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With an average price tag of $6,500, a funeral might be the third most expensive purchase a consumer will make in a lifetime, right behind a home and car.

But unlike other industries, funeral homes aren't likely to post their prices on billboards and storefront windows, or even on Web sites or in newspapers.

You'll have to look at the funeral home's General Price List for that information, a shopping guide of sorts required of all funeral homes by the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule.

The rule requires funeral homes to provide customers the list prior to discussing arrangements and to anyone else who requests the list, customer or not.

The list is supposed to detail complete, accurate, itemized price information and other disclosures about the funeral home's goods and services so consumers can make informed decisions and buy only what they want.

"There should be no surprises — no surprises of omission or commission," FTC spokesman Frank Dorman explained. "You got to put everything on the table."

Among several items, "everything" includes the embalming fee, plus the disclaimer that embalming is not required in Ohio; charges for a visitation, funeral and memorial service; the charge for a hearse and limousine (if offered) and a non-declinable "basic fee" for the funeral director's services and overhead.

A review of more than 30 general price lists from southwest Ohio funeral homes to check their compliance with the Funeral Rule found most appeared substantially compliant, although formats varied. Some disclosures lacked the precision the FTC requires and a few appeared outdated.

Shopping around

Twenty-three years after the FTC adopted the Funeral Rule, "there's still a lot of work to be done," said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group based in South Burlington, Vt.

"The majority of the price lists I see are in pretty poor shape," he said. "Many of them are lacking the required disclosures to consumers. Many of them are lacking the basic stripped-down options for burial and cremation. And even those that are free of violations, they're frequently written very confusingly."

One exception, according to Slocum: Newcomer Funeral Home, which operates in six states and has three locations in the Dayton area.

"Their price lists are some of the best in the country," he said. "They're very clear and very straightforward. That's a model others should follow."

Funeral directors are mixed on the price lists' value.

"The General Price List has made the funeral industry a better industry for the public," said Tom Harris, whose family founded Harris Funeral Home in Dayton, in 1898. "The list makes families generally feel more at ease and confident with the funeral director."

Other funeral directors cautioned that price lists don't tell the whole story.

"Funeral directing is far more than what shows up on a price list," Bill Kindred of Kindred Funeral Home in Englewood said. "It's very difficult to understand, there's a lot of things that go into it."

Decrying the "WalMartization" of the funeral industry, John Stroup of Belton-Stroup Funeral Home in Fairborn said, "Prices alone can't show the service we offer."

Tommy Routsong, owner of Routsong Funeral Home, said discount prices are sometimes designed just to get customers in the door, where the funeral home can pull a "bait and switch" — pile on goods and services to the point where no real savings are achieved.

"It may say 'discount,' but you're not necessarily getting the best value," Routsong said.

Slocum's advice: "Consumers really need to shop around ahead of time. Pick these price lists up from four or five funeral homes, bring them home and look at them side by side, jot your questions down. Anything you don't understand ask a funeral home, ask a funeral consumers group who's familiar with funeral pricing practices."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7408 or agottschlich@DaytonDailyNews.com.