We are not members of that association
You might have noticed that Rest Funerals & Death Care isn’t a member of the National Funeral Directors Association of Australia (NFDA) or Funerals Australia. That’s deliberate.
Why We’re Not Members
Both associations have codes of ethics and professional standards, and being a member doesn’t mean a funeral provider does the wrong thing (any more than not being a member means they do the right thing). We’re not against associations either.
Rest is a member of the Natural Death Advocacy Network (NDAN) and the Australian Home Funeral Alliance (AHFA).
We’re happy to belong to organisations whose purpose and philosophy line up with ours. We just don’t see ourselves as part of the traditional funeral industry.
As it stands, Rest wouldn’t be eligible to join the NFDA, and Funerals Australia requires full members to meet standards for premises, equipment and vehicles. To be honest, there are some of those requirements we don’t want to meet. Not because we don’t believe in standards, but because we don’t believe every funeral business needs to look, operate and spend money the same way.
Being decent doesn’t need a code
Both associations’ codes talk about honesty, dignity, compassion, clear pricing, written estimates, privacy and respecting people’s choices. We agree with all of it. We just don’t think any of it should need a membership to enforce.
That’s not a professional achievement. That’s just being human.
Doing things differently
The traditional industry is built around funeral homes, chapels, hearses, viewing rooms, embalming and standard coffins. Rest started because we questioned a lot of that. Do you need an expensive coffin? Embalming? A funeral home? Can you make the coffin yourselves, take your person home, or hold the funeral somewhere else?
Most of the time, the answer is yes.
Some of the requirements we don’t meet are the result of choices like these, so here’s where we stand on a few of them.
No “free” extras, no fear selling
A signing book isn’t free if it’s built into the price, and neither is a printed photo book full of pictures you already have on your phone. Some families love these things, and if you want them, we’ll arrange them. If you don’t, you don’t pay for them.
The same goes for upselling. Sometimes there’s a genuine practical reason for a particular product (for cremation, for example, some form of solid base is generally needed so your person can be moved safely into the cremator). But too often “more suitable” or “more dignified” is just a sales line. CHOICE has reported on upselling and big variations in funeral pricing and coffin mark-ups across the industry.
A more expensive coffin doesn’t make a better funeral, and it’s certainly not a measure of love. When Costco started selling coffins directly to Australians, some funeral homes pushed back. We think more choice is good for families, full stop.
So, why aren’t we members?
Because Rest isn’t trying to be the traditional funeral industry. We’re trying to give families a genuine alternative to it. Where the associations’ standards protect people, we agree with them. Where requirements don’t make sense for the way we work, we’re comfortable not meeting them.
We’ll happily work alongside funeral homes, cemeteries, crematoria, celebrants and suppliers (including NFDA and Funerals Australia members) whenever it’s in a family’s best interest. This isn’t an attack on anyone.
We’d just rather answer to the families we care for than to an industry model we’re trying to change.