August 2017

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Page A12 AUGUST 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A
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no freakin’ clue as to what to do.” He continues, “ARE
YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME!!!!!??????” (All empha-
sis by the reviewers.)
Overcharging from the original quote was another fre-
quent complaint: A Fairfield, CA customer wrote: “This
place broke my heart. My loved one died unexpectedly
on a weekend. His next of kin are 2 children. I explained
the situation and got a quote. Then I called 4 times a day
until they emailed me the contract. It was 400 dollars
plus more than the first quote. When I explained out-
rage they said, basically, it’s too bad.”
There is no question that funeral service has changed.
There is no question that more and more families are
seeking new solutions to their special person’s death.
There is no question that final care providers must be in-
novative, ethical and embedded in their pursuit to assist
every family from the shock of death to the first steps of
recapturing a day without devastating grief.
We watch funeral service slide down the slippery slope.
The quality practitioners of funeral service become
afraid when the casketed calls become cremation cases.
They lower their price, or discount their price, to meet
the low cost usurper who appears on their horizon.
I practice funeral service. I service 82% cremation.
There are other firms in my market share that are deter-
mined to take families away due to a lower price. If we
fully acquiesce to their level are we really providing the
care of healing that we were taught? Are we now so busy
with low cost calls that any counsel to the family about
veterans benefits, insurance claims, grief resources are
forgotten due to the lower income and staff reductions?
Why did we enter funeral service? If it was to fulfill
what Heritage had hoped for, then it is not funeral ser-
vice, it is commodity disposition. This problem is ours
to solve; remain true to your calling. It is truly better to
have fewer calls, letting the price shoppers find the foils,
but to maintain your integrity, and your income, as the
funeral director you want to be. Eventually, the public
will discover the difference.
“Trust me, of all people, I understand a situation where you
need to count pennies, but this sh_t ain’t worth it. Please
save yourself the heartache and protect your dignity…spend
a couple of extra hundred to do it right and with people
who really do care.” –Anne M., Woodbridge, VA on Yelp
Observations
A Heritage
of Deceit
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades
the mob, great woes befall the state.” –Euripides, Orestes
Massachusetts citizens’ complaints of a Colorado
based cremation provider helped put the final nails in
their respective cremation containers.
On June 6, 2017, the Colorado Office of Funeral
Home and Crematory Registration suspended the regis-
tration of Heritage Cremation Provider, LLC for fail-
ing to notify customers that it subcontracted its crema-
tion services.
Heritage Cremation Provider, LLC and its affiliated
company, Legacy Funeral Services, LLC, with an of-
fice in Colorado Springs, CO, is not a funeral home,
nor is it a crematory. It is a website advertising low cost
cremation services from $695-$1395. They give the ap-
pearance as a local firm. They state they are “family-
owned and operated,” providing a “strictly confidential
and certified cremation.” They find local funeral homes
that will provide the removal from place of death and
the cremation procedure. The problem is Heritage/Leg-
acy is not licensed in the states they are advertising in.
The owners of Heritage have a pimply past. According
to CBS4 in Miami, Joseph Damiano was “dubbed the
Body Baron of Broward County.” In 2002, according
to CBS4, he was arrested on charges he ran an “illegal
crematorium.” Allegations and lawsuits came later for
allegedly “supplying bodies without the family’s permis-
sion for embalming classes at Lynn University in Boca
Raton.” His son, Anthony Joseph “AJ” or “Tony” Dami-
ano, pleaded guilty, and was banned from the funeral
business for ten years for “operating without a license.”
When the ban ended they planned the Heritage/Legacy
firms.
The Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado re-
ports that Heritage Cremation Provider, LLC has re-
ceived 1.07 out of 5 stars for a rating of F. They list 14
complaints on their site.
