Better late than never

You might recall me posting recently about my family getting slickered by a greedy funeral director. The few thousand dollars would not have changed our life had he not took it so life will go on. Making the best of what comes my way always made sense so this will be no different. I have tryed finding somthing I can give my comunity and this looks like it found me. I plan carrying the message to others before they find themselves going where we did. So,starting with the YT group,I offer information I believe will serve you well. Plug "The Funeral Rule"into your putter. Had I read that when it became avaliable,it would have changed how arangement were made for my family as well as some others I'm sure. Someone once said "knowledge is power". This looks like one of those occasions they were talking about. I would like to hear from you after reading the funeral rule. If you feel as I do,make sure to let others know about the information because I'm telling you that our home town director didn't come close to abiding by the rule. John,cotton hoes are rare now days but I have a substitute in mind.

buried mom 4 months ago. we had arranged pre-burial needs 3 years prior and paid in full. funeral performed flawlessly with no additional costs and as specified. can not say enough about how good the funeral directors were to the family.

If you feel one of the FTC funeral rules were broken by all means report it to the FTC and sue. I am sure there are unethical funeral directors, car dealers, tractor dealers, doctors, lawyers etc. Most funeral directors are very honorable professionals that provide a service that most people can't handle. You need to look at some of the pricing of the various services and you will fine the cost can be reasonable. A complete open casket funeral with burial vault can cost thousands (avg. $7000). Direct burial with no embalming and vault can be as little as $2500, direct cremation $890, medical donation $0.00. During my life I have dealt with several funeral directors and have found them to be very up front and helpful.

A lot of information most do not know about.
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Sounds like something was really wrong about your funeral director.

My parents did a pre-paid plan at least 10 years before my mom died. After all was said and done, my dad got a check back for more than 8 grand over/above the funeral expense.

Pay close attention to Sweetfeet's post.

When the prepay exactly matches the cost of getting your loved one in the ground, something may be fishy. I've heard about funeral directors patting the widow on the arm and saying "Don't worry about the cost", implying that the expenses were greater than the amount in the prepay, and that they were "good guys" and gonna overlook the additional.

We had a similar experience to Sweetfeet's - after trying to use the entire amount in the prepay, we still received a substantial refund.

I hear what you are saying PJH and SweetFeet. I would have been tickeled to break even. This is how ours went. Dad bought a prepaid on the intire family in 1941 and added 1 child born in 1944. It required monthly premiums be paid depending on age at issue. The premiums were small enough that mom paid 12+ months at a time and the policy is presently paid up til mid 2015.
Dad passed in 1957 and my 4 siblins and mom passed over the years with sis in 2013. "Appearantly" the funeral home had the origional policy on file until it was unintentionaly mailed to sis when mom died in 2010. At the time of 2 deaths,mom bought an additional policy which she had the origionals in her posession until she died in 2010 and sis took them to the funeral home to file claims. A week after mom was buried,sis recieved an invoice for $9,400 outstanding after $950 insurance was deducted plus the 2 policies sis had left with the funeral home ,,,,AND,,,,the origional policy dad bought in 1941. When sis went in to settle mom's bill,sis bought an arrangement for $8K cash with the understanding I would recive $950 insurance proceeds if the policies were still current at her death. When sis passed this year her daughter gave me the policies to file on since I was the benificiary. That is the first time I saw the 1941 policy and I was flabergasted to see that it called out every item of merchandise as well as services and chapel use. I will spare you the blow by blow but I can not get one nickle refund and lawyers want more to handel it than we are owed for mom and sis. Statue of limitation on the other 4 have expired. Prepaids in Tx are governed by banking officials who will make a complaint on my behalf but have no leverage as far as monitary and they tell me no crime was commited. I spent hours chasing through the agencies who say they repersent low income and those over 59 years old. When the chips were on the table,each agency said they could not offer legal advice nor can they have an attorney repersent me nor can they pressure the director to see that he plays straight with clients. All those agencies in the end offered the phone # to Tx Bar Assoc.Lawyer Refferal Service that's listed in every phone book in Tx. It sure sounds like all this is unique to Tx judging by what some have said. I havn't asked for help from a federal agency but I have tried getting some to do thier job without sucess. I reported a group selling raptor parts including bald and golden eagles. A recycler venting huge quanities of freon daily. No action what so ever after 3 years. HAHAHAHA,what do you think they do with information citizens leave on the anomous tip lines? For comparison,I had a response and follow up from Tx Wildlife Dept within 16 hours about toxic runoff into a stream and city of Ft Worth within 4 hours about a misquito harbor concurn in a west nile area. All I can say is with things going so smooth where you live now, don't move to Tx if you expect government employees to do the jobs they are paid for.