NBE Arts cheat sheet

The FTC Funeral Rule requires a General Price List be offered to any consumer who inquires in person about arrangements or prices and given to that consumer to keep.

Casket and outer burial container price lists must be shown before the consumer views or discusses those specific items.

An itemized Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected must be furnished to the arranging family after the arrangement conference.

Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ (unit selling price − variable cost per unit).

Core management functions cycle: planning, organizing, staffing/directing, controlling, and evaluating outcomes.

OSHA formaldehyde permissible exposure limit is 0.75 ppm as an 8-hour time-weighted average, with a 2 ppm short-term limit over 15 minutes.

Working capital = current assets − current liabilities; it measures a firm's short-term operating liquidity.

Embalming requires authorization from the person legally entitled to control disposition under the applicable state statute.

The marketing mix is the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion.

Markup on cost = (selling price − cost) ÷ cost; margin on price = (selling price − cost) ÷ selling price. Margin is always the smaller percentage for the same transaction.

Retail price from a desired margin: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin rate).

The Funeral Rule prohibits representing that state law requires a casket for direct cremation or cremation when no such state requirement exists.

Inventory turnover = cost of goods sold ÷ average inventory at cost.

Merchandise is typically tiered into entry, mid-range, and premium price points, each with its own display zone and selection-room placement.

Market segmentation for a funeral firm commonly uses geography, age cohort, religious/cultural affiliation, and preneed propensity.

The FTC cooling-off rule generally gives a buyer three business days to cancel a door-to-door preneed sale.

The Funeral Rule is a Federal Trade Commission trade regulation rule, 16 CFR Part 453, binding on funeral providers.

A dead human body is not property; the right of sepulture belongs to the person holding the statutory right of disposition.

The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act governs organ and tissue donation; a documented gift by the donor requires no further consent.

Negligence requires four elements: duty of care, breach, causation (actual and proximate), and damages.

State statutes set licensure, embalming authorization, transport and interment permits, and continuing education requirements.

A contract signed by a person lacking capacity is voidable; minors generally lack capacity to contract for funeral services.

Zoning ordinances and state cemetery statutes control where a funeral establishment or cemetery may be sited and operated.

Six core principles: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, veracity, and fidelity.

Veracity requires truthful representation of prices, services, and legal requirements; a factual misstatement is deception, not puffery.

Informed consent requires disclosure of material facts, comprehension, voluntariness, and decision-making capacity.

Ethical decision sequence: identify the issue, gather facts, identify stakeholders, list options, test consequences, decide, and document.

A fiduciary duty means placing the client's interest ahead of the firm's; commissions, referral fees, or incentives must be disclosed.

Confidentiality may be breached only when law compels disclosure or when a clear risk of serious harm to self or others exists.

Puffery (permissible opinion) is distinguished from a material misrepresentation, which violates both ethics codes and the Funeral Rule.

Kübler-Ross identified denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as reactions to dying, not a fixed sequence everyone follows.

Defense mechanisms include denial, repression, projection, displacement, rationalization, regression, and sublimation.

Maslow's hierarchy orders needs as physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization; lower needs generally dominate first.

Empathy is understanding another's frame of reference; sympathy is sharing the feeling. Supportive counseling relies on empathy.

Referral is indicated when needs exceed the funeral director's scope: suicidal ideation, psychosis, substance abuse, or complicated grief.

Crisis intervention sequence: ensure safety, reduce acute distress, mobilize social support, and connect to follow-up care.

Counseling delivered by funeral directors is short-term, supportive, and informational rather than psychotherapy.

Manifest functions of the funeral: disposal of the body, social support, transition of roles, and reaffirmation of shared beliefs.

Status is a social position; role is the set of behaviors expected of that status, and death forces role reallocation among survivors.

Durkheim held that collective ritual reinforces the collective conscience and social solidarity among the bereaved.

Folkways are customary norms with mild sanctions; mores are strongly held norms whose violation draws severe social sanction.

Cultural relativism evaluates a practice within its own culture; ethnocentrism judges it by the standards of one's own culture.

Secularization and medicalization have moved dying and death from the home to hospitals and care facilities.

Crude death rate = deaths in a year ÷ midyear population × 1,000.

Bereavement is the state of having lost; grief is the reaction to loss; mourning is its outward, culturally prescribed expression.

Worden's tasks: accept the reality of the loss, process the pain, adjust to the environment without the deceased, and relocate the relationship.

The Dual Process Model describes oscillation between loss-oriented coping and restoration-oriented coping.

Disenfranchised grief is grief a relationship or loss that society does not openly recognize or support.

Anticipatory grief occurs before an expected death; it may buffer distress but does not substitute for post-death mourning.

Prolonged grief disorder involves persistent, disabling yearning or preoccupation persisting beyond 12 months in adults (DSM-5-TR).

Children's understanding of death moves toward finality and universality; preschoolers often treat death as reversible or as sleep.

SOLER: face the client Squarely, maintain an Open posture, Lean slightly forward, keep Eye contact, and Relax.

Open questions invite elaboration; closed questions elicit yes/no or specific data such as dates and spellings.

Reflecting names the feeling heard, paraphrasing restates content, and summarizing consolidates themes.

Proxemic zones: intimate 0–18 inches, personal 18 inches–4 feet, social 4–12 feet, public 12 feet and beyond.

Silence is a legitimate technique that lets the bereaved process emotion and take the lead in the conversation.

"I" messages state impact without blame: "I feel ___ when ___ because ___."

Clichés such as "at least she isn't suffering" minimize grief and close down further disclosure.

Balance sheet identity: Assets = Liabilities + Owners' Equity; every transaction preserves it.

Debits increase assets and expenses; credits increase liabilities, equity, and revenue; total debits must equal total credits per entry.

Current ratio = current assets ÷ current liabilities; the quick ratio removes inventory from current assets.

Accrual accounting records revenue when earned and expenses when incurred; cash basis records on movement of cash.

The matching principle assigns an expense to the period of the revenue it helped generate.

Straight-line depreciation = (cost − salvage value) ÷ estimated useful life in years.

Preneed funds are held in trust; state law restricts how merchandise trust principal and income may be used.

Gross profit = revenue − cost of goods sold; net income = gross profit − operating expenses.

Part = Base × Rate; Rate = Part ÷ Base; Base = Part ÷ Rate.

Simple interest: I = P × R × T with T in years; maturity value = principal + interest.

Compound amount: A = P(1 + r/n)^(nt), where n is compounding periods per year and t is years.

Unit price = total price ÷ number of units; use it to compare different package sizes.

Mean = sum of values ÷ count; median = middle value of an ordered set; mode = most frequent value.

Pro rata share = (individual portion ÷ total portions) × amount available.

Conversions: 1 inch = 2.54 cm; 1 gallon = 128 fluid ounces ≈ 3.785 liters; 1 pound = 16 ounces.

Spreadsheet formulas begin with "="; relative references (A1) shift when copied, absolute references ($A$1) do not.

Common functions: =SUM(range), =AVERAGE(range), =IF(test, value_if_true, value_if_false), =COUNT(range).

PDF preserves final formatting; .docx and .xlsx remain editable working formats.

3-2-1 backup rule: three copies, two different media, one stored off-site; encrypt personally identifiable information at rest and in transit.

Phishing and ransomware are leading threats; avoid unexpected attachments, avoid password reuse, and enable multifactor authentication.

Typical funeral home software modules: case management, price-list and arrangement, preneed trust tracking, accounting, e-signature, and obituary web publishing.

A database stores structured records queried by field criteria; a spreadsheet is built for calculation and charting.