Several of the states they advertise in have taken direct
action against Heritage/Legacy. Massachusetts has iden-
tified them as illegally operating in the Bay State. They
passed along their citizens’ complaints to Colorado
to assist in getting their registration suspended in the
Centennial state. Georgia issued a “cease and desist”
order against the firm as did many other states. Flori-
da’s formal cease and desist order outlined their alleged
presentation of “false and fraudulent documents” to
licensed Florida funeral firms to perform their crema-
tions. The order stated that Heritage implied that they
were licensed and authorized to perform cremation
services in Florida. Heritage would make the arrange-
ments, contract with the family and accept payment
for the cremations performed for families contacting
their website.
Minnesota Department of Health investigated and
ordered heritage to “cease providing licensed activities
in Minnesota.” The Wisconsin Funeral Directors Associ-
ation is investigating claims by its members, who per-
formed cremations for Heritage, that they have not
been paid. The Ohio Funeral Directors Association is-
sued an alert, authored by NFDA General Coun-
sel Scott Gilligan warning of dealing with Heritage.
NFDA also issued Gilligan’s warning to its national
membership
North Carolina Board of Funeral Services filed an in-
junction against Heritage. It warned its members that
providing services for Heritage “would constitute aid-
ing and abetting the unlicensed practices of funeral
service.”
Oregon’s State Mortuary and Cemetery Board stated
Heritage’s website’s claims “constitute a sales presenta-
tion or practice that conceals or misstates a material
fact.” The punishment for such a violation is $10,000.
Yelp has posted many scathing reviews of the Heri-
tage/Legacy firm. One Ohio family, in a lengthy griev-
ance, presents this charge: “And if that is not enough
for you – they REFUSED TO TELL ME WHERE
MY DEAD GRANDMOTHER WAS BEING
HELD. Yep – they refused to tell me the name of the
local funeral home who picked up her body” (empha-
sis by the reviewer).
Other claims against the firm included delay in cre-
mation. A Minnesota customer writes: “When I asked
for the timing of the actual cremation of my loved one
3 days after death, they told me, ‘we had 150 units last
week so we are running behind.’ It is day 29 and some-
one just called me back to check information on death
certificate.” From a Woodridge, VA customer, “My fa-
ther passed Monday, 10/19.” They returned the paper-
work for cremation on Tuesday, 10/20. “So here it is
WEDNESDAY planning for details of his celebration
of life and we get a call from Heritage advising us that
they “regret to inform us that they have found them-
selves in an overbooked situation and are now unable
to pick up our father, leaving us high and dry with
By Steven Palmer
Steven Palmer entered funeral service in 1971. He is an honors grad-
uate of the New England Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences. He has
been licensed on both coasts, he owns the Westcott Funeral Homes of
Cottonwood and Camp Verde, AZ. Steve offers his observations on cur-
rent funeral service issues. He may be reached by mail at PO Box 352,
Cottonwood, AZ 86326, by phone at (928)634-9566, by fax at (928)634-
5156, by e-mail at or through his web-
site at or on Facebook.
Funeral Home & Cemetery News
Contributors share insights and
exchange ideas. B
Hearse Car Show to Attempt Guinness Record
hearse collectors, banning together to celebrate the histo-
ry and love for this iconic vehicle. The goal is to have no
less than 110 hearses participate in the Guinness World
Record attempt for the longest parade of hearses.
“We are urging anyone who owns a hearse to join forc-
es,” said Morey. “Together we can accomplish big things,
and working together we can bring the record back
home.”
Find more information on the Northern Michigan
Hearse Cruise on the web at or call
Jeff at 989-390-1133.
GAYLORD,MI—The Northern Michigan Hearse Cruise
will be hosting their fifth annual car show and cruise. This
two day event begins Friday May 25, 2018 in downtown
Gaylord under the Pavilion. “The hearses come from
across the country,” said Jeff Morey, the founder of the
cruise. “We have had cars from New York, Ohio, Indiana
and all over our great state in the last 4 years.”
On Saturday May 26th the Cruise will feature a Guin-
ness World Record attempt. The group is hoping to host
an unprecedented number of funeral directors, specialty
vehicle manufacturers, along with this eccentric group of www.nomi s publ i cat i ons . com