Who is Heritage Cremation Provider and how do they operate?
Heritage (also known as Legacy Funeral Service) are NOT licensed funeral directors or even a funeral home or crematory in Pennsylvania. They are registered in Colorado which is the only state that does NOT require a funeral home or a funeral director to have a license. (Which means anyone can open a funeral home in Colorado with no training or education.) They handle the inquiry from a family and coordinate cremation services by doing trade services through Pennsylvania funeral homes. Their pricing is misleading and there are many complaints in which families are quoted a lower price and then asked to pay a much higher final price. The worst part is that they NEVER handle the deceased’s body.
Don’t take my word for it, Here are the complaints and legal actions.
The company has had so many complaints about its level of service that the the Better Business Bureau has ranked it as a grade D.
Better Business Bureau Reviews
Complaints Rise Over Colorado-Based Cremation Firm Operating Illegally In California
Minnesota family find trouble with Heritage
And the two men behind the company???
Anthony Joseph (A.J.) Damiano and Joseph Damiano have been personally in trouble.
We are not at all like Heritage.
We are fully licensed as a facility in Pa. Our staff is fully licensed, certified and educated. We handle each cremation in our privately owned crematory and make our own transfers. Should a family have a death in an area outside of the range our personal staff can handle, we use only vetted licensed staff in that area to handle your loved one. Ultimately your loved one will be brought to our facility.
License numbers for verification: Corey Strauch FD and Supervisor FD015100 & FS015100, our facility FP00218
Kathleen McKesson
Thanks for your information about Legacy Funeral Service. I am aware now that the state of Pennsylvania requires any owner of a funeral home to be a licensed funeral director.
But what about the owners of a crematory? Are these people required to have a license? May a person without a license purchase a share of ownership in a Pennsylvania crematory?
Corey Strauch
In Pennsylvania you do not need to be a funeral director to own or operate a crematory. You only need to have a permit issued from the DEP to own/operate the crematory. However to deal with the public directly and arrange for a cremation you need to be a licensed funeral director. Basically there are two types of crematories:
1. Those owned and run my non funeral directors. What happens in this situation is a Funeral Director would bring a case to them to have a cremation take place.
2. Those owned by Funeral Directors. In this situation they can handle the cremation arrangements in full. i.e. transportation, filing death certificates, arrangement conference etc.
We are licensed in the state of PA as a funeral home and I am a licensed funeral director.
Hope this helped
Corey