InfoSheet SubPage - SFG&SS Components

Ocean Grove Memorial Home
118 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, New Jersey 07756

Thomas J. Saragusa, Manager
N. J. License No. 4036

VOICE 732-775-0434 - - OGMHognj@aol.com


Here are the various components of an
Estimated Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected
that your funeral director will discuss with you.

This method of quotation is truly a Functional Pricing System because "functions" are the line items listed (although it is often referred to as "itemized pricing." Itemization methods identify a differentiation between Services and Use of Facilities...functional methods combine services with facilities for each function performed by the funeral home or the funeral director...for example, it is illegal for a funeral home to charge you for both "embalming" and for "use of the preparation room" as separate line items...the charge must include all that is necessary to perform the function of embalming.)

Italicized text represents wording that is required by either the Federal Trade Commission or the N. J. State Board of Mortuary Science.

Please note: Federal Trade Commission regulations require all funeral directors to give clients a printed General Price List (GPL) when discussing (in person) funeral arrangements or funeral pre-arrangements. After you have made your choices and selections, you will also be given a written estimated Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected (SFGSS) which will list those choices and their estimated charges (when the final charges can't be ascertained at the time of the arrangement conference). In New Jersey, only a licensed funeral director may quote funeral prices and help you arrange a funeral.

The Estimated
Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected
contains:

Identification information about the funeral home and the funeral director (the information in the Letterhead)

Identification Information about the decedent:

Financial Information and Data

Professional Services:

  • Basic Charges of the Funeral Home

  • Conducting a Funeral Ceremony

  • Accompaniment to the Place of Final Disposition

  • Other Professional Services

  • Embalming

  • Other Preparation

  • Sanitary Care and Restoration

Staff Services and Facility Charges

  • Caretaking

  • Supervision of Calling Hours

  • Other Non-Licensed Services

Transportation

  • Transferral from Place of Death

  • Transportation to the Place of Final Disposition

Funeral Merchandise

  • Casket

  • Burial Container or Urn

  • Other Merchandise such as Funeral Clothing, Printed Goods, etc.

Cash Advances

 

Professional Services:

Basic Services of the Funeral Director:
A funeral home’s basic services include (among others):

  • Responding to the initial request for service

  • Meeting with the arrangor(s) and conducting the arrangement conference

  • Receiving and preparing biographical and statistical data

  • Discussing and presenting financial charges and settlement options

  • Preparing and filing various papers, permits and authorizations, as required or desired

  • Arrangeing with and coordinating with those providing other services

  • Preparing and placing funeral notices with newspapers of your choice

  • Retaining and care of the decedent's remains prior to ceremonies and until final disposition

A fee for the funeral home's basic services and overhead will be added to the total cost of the funeral arrangements you make. In the case of direct cremation, immediate burial and forwarding or receiving remains, this fee is already included.

Conducting a Funeral Ceremony:
For thousands of years, ceremonies have helped provide closure for grieving family and friends. Whether or not you choose to have a ceremony (religious or secular) will depend on many factors. You may wish to have a religious ceremony in a church or in the funeral home, at the graveside only or a simple, non-religious memorial ceremony in the funeral home or another location. You may want a "Memorial" ceremony after the final disposition. New Jersey statutes require that a licensed funeral director be in charge of any Funeral Ceremony when the decedent's body is present..

Accompanyment to the Place of Final Disposition:
New Jersey statutes require that a licensed funeral director accompany the remains of a decedent to the place of final disposition.

Other Professional Services of the Funeral Director

Embalming and Preparation
Although New Jersey law does not require embalming in all cases, most arrangors choose embalming if they want a viewing or a funeral ceremony. Embalming is often a necessity unless cremation takes place the day after death. In New Jersey, only licensed funeral directors may embalm human bodies.
If you do not want embalming, you have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial (unless it is required by law).

Dressing, Application of Cosmetics & Placement in the Casket
Make sure you take clothing for the deceased to the funeral home. Also, you should provide the funeral director with a recent photograph so that cosmetics will be applied and hair styled accordingly. To simplify matters, you may wish to take the clothing and photograph to the funeral home when you go there to make the funeral arrangements.
If you choose, you may purchase clothes for the decedent from the funeral director. If you choose not to have a viewing, the funeral director will offer you the choice to have cosmetics applied and style the hair.

Special Professional Services such as Restoration or Sanitary Care (in the absence of embalming)

Facility and Staff Charges
The funeral home charges for the services of the funeral director and staff and the use of the owned facilities as are necessary and available and the use of owned, necessary and available equipment are included when those services are chosen. We do not charge for the use of facilities separately from our services:

Initial Caretaking: The first day of caretaking is included in our non-declinable basic service charge.
Additional Standard Caretaking...the second, third and fourth days that the body of the decedent is in our care.
Additional Extended Caretaking...all the rest of required or requested days that the body of the decedent is in our care.

Visiting or Calling Hours (Viewing - Wake):
Friends and relatives are often invited to visit with the decedent's family and friends. Visiting is generally held for one to several hours on one or two days. A viewing is also called a “visitation” or a “wake.” Our charges are hourly for that time that we formally make available as visiting hours.

Transportation
The funeral director will arrange for whatever vehicles you need or want to use to transport the casket, flowers and the clergy to the place of final disposition. Most funeral processions consist of some combination of a flower/lead or clergy car and a hearse and privately owned vehicles. They may go from the funeral home to the church, to the cemetery, or from the funeral home directly to the place of final disposition. The funeral director will help coordinate the funeral procession for you.

