News Opinion Article from the Final Arrangements News Journal;
Funeral Counseling, a non-profit charitable organization and Memorial Link.Com, a creator of online memorials and tributes have become a part of a rapidly expanding and growing death care industry and Internet force being created under the moniker The Death Care Internet Services Alliance, DCIS Alliance for short.

The Death Care Internet Services Alliance announced today that two very powerful sources for consumer information and services have joined its rapidly expanding base of Internet Death Care service organizations.

Funeral Counseling, a non-profit charitable organization and Memorial Link.Com, a creator of online memorials and tributes have become a part of a rapidly expanding and growing death care industry and Internet force being created under the moniker The Death Care Internet Services Alliance, DCIS Alliance for short.

Funeral Counseling works on a non-profit basis taking care of necessary funeral arrangements for consumers. They help with the multitude of tasks families are faced with when a death occurs. Funeral Counseling provides price shopping, funeral home and cemetery contact, over viewing of contracts, planning, and advice for its clients.

The other addition to the DCIS Alliance, Memorial Link.Com creates online memorials that are a biographical representation of an individual’s life. They create commemoratives that capture the memory of a dearly departed providing a means for a client family to have an accessible virtual tribute for family and friends to view worldwide.

”We are so excited with both Funeral Counseling and Memorial Link.Com joining DCIS because both are dedicated to bringing the consumer the highest quality in the creation of a memorial and in giving a family at their lowest moment, the loss of a loved one, the advice and guidance so necessary to ease the terrible anxiety and confusion so many of our families endure when a member of that family passes away.” Stated RW Ward, current Director of The Death Care Internet Services Alliance.

Funeral Counseling’s President, Todd Bacinich, commented, “The Death Care Internet Services Alliance is something that we are proud to join. We feel that the bountiful resources available to consumers are some of the best on the web and that it is an invaluable gateway for families when needing to find pertinent information on end of life issues and planning resources. We look forward to working with other DCIS members in being an excellent resource for consumers.”

Membership in the DCIS Alliance is by invitation only. According to Director Ward, it is not easy to obtain. “Our criteria, for membership consideration, are fairly specific. A death care service companies must be serving the consumer using the Internet as a key tool in communicating those services. A company must have the consumer in mind and go that extra mile in services to provide more that just an easier way to make a credit card transaction. It has little to do with what seems to pass for death care services on the Internet today, namely, flashy visuals and price point advertising rather than true services and advice.”

Ward went on to say, “Use of the Internet by our industry is terribly fragmented with an incredible number of amateurs trying to cash in on the growing numbers of consumers who are turning to the Internet for death care help and services. In just the sector our Cemetery Registry is involved with, cemetery property, we see web sites and classified players pop up everyday. These pseudo providers, in most cases, offer nothing more than a way to get a cemetery seller on a wheel of constant renewal fees to keep advertising, yet providing nothing more than lip service to finding them the buyer they so desperately are looking for.”

The Director indicated the most critical reason for the DCIS Alliance was begun in the first place. “There is a real need for synergy in the death care industry and this is the beginning of it.”

Ward went on to point out that, “The consumers have already begun changing their interaction with our industry and we are just trying to catch up with them.”

“They, the consumers, expect access to precise information on funeral homes, cemeteries, cremation, genealogy, obituaries, eulogies, etc. when they need it. Memorial Link.Com and Funeral Counseling's additions to the DCIS Alliances consortium of quality death care services organizations are exactly attuned to this growing attention consumers are giving to Internet searches for information and services when they need help with a family final emergency, namely the death of a loved one, or the planning of their own final arrangements."

“Consumers are learning, hopefully through our efforts at DCIS, that this intensity of information resources is available to them and is only a click of their mouse away on the Internet. The inclusion of Memorial Links.Com and Funeral Counseling to the alliance and those of our previous partnerships with other important member organizations, are a real beginning to creating some satisfaction to the consumer’s expectation of real services from our death care industry via the Internet.” Ward added.

Members of DCIS include such Internet high profile companies such as The Final Arrangements Network, referred to as “the Library of Congress of Death Care” by one Insurance Company executive, has been providing consumers with information, guidance and education on funeral, cremation and cemetery service final arrangements for several years and is the custodian of the Cemetery Registry database of cemetery property for sale in the US and Canada by private owners.

Internet marketing company, New Concept Consultants’ The Cemetery Registry is also a DCIS member. TCR besides offering final arrangements planning information along with caskets, urns and grave markers for sale, is also the official public Internet access to the database, that bears its name. The Cemetery Registry database itself, through its staff of cemetery property specialists, maintains oversight on thousands of US and Canadian registered cemetery properties for sale as well as offers from consumers to buy. In addition, TCR offers funeral and burial goods for sale including; caskets, cremation urns, grave markers direct to the consumer.

Previously announced DCIS membership includes such consumer oriented organizations as the Internet’s ObituaryCentral.com and its sister website ObitLinksPage.com. Both have been mainstays of the Internet for several years. These highly visible portals provide the consumer and industry professionals with vast resource capabilities in the areas of obituary, memorial and tribute publishing and research; genealogy investigation; funeral and cemetery services market by market search.

Another DCIS alliance member is publisher MCR. MCR is best known for its widely circulated consumer funeral-planning guide Let The Choice Be Mine, one of the most thorough and easy to use, personal funeral planning books available to consumers. Thousands of copies of the guide are in circulation and used by funeral homes, churches, attorneys, consumers and service groups throughout the world.

Most recently DCIS announced Loving Eulogies had joined. Loving Eulogies provides consumers with professional and yet highly personalized services to help individuals and families create memorable eulogies and tributes for families tasked with saying goodbye to a loved one at the time of death.

“We are extremely pleased that Mr Bacinich saw fit to allow his organizations to become part of what is becoming a true force in the death care industry on the Internet. Each time quality consumer oriented organizations like Funeral Counseling and Memorial Link.Com join the alliance we know we are getting closer to our goal of making the Internet a quality source consumers can rely on for final arrangements information and services. We are so proud of the progress we have made just this year in attracting some of the best of the Internet's Death Care services companies.” Director Ward concluded.

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