THE AUTHORIZATION GAP: Three Wrongful Cremations, Zero Federal Rules
Three families in three states lost their loved ones to cremation in 2026 despite explicit burial instructions. The FTC Funeral Rule requires written authorization before embalming. It has no parallel requirement for cremation. These three cases show why that gap matters.
DISCLOSE, BUT KEEP OPERATING: How Thin Inspection Staffing Lets Bad Actors Survive in Deathcare
New public records responses from four states reveal how thin the funeral home inspection infrastructure really is. Colorado conducted zero routine inspections for years before its 2023 Return to Nature scandal. Wisconsin refused to provide any data, claiming its systems were "temporarily unavailable." Delaware told a journalist to look up licensees one by one through a state portal. Indiana has five inspectors covering more than 600 licensed facilities. The data shows a system designed to react to disasters, not prevent them.
THE CORONER STILL OWNS THE FUNERAL HOME: Colorado's Disclosure Law Exposes a Conflict It Refuses to End
Senate Bill 26-105, prompted by the Davis Mortuary scandal in Pueblo, requires Colorado coroners to post their financial interest in any funeral home, crematory, or deathcare business on a government website. It bars them from official actions affecting their own business. It does not stop them from owning one. The same conflict that let an elected coroner store two dozen decomposing bodies at his own funeral home remains legal in Colorado and most of the country.
100 BODIES IN TRAILERS: Illinois Passed a Crematory Law. The Inspection Gap It Exposed Is National.
Illinois found 100 bodies in trailers at a crematory, then passed a law with civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation and a first-of-its-kind 72-hour emergency body possession protocol. But the law does not require routine inspections. Colorado, Maryland, and Illinois each discovered their worst crematory failures by accident. No state mandates unannounced inspections frequent enough to catch problems before bodies accumulate.
60% OF FUNERAL HOMES HIDE THEIR PRICES ONLINE: The FTC May Finally Force Them to Show
A survey found more than 60% of funeral home websites provide little to no pricing information. The FTC is considering requiring online price disclosure for the first time in the Funeral Rule's 42-year history. The public comment period closes this year.
YOUR ASHES, THEIR PATENT: How One Company Locked Up the Right to Turn Human Remains Into Stone
Parting Stone holds the first U.S. utility patent on a method of solidifying cremated human remains, granted March 2026. The company sued a competitor and resolved the case in June. No regulator reviewed the patent's implications for consumers, pricing, or competition in deathcare.
COMPOST, YES. BACKYARD, NO.
Washington legalized human composting in 2019. It took seven more years to let families bury a relative on their own land. The bill stalled in committee for three years with no recorded opposition. The statute that blocked it funneled every family into a commercial purchase.
WHO OWNS YOUR AFTERLIFE: A $5 Billion Industry Is Scaling Before Anyone Built the Rules
Six companies sell AI replicas of the dead. Meta patented a system for autonomous posthumous agents. No state requires consent from the deceased. No federal law governs who owns a digital persona after death. The industry is scaling inside that vacuum.
THE FIRST INSPECTION: Colorado's New Funeral Law Caught a Coroner Hiding Two Dozen Bodies
Colorado hired its first two funeral home inspectors after the Return to Nature scandal. Their first inspection found a coroner-run mortuary in Pueblo hiding two dozen decomposing bodies, some there for over a decade.
THE $300 VETERANS FUNERAL: Congress' New Bill Fixes the Paperwork. The Price Is Not in It.
For nearly a decade the VA paid families $300 toward a funeral while the median funeral passed $8,000. A veterans bill moving through Congress addresses paperwork and cemetery access, not the dollar amount.
FTC Funeral Rule Rewrite: What's Actually Changing
The first major update to the Funeral Rule in decades. We break down what changes, what stays the same, and what it means for consumers and operators.
STATE-BY-STATE FUNERAL REGULATION: Your Rights Depend on Your Zip Code
The federal FTC Funeral Rule sets a baseline of consumer protections. But state regulations vary wildly — from states that require itemized pricing and transparent contracts to states where funeral homes can operate with virtually no oversight. Here's what the map looks like.
HOW DEATHCARE ADVERTISING TARGETS THE GRIEVING
A review of digital marketing practices in the deathcare industry reveals how funeral homes, cremation providers, and pre-need insurance companies use targeted advertising to reach families at their most vulnerable. FTC enforcement has been limited, and existing rules were written for a pre-internet era.
Oklahoma's Governor Just Vetoed Human Composting. The "Disposal Freedom" Fight Is Just Getting Started.
Oklahoma was poised to become the latest state to legalize natural organic reduction. Then the governor's veto pen turned a quiet regulatory debate into a national flashpoint over disposal freedom, industry lobbying, and who gets to decide what happens to your body.
The Hidden Fees in Your Funeral Bill: An Investigation
Americans spend decades planning for retirement. Most spend less than 48 hours planning a funeral. We analyzed hundreds of funeral bills across six states and found a pattern of opaque pricing, inflated markups, and fees that regulators have known about for decades. The FTC Funeral Rule was supposed to fix this. It hasn't. And with private equity flooding into deathcare, the problem is getting worse, not better.
SIXTY-SEVEN CHARGES, ONE FUNERAL HOME: The Hull Case and the Regulatory Gap That Lets Bad Actors Operate for Years
Robert Bush operated Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, England for 12 years before police found 35 bodies and discovered families had been given the wrong ashes. His 67 guilty pleas expose a complaint-driven regulatory system that mirrors the oversight gaps documented across the United States. The solution starts with empowering good funeral directors to report bad actors without fear of retaliation.