Funeral Merchandise: We make a charge to provide these items.

Casket:
New Jersey law does not require a casket for burial or cremation. But, unless you choose direct cremation, you probably will want one. Additionally, if you choose burial as the final form of disposition, you’ll find that many cemeteries in New Jersey require that you use a rigid container, an outer burial container or sealed burial "vault."
If you choose cremation, you may wish to “rent” a casket from the funeral director for the viewing and ceremony. Following the viewing the decedent will be transferred from the rented casket to an alternative container for transportation to the crematory and the cremation process.
Caskets and vaults come in a wide range of prices and we display eleven full size caskets in our selection room...others are available and can be specially ordered. State and federal regulations require that your funeral director show you a written price list for caskets and for outer burial containers and that the connection between the printed list and the individual caskets be apparent.

Burial Container
If you choose burial as the form of final disposition, chances are the cemetery will require that you use an outer burial container. We offer several options, ranging from lower-priced rough concrete outer boxes to premium sealed and warranteed burial vaults. State and federal regulations require that your funeral director show you a written price list for caskets and for outer burial containers and that the connection between the printed list and the individual caskets be apparent.

Other Funeral Merchandise
You may want a register book, personalized prayer cards, personal- ized acknowledgement cards and other funeral items. We have a wide array of resources for this type of item.

Cash Advances We do not make a charge to provide these items or services.
Miscellaneous cash advances are items and services that the funeral home arranges and then pays for on your behalf. Since New Jersey law prohibits funeral homes from deriving a profit from cash advances, the funeral home will bill you only for the amount it actually spents on each item in this category. Examples of typical Cash Advances are:

Clergy Honorarium
A payment to the officiating clergyman for his time and services surrounding the funeral is appropriate. The clergyman will often contact the family prior to the funeral ceremony, officiate at the ceremony and go to a local place of final disposition. He may also contact the family after the funeral has been completed.

Other Church Expenses
Payments for such services as Organist, Soloist and Sexton are often made through the funeral home.

Pallbearers
Pallbearers help carry the casket from the funeral home to the church (or other ceremony site) and sometimes to the grave. Your funeral director will let you know the number you will need. You may want to ask family members or special friends to handle this obligation or have your funeral director hire professional pallbearers for you. Pallbearers may be male or female.

Paid Funeral or Death Notices in daily newspapers
If you want to an "obituary" to appear in your local newspapers, the funeral director will make the gather the proper information and place the information with the newspaper as part of his Basic Charges, but you must pay for any charges that the newspaper makes to print the notice. Daily sewspapers usually charge a fee to print "death notices" and "funeral notices." Weekly newspapers usually don't make a charge.

Limousine Charges
As the Ocean Grove Memorial Home doesn't own a limousine, we must hire one when one is desired. A standard gratuity for the driver will be advanced for the family in addition to the cost of the vehicle.

Certified Copies of the Death/Doctor's Certificate
You may need to send certified copies to insurance companies, state and federal agencies, employers, creditors and others when notifying them of the death. The funeral director will order as many as you like and pay for them on your behalf. You may always get more later directly from the issuing agencies. You will normally need to prove death via a CC of the DC to probate a will, claim insurance proceeds, sell owned stocks and bonds and to sell an owned automobile. You usually DO NOT need a certified copy to prove death to the Social Security Admin- istration or banks (you will need a Certificate of Executorship or other certificate from the Surrogate Court for banks).

Gratuities
In this time, gratuities are a way of life. A gratuity will be advanced for you in all usual circumstances, and always to the driver of any hired car, the assistants at the cemetery who will help move the casket and flowers, at the crematory and for assistance at an airport, as is necessary. You have the right to decline this service by the funeral home.

Cemetery and Crematory Charges
Because the current charges by cemeteries are as high as they are, the funeral home will NOT advance those charges for you but will assist you in making your payment directly to the cemetery for their charges (which are sometimes in excess of $1,000.00, and are usually that high if you must purchase a new grave at the time of need). We will, however, advance the charge for cremation and show it our our final statement.

Other Items or Services
The funeral home will discuss the possibility of paying any other Cash Advance Items that you bring up.

Totals, Date, Signatures and Disclosures

Each category must be totalled individually and subtotalled by section. Finally an estimated final total must be shown.

The document must be dated.

The funeral director who prepares the estimated Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected must sign the document and show his license number.

The purchaser is asked to sign and date the document, acknowledging his acceptance of the estimated charges. His address and relationship to the decedent are noted.

Other disclosures must be made if they apply, such as:

  • If embalming is to be performed, the reason

  • If you are required to purchase any services or merchandise that you don't choose, the reason

If you purchase a "package" type service from the funeral home, individual items of service and merchandise need not be itemized with an individual price on the SFG&SS, however a total cost must be given. Additionally individual items that are included in the packaged price must be identified, e.g., with a check mark where an individual price would have been displayed in a functional pricing quotation.

ADDITIONAL FORMS often signed at the Arrangement Conference

In addition to the Estimated Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected, the purchaser may be asked to sign an Agreement/Contract and if payment in full is not made at the time of funeral arrangements are completed, a Promissory Note.

Other authorizations and acceptances may be presented at the Arrangement Conference:

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