2. Embalming, The second disclosure relates to embalming and the need for prior approval. If you selected a funeral that may require embalming, such as a funeral with viewing, you may have to pay for embalming. You do not have to pay for embalming you did not approve if you selected arrangements such as a direct cremation or immediate burial. If we charged for embalming, we will explain why below. The form should leave enough space for you to explain the reason for embalming. You should enter this information on the Statement before giving it to the customer. 3. Cash Advance Items, The third disclosure relates to your charges for your services in buying cash advance items. If you Telephone price disclosures You must give consumers who telephone your place of business and ask about your prices or offerings accurate information from your General Price List, Casket Price List, and Outer Burial Container Price List. You also must answer any other questions about your offerings and prices with any readily available information that reasonably answers the question. Note : You cannot require callers to give their names, addresses, or phone numbers before you give them the requested information. You can ask callers to identify themselves, but you still must answer their questions even if they refuse to do so. You cannot require consumers to come to the funeral home in person to get price information. You can use an answering machine or answering service to record incoming calls. However, you must respond to questions from callers on an individual basis. Example : Your answering machine can have a message telling consumers to call a specified number during business hours for information about prices and offerings. You need to provide the requested information when consumers call during those hours, or, you can have an answering machine or answering service take Misrepresentations prohibited by the Rule The Funeral Rule prohibits specific misrepresentations in six areas. 1. Embalming. You cannot tell consumers that state or local law requires embalming if that is not true. If state law does require embalming, you may tell the family that embalming is required due to the specific circumstances. Example : Your state law requires either refrigeration or embalming after a certain period of time. If you have refrigeration facilities available, you must give the consumer the option of either refrigeration or embalming. You also must tell the consumer in writing that embalming is not required by law if that’s true in your state. You do this by including the mandatory embalming disclosure on your GPL. Note : You must make this disclosure to all consumers, even if embalming is necessary. Unless state or local law requires embalming, you may not tell consumers that embalming is required for practical purposes in the following situations: ● When the consumer wants a direct cremation; ● When the consumer wants an immediate burial; or ● When refrigeration is available and the consumer wants a closed-casket funeral with no formal viewing or visitation. Example : A family wants to arrange a funeral with a formal viewing. The funeral will take place three days after death has occurred on a hot summer day. Your state does not require embalming. You do not have refrigeration facilities. In this situation, you can tell the family that the funeral home requires embalming as a practical necessity to delay decomposition of the remains and to preserve them for viewing. You may not tell the family that the law requires embalming in this case because that is not true.
charge for purchasing a cash advance item, or if you receive and retain a rebate, commission, or trade or volume discount for a cash advance item, you must make the following disclosure: We charge you for our services in obtaining: ( specify cash advance items ). You must place this disclosure in immediate conjunction with (directly next to) the list of itemized cash advance items on your Statement and specify those cash advance items to which the disclosure applies. You should not put the disclosure on a separate page or elsewhere on the Statement apart from the list of itemized cash advance items. (See also Sample 4: Statement, at the end of this course.) consumers’ names and phone numbers so that you can return the calls at your earliest convenience. You may have an employee answering your phones who can respond to easier questions regarding your offerings and prices by referring to the printed price lists, but who refers more difficult questions to you. If you are unavailable when the call comes in, the employee can take a message so that you can return the call later. You do not have to give price and other information after business hours if it is not your normal practice to do so. You can tell consumers who call during non-business hours that you will provide the information during regular business hours. However, if a consumer calls after hours to inquire about an at-need situation, and it is your practice to make funeral arrangements during non-business hours, you should provide price or other information the consumer requests. If you are in the middle of one arrangements conference when another family calls about your offerings, you can take a message and return the call at a later time. Example : A family wants to arrange an immediate burial but does not want to pay for embalming. Embalming is not required by your state law. Before burial takes place, one family member wants to look briefly at the deceased by lifting the lid of the casket. Here, you may not tell the family that embalming is required. The request to see the deceased does not constitute a formal viewing. In situations like the above example, you also cannot require the family to pay for “other preparation of the body” if they decline embalming. 2. Casket for Direct Cremation. You cannot tell consumers that state or local law requires them to buy a casket if they are arranging a direct cremation. (A direct cremation is one that occurs without any formal viewing of the remains or any visitation or ceremony with the body present.) You also must not tell consumers, in the case of direct cremations, that they must buy a casket for any other reason. If you offer direct cremations, you must make an alternative container available and inform consumers that such containers are available for direct cremations. You do this by including on your GPL the mandatory disclosure about alternative containers. An “alternative container” is an unfinished wood box or other non-metal receptacle or enclosure, without ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, which is designed for the encasement of human remains. It is made of fiberboard, pressed-wood, composition materials or like materials, with or without an outside covering. Note : The Rule also prohibits crematories from requiring that a casket be purchased for direct cremation. However, the Rule allows crematories to set standards for the kind of alternative containers that they will accept. For example, a crematory might stipulate that it will accept only rigid containers.
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Book Code: FTX1624
EliteLearning.com/Funeral
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