One in four funeral homes not playing by the rules

Mitch Lipka
Updated

Death is hard enough to deal with without the added insult of being taken advantage of by a funeral home. The Federal Trade Commission recently sent undercover inspectors into 104 funeral homes in seven states and just released a report that found that one in four (26) had significant violations of government regulations intended to protect consumers.

The two locations with the most violations were Northeastern Arkansas, where 73% had serious violations, and San Antonio, where 64% flunked, the FTC reported. All the inspections were conducted in 2008. Minneapolis/St. Paul and Toledo, Ohio, funeral homes fared the best. Each had only one funeral home found to have serious violations.

Here are the results from the other locations:

  • Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska. 11 funeral homes inspected; two had significant violations

  • Orange County, Calif., 18 funeral homes inspected; two had significant violations

  • Nassau County, N.Y., 18 funeral homes inspected; two had significant violations

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