online. In Atlanta this number was found to be even lower with just 5.9% of 85 funeral homes surveyed posting their GPL online.

The FCAGa has been able to obtain pricing information for 48 of the 85 Atlanta area funeral providers. The FCAGa has received only 9 responses from a just completed email request to these providers for a GPL update or to provide its GPL, showing how difficult it is to obtain this cost information. The FCAGa invites the public to view this at its pricing comparison table. www.FCAGa.org

About FCAGa

The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Georgia (FCAGa) was founded in 2017 to serve Georgia residents with trusted information about planning and managing funeral-related services best suited to their individual circumstances. FCAGa is an organization of volunteers relying on donations and grants without any direct or indirect financial ties to the funeral industry. For more information, please visit www.fcaga.org, email president@fcaga.org, or write P.O. Box 842, Scottdale, GA 30079.