By Sherri Cruz 1723 Words 26 October 1998 Las Vegas Business Press Las Vegas, NV, US, Mountain

-- "The Dude," discovering the high price of funeral expenses in the movie "The Big Lebowski," opted for a coffee can to hold the cremated remains of his buddy. Though The Dude found a cheap alternative, in the real world of making a good impression and doing right by family members, there is no room for cheap. Mortuaries make money from burial fees, embalming, caskets, cremations, pre-need funeral arrangement plans, removals (exporting a body to another state) cemetery fees and other incidentals like autopsy repair, dressing and handling the deceased, and restorative art. The funeral industry is booming. It' also changing: * Consolidation is on the rise, driving up prices. * Alternatives like casket retailers are popping up. * Twelve percent of the population have made prearrangements for their funeral. * Consumers are becoming interested in "familymanaged funerals," essentially taking control of the funeral and bringing it home. Nationwide, funeral inflation runs about five to seven percent a year; general inflation is two percent. This is according to FAMSA (Funeral and Memorial Societies of America), a funeral industry watchdog group. The average funeral costs $5,543, according to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), not including

cemetery charges, monuments or markers. It also doesn't include items like flowers, clergy honorarium, etc. Darryl Roberts, author of "Profits of Death," says the average funeral really costs between $9,000 and $10,000. For comparison, in England, the average price for a funeral is $1,650, according to FAMSA. In France, the average is $2,200 and Australia, $2,100. There are ways to lessen the expense of a funeral. But grief-stricken family members don't have the time or the state of mind to shop around. Also, pleasing family and friends with an expensive funeral service is common and expected. Caskets, generally the most expensive item in the cost of a funeral and usually purchased at the funeral home, can also be purchased at a retailer for discounts of 50 percent or more. There is also the $25 cardboard box alternative. But not many opt for that because it's unlikely that Uncle Henry and Aunt Mary will appreciate peeking at grandma stretched out in a cardboard box. And a homemade box works too, but again, that might cause one to be banished from the family. Perhaps the least expensive funeral is donating one's body to science. In Clark County last year, a mere nine bodies were donated to medical schools. The cost is nominal. By Nevada law, the only cost is any transportation fees in excess of $75. Though there is a moderate need for anatomic donations, it's unpopular. Mortuary chains Lisa Carlson,

executive director for FAMSA, said chain-owned mortuaries are responsible for rising prices. Loewen Group, Service Corp. International (SCI) and Stewart Enterprises, the three biggies, have been eating up privatelyowned companies, ultimately raising prices, she said. The three companies, all of which have a presence in Las Vegas, own 15 percent of the 22,000 funeral homes nationwide. In Las Vegas, Loewen owns Davis Funeral Homes. SCI owns Bunkers Eden Vale Mortuary and Stewart Enterprises purchased Desert Memorial and its Neptune Society affiliate in April. However, Palm Mortuary, locally owned by the Knauss family, handles most of the funerals in Las Vegas, about 3,000 last year. Palm has been approached by the chains, said Gregg Williamson, executive vice president. But Palm's president and CEO, Ken Knauss, has repeatedly said Palm is not for sale, Williamson said. And though the big guys may seem like they are making a lot of money -- SCI's 1997 net income was $333 million -- all is not rosy on the acquisition front. The chains overpaid for their acquisitions and are beginning to lose some of their market share due to their high prices, Carlson said. Tom Franco, spokesperson for the Loewen Croup, said it's experiencing financial difficulties but not because prices are too high. "During the last two years, we've had some difficulties financially in terms of meeting objectives and that has created a situation where

