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EXTERNAL QUICK LINKS

Funeral Consumers Alliance (National)

California Cemetery & Funeral Bureau Consumer's Guide

FTC's Funeral Consumer's Guide

Comprehensive list of veterans funeral and burial benefits

Aging with Dignity's Five Wishes
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Good End of Life.com
About (en español)

FCA of Southern California (FCASC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer run organization whose mission is to provide our local communities with the knowledge and tools they need to carry out meaningful, personalized, and affordable funerals.  It is our hope that the information we provide will help families make decisions that reflect their deepest values.  

​Our area of coverage includes:  San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties.  FCASC is not affiliated with the funeral industry and is an affiliate member of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance.    Currently, there are approximately 80 funeral consumer affiliate organizations located in the United States that volunteer their time to serve their communities.  Click here for a listing of national FCA affiliates.  

Our website contains information on the following topics to assist California communities and families in becoming knowledgeable about their end-of-life choices: local funeral prices, funeral options, consumer rights, organ and whole body donation options, environmental impact of funeral practices, and advanced planning.
Find Funeral and Cremation Prices in Your Community Now: 
Watch Los Angeles Funeral Director Caitlyn Doughty skillfully break down why we have to be vigilant about funeral legislation.   
Contact information:
Phone:  1-888-737-3911 
Email:   info@fcasocal.org 

Rate your experience with a funeral home on Yelp. 

FCA So Cal can provide you with objective information about funeral homes in your area, but you can help one another by sharing your experience, good or bad, with your community so that they can make the most informed choice possible.  Remember, we only plan 1, maybe 2, funerals in our lifetime, making collective experience extremely valuable.   Thank you!
In the News:

KCBX Central Coast Pubic Radio:  What you should know before you go - radio interview with Shannon Shoup and Cari Leversee
Listen to the interview...

Consumer Reports:  Funeral Consumers Alliance and Consumer Federation of America petition the Federal Trade Commission to require funeral homes nationwide to post the prices for their products and service on their websites. 
Read the full article...

New York Times:  Funeral Prices Are Hard to Get and Vary Widely, Survey Finds.  
Read the full article...

Forbes:  Should Funeral Homes Have to Post Prices
Read the full article...

Time:   Why You Can't Figure Out What a Funeral Costs.
Read the full article...

Washington Business Journal:  Consumer group calls for full disclosure of funeral prices, other services
Read the full article...

CNN Money:  A well-researched article titled "The High Cost of Saying Goodbye" outlines the challenges faced by consumers when making end-of-life arrangements.  
Read the full article...  

OC Register:  Dying to know?  Funeral prices vary wildly in O.C.
Read the full article...

60 Minutes:  Final resting place:  Cemeteries lack oversight
Watch the full episode...

Ventura County Star:  Survey finds vast range of prices at Ventura County funeral homes
Read the full article...

Acorn:  Survey looks at burial costs in Ventura County
Read the full article...

OC Register:  Price-shopping for funeral services?  Good Luck
Read the full article...
Suggested Videos, Movies, and Books:
Dr. Peter Saul's inspirational TED Talk titled "Dying in the 21st Century" calls on us to make clear our preferences for end of life care - and suggests two questions for starting the conversation.  Over the past 35 years Peter Saul has been intimately involved in the dying process of over 4,000 patients.  He is passionate about improving the ways we die.  
Rejecting the mainstream tradition of hiring funeral professionals to care for the deceased, families in search of a more personal and fulfilling way to say goodbye are taking an active role in caring for relatives who have died. 
Both a critical look at the American relationship with death and an inquiry into the home death care movement, In The Parlor: The Final Goodbye takes viewers on a journey where very few have gone, and challenges us to reflect on this uncomfortable subject, which so often is hidden away and ignored.
A PBS documentary that explores the growing home funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they prepare their loved ones at home for a burial or cremation. This film reminds us that far from being a radical innovation, keeping funeral rites in the family or among friends is exactly how death was handled for most of pre-20th century America.  Watch the trailer. 
Final Rights is the definitive book for consumers on the modern funeral industry and how to navigate it. Part investigative report and part practical guide, the book explains in detail how to avoid being victimized. And for those who wish to take charge of the funeral themselves without using a funeral home Final Rights will show you how, with a chapter on each state's requirements written in plain English.
Grave Matters follows families who found in "green" burial a more natural, more economic, and ultimately more meaningful alternative to the tired and toxic send-off on offer at the local funeral parlor.
A revised edition of Jessica Mitford's #1 bestseller The American Way of Death, originally published in 1963.  It is an incredibly entertaining piece of investigative journalism.  
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