The Memorial Society of Georgia
Has Ceased Operations
Visit FCAGA.ORG for updates & the best
available FUNERAL PRICING COMPARISONS
July 11, 2023
The Memorial Society of Georgia (MSOGa) has now ceased all operations and formally dissolved its existence as a nonprofit corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State. The Memorial Society of Georgia, Inc., was created in 1973 as a discount buyers’ club to provide its members with access to simple, dignified, and affordable funeral care through agreements with cooperating funeral homes and crematory services.
FCAGa – a sister nonprofit Created in 2017
Changes in the funeral care industry across the country, driven by fierce competition among providers that was driving prices down and increased use of the internet to shop for funeral care, along with shifts being made by memorial societies in other states, led the MSOGa board of directors to obtain authorization from the general membership in 2017 to create and incorporate a sister nonprofit organization, the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Georgia, Inc. (FCAGa).
FCAGa – Education and Advocacy
FCAGa has taken over and expanded the related work of empowering all of Georgia’s funeral consumers through education about their legal rights and options and advocating for federal and state policies that ensure provider transparency in the pricing of funeral care goods and services. Education and advocacy were seen as the work that would continue after the discount buyers’ club model of serving funeral consumers became no longer viable.
MSOGa – End of its Useful Life
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, the MSOGa board of directors discovered that the majority of our funeral care providers were unwilling to continue their partnership in our discount program, leading us to immediately stop enrolling new members and allowing existing members to change provider because we could no longer ensure that member discounts would be honored. The following year was spent by the board of directors in discernment that ended with the conclusion that the organization had reached the end of its useful life as a membership organization. The Memorial Society of Georgia has now ceased all operations and formally dissolved its existence as a nonprofit corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State.
FCAGa – Advocating Fairness for Funeral Consumers in Georgia
Its successor, the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Georgia, has many resources on its website, FCAGa.org, to assist with planning for burial or cremation and celebration of life. Most notable is the Pricing Comparison Table, a sortable and searchable compilation of immediate burial and direct cremation prices, along with a link to the complete General Price List, for more than half of the 700+ licensed funeral care providers throughout Georgia—a resource that enables consumers to conduct comparison shopping conveniently and quickly without having to visit multiple providers in person.
FCAGa – we need your help in Georgia
The table rushed to the general public as a tool urgently needed during the pandemic is still a work in progress, and we invite your help in obtaining the General Price List from any provider in the area you live to complete the table and keep it as up-to-date as possible.