there's been a change of leadership at the corporate level," he said. Loewen has slowed down its acquisition program and is now concentrating on integrating the acquired companies into the parent company. Davis Funeral Homes, the Loewen subsidiary in Las Vegas, doesn't appear to be having financial woes. It handled the third largest number of funerals last year and does a large percentage of prearrangement business. Big bad arm twisters An industry that earns a living handling corpses, dressing them for viewing and burying or burning them, all the while profiting at a person's moment of grief, faces more ethical challenges than the average personal services business. The industry's answer is the Funeral Ethics Association, formed in 1994 to deal with issues related to handling the deceased with dignity and respect, said Robert Ninker, executive director. "The funeral director has a very difficult responsibility." But some, FAMSA, for instance, have no empathy for an industry they say prey on uneducated and unsuspecting consumers during a time of grief by charging exorbitant prices and using arm-twisting sales tactics. "The industry has been very effective in their sales pitch and consumers have been willing victims of a greedy funeral industry," said FAMSA's Carlson. It's a society of parents who can't afford necessities but still buy $90 NIKEs for their 9-year-olds, she said. Because it's a time of sadness, it's easy for

a consumer to get buried in funeral casts, Roberts said. "(Mortuaries) are dealing with a consumer who is emotionally distraught and they on the other hand are in a business to make money, so that puts them in a situation where they really have a conflict of interest," the author said. Roberts, a 30-year veteran of the funeral industry, said some of the sales pitches include promoting embalming, which isn't required by law and isn't a necessity unless there is a viewing. The purpose of embalming is to preserve the body through the wake period, he said, and the industry encourages viewing as a way to help the family deal with death. Embalming costs $200 to $500 and for viewing, other fees like hairdressing are incurred as well. Another practice, he said, is selling "sealer" caskets under the guise of "protecting the loved one." A sealer is a rubber gasket that preserves the body longer, but not forever. "A sealer casket all by itself is going to raise the cost of that funeral by $1,000 or $1,500," he said. Though all of the mortuaries offer sealer caskets, many don't pitch it. Palm's funeral arrangers, for instance, don't push sealer caskets as a way to preserve the deceased, said company vice president Williamson. But as the industry will tell you, some people want sealers to preserve the body as long as possible. And Frank Spears, manager of The Casket Store, a new retail casket outlet in Las Vegas, said it gives the customer what they want. Spears is a 50-year

veteran of the funeral industry. It's a matter of preference, he said. "Some old-timers still prefer wood." Caskets, made of wood, copper, bronze, steel, stainless steel (even 24-karat gold) have many variations that hike up prices. For instance, there are different gauges of steel. Steel caskets comprise 70 percent of the market, while wood makes up 20 percent, Spears said. Then there is the interior, which can be satin lined with or without an adjustable spring bed. "You've got to look at it from the customer's viewpoint. What we do in the funeral industry is serve the individual with what they want," he said. There are some people who want a crypt with a view overlooking the lake, he said. And though that may seem absurd to some people, to others it makes sense. People of the Jewish faith, for instance, typically buy a plain pine box, Spears said. Though casket retailers are growing in numbers and funeral homes, by law, have to accept an outside casket, many mortuaries aren't liking it, said Ninker with the Funeral Ethics Association. "They're sort of an annoyance," he said. However, "they're not effective in most places." Williamson said casket retailers aren't a threat to Palm and many of the retailers have gone out of business. "It's not widespread." He has received three calls and knows of one instance when someone brought their own casket. Most people like one-stop shopping. In Nevada, most mortuary owners are cemetery owners (in

some states it's illegal), so people can get everything they need in one place, he said. In fact, 80 percent of people don't shop around, Carlson said. Though funeral homes are required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to give prices over the phone as well as offer price sheets to consumers, many consumers, due to their state of sadness, don't bother. Forty-five percent of people use a funeral home a family member has used in the past; 33 percent call the nearest funeral home and 10 percent pick a home based on ethnic or religious reasons, Carlson said. The family-managed funeral The only real way to save money on funeral expenses, Carlson said, is to completely bypass the funeral home in favor of family- managed funerals. "We don't usually push this because a lot of people aren't ready to handle this," she said. But it is evolving. Life magazine will present a story in February about how a family managed their own funeral. The family saved funeral home expenses by purchasing a casket from a retailer, having the ceremony at a location other than the funeral home and paying only opening and closing (digging and filling) expenses for the cemetery. The Boomers, the generation that revived breast-feeding and natural childbirth, are paving the way for this trend, Carlson said. Nevertheless, there will always be a need for the funeral directors, she said, because there will always be a market of people that spend

$25,000 on their mother's funeral because she was a wonderful woman.