| Refrigeration/embalming | $425 |
| Minimum sealed (gasketed) casket | $2,598 |
| Transferring body from funeral home to crypt | $275 |
| Open/close crypt (removing and replacing the faceplate) | $660 |
| Vehicle for picking up permits | $100 |
| Total | $6,095 |
(Opening/closing crypt charges rise to $685 on Saturday, $780 on Saturday afternoon, $975 on holidays. Never on Sunday.)
I asked why they charge $275 to take the body the two hundred yards from the funeral home out to the crypt. “That seemed exorbitant,” said Marcia. “He said it’s a fixed fee within a fifty-mile radius. Even so close, it’s the same because of the ‘cost of maintaining the vehicles, their insurance, and so forth.’ Outrageous! Also, I asked why the minimum service fee of $1,682 couldn’t be discounted for immediate burial the same as it was for cremation, and he said, ‘Well, they do that to make cremation a little cheaper than burial.”
These arrangements may be all very well for Marcia; she’s obviously not your typical Houston funeral buyer. She’s going to dump Aunt Jessie in an old, unair-conditioned crypt in the cheapest casket, no opportunity for neighbors to come and visit her, no religious service or memorial gathering. Those who are inclined to even a modicum of ceremony would have to add a few items from the FPW price list to the above rock-bottom minimum:
| Use of facilities and staff services for visitation (per day) | $ 98 |
| Funeral service in FWP chapel, or | $725 |
| Staff and services in other facility, or | $725 |
| Chapel for memorial service without remains present | $725 |
| Equipment and staff services for service at graveside | $515 |
| Additional charge for use of facilities/staff on Sunday or holiday | $600 |
| Caskets | from $2,598 to $25,145 |
| Copper vault (resists the entrance of outside elements) | $20,378 |
There is lots more—clothing up to $192, flowers up to $2,000, memorial booklet, commemorative flag case —but why go on? Readers can check out the SCI facilities in their own communities via 1-800-9CARING.[20]
What happens to all that money? According to Graef S. Crystal, corporate-compensation expert, SCI is one of ten companies out of a total of 414 that he studied in 1995 whose directors and chief executives were most overpaid (
I asked Mr. Crystal how much the SCI directors get. A total package, comprising annual retainers, meeting fees, stock options, pension benefits, and deferred compensation, of $102,000 maybe more, he said. “Fair pay, considering the size and performance of the company, would be $49,700,” And the CEO? “He gets a total value of $4,321,000. Using the same factors, a fair package would be $2,670,000.” He added that the CEO’s performance has been “unremarkable, neither very good nor very bad, for the past ten years; but it has improved recently.”
Heading the list of these high-priced directors is Anthony L. Coelho, president and CEO of Wertheim Schroder Investment Services, Inc., better known as Tony Coelho, former Democratic congressman from California. In 1989, under a cloud of scandal, he resigned from the House of Representatives, relinquishing his powerful position as majority whip, just one step ahead of a Justice Department and House Ethics Committee investigation involving his personal investment in a junk bond that was completed with the help of a savings and loan executive
As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 1981 through 1986, according to the
In 1994, rehabilitated by the passage of time, he joined President Clinton’s inner circle of advisors. But like the Grim Reaper himself, Mr. Coelho is a bipartisan sort of fellow: “I love Bob Dole!” he told the
All of which bodes exceedingly well for the future of SCI’s global village of the dead.
