What a funeral home has to tell you about prices

You can get prices by telephone, and you should

The Funeral Rule requires a provider to tell anyone who asks by telephone any accurate information from its price lists, and any other readily available information that reasonably answers the question. There is no requirement to give your name, no requirement to explain who died, and no requirement to come in.^{Source 1}

This is the single most valuable right on the page, because prices for identical services vary enormously between providers in the same town and the variation is invisible to a family that visits one. Three calls take twenty minutes. Ask each for the same four numbers: the basic services fee, direct cremation, immediate burial, and transfer of remains to the funeral home.

Ask for the basic services fee specifically. It is the one charge that is usually non-declinable, it is included in every arrangement, and it is where the difference between two providers most often sits.

If a provider will not give prices on the phone, that is itself the answer to your question about that provider. You are entitled to the information, and a business that treats a lawful request as an inconvenience at this moment is telling you how the rest of it will go.

The general price list, and when it must be handed over

In person, the provider must give you a printed general price list to keep — not to read and hand back — as soon as discussion begins about prices, about the overall type of service or disposition, or about specific goods or services. It applies whether the discussion happens in the funeral home or somewhere else.^{Source 1}

That timing matters more than it sounds. The list is due at the start of the conversation, not at the end and not when a decision is being made. A family that has been talking for an hour without seeing one has been talking without the information the rule exists to give them.

There is one narrow exception and it is worth knowing so you can recognize it. Where the deceased is being collected, an in-person request at that moment for permission to embalm does not by itself trigger the price list — provided the provider discloses that embalming is not required by law except in certain cases. Any other discussion of prices or selections at that moment does trigger it.^{Source 1}

The list itself must carry the provider's name, address and telephone number, and an effective date. Take it with you. Comparing two lists at a kitchen table is a completely different exercise from comparing two conversations from memory.

What cannot be required

A provider may not make the supply of one item conditional on buying another, and may not charge a fee as a condition of supplying goods or services other than the permitted ones. In plain terms: you may choose only the items you want, and a package is an offer rather than a requirement.^{Source 2}

The general price list itself has to say so. The rule prescribes the wording that must appear immediately above the prices: that the goods and services shown are those the provider can supply, that you may choose only the items you desire, and that if legal or other requirements mean you must buy something you did not ask for, the provider will explain the reason in writing on the statement. Where the basic services fee cannot be declined, the list must say that too.^{Source 2}

If you are told the law requires something, ask for it to be written on the statement. A provider who represents that federal, state or local law — or a particular cemetery or crematory — requires a purchase must identify and briefly describe that requirement in writing on the statement of goods and services selected. The request is not confrontational; it is the rule's own mechanism.^{Source 5}

Two claims about the goods themselves are treated as deceptive. That a casket or vault will delay natural decomposition for a long or indefinite time. And that funeral goods have protective features or will protect the body from what is in the ground, where that is not the case. If either is said to you as a reason to spend more, it is worth knowing what the regulation calls it.^{Source 5}

Caskets, containers and cremation

You are entitled to a printed casket price list before caskets are shown to you — the provider must offer it when discussion of caskets begins and in any event before showing them. That sequence exists because the order in which caskets are displayed is itself a sales technique, and a list read first is read differently.^{Source 1}

A casket may not be required for a direct cremation. A provider or crematory that arranges direct cremations must make an alternative container available. If you are told a casket is necessary for cremation, that is the specific practice the rule prohibits.^{Source 2}

You may also buy a casket elsewhere. The rule prevents a provider conditioning its services on buying the casket from it, so a casket bought from a third party has to be accepted, and no fee may be charged for handling it.^{Source 2}

Embalming is not usually required

Embalming is not required by law in most circumstances, and a provider may not charge for it unless the law requires it in the particular case, or prior approval was obtained, or the provider could not reach anyone after real effort and then obtained approval afterwards.^{Source 3}

The itemized statement must carry a written explanation: that if you selected a funeral that may require embalming, such as one with viewing, you may have to pay for it; that you do not have to pay for embalming you did not approve if you chose direct cremation or immediate burial; and that if a charge was made the provider will explain why.^{Source 3}

What a viewing usually requires is a practical question rather than a legal one, and providers will often say so if asked directly. The question to ask is: is embalming required by law here, or is it your policy for what we have chosen? Those are different answers.

The statement at the end, and cash advance items

At the conclusion of the discussion the provider must give you an itemized written statement to keep. It must list the goods and services selected with the price of each, itemize cash advance items separately, and give the total. It may be part of a contract rather than a separate document, but it must exist and you must be given it.^{Source 4}

Cash advance items are the line nothing draws attention to, and the definition is wide: anything described as a cash advance, accommodation or disbursement, and anything obtained from a third party and paid for by the funeral provider on your behalf. The regulation's own examples are the ordinary contents of a funeral — cemetery or crematory services, pallbearers, transport, clergy honoraria, flowers, musicians, obituary notices, gratuities and death certificates.^{Source 6}

Two things follow. Each of those must be itemized rather than folded into a package — so you can see what the flowers actually cost. And each is something a family could arrange and pay for directly, which is often cheaper and is entirely your choice.^{Source 6}

Where a cash advance price is not yet known it may be given as a good faith estimate — and the provider must then give you a written statement of the actual charges before the final bill is paid. So the estimate is not the end of it, and you are entitled to see the real number.^{Source 4}

It is a deceptive practice to represent that the price charged for a cash advance item is the provider's own cost when it is not, or to fail to disclose that it is not. If a line looks marked up, asking whether it is at cost is a fair question with a required answer.^{Source 5}

Comparing two providers without visiting either

Call three. Ask each for the basic services fee, direct cremation, immediate burial, and transfer of remains, and write the four numbers in a row. That single exercise does more than anything else on this page, and it works precisely because the rule requires the answers.^{Source 1}

Then, if you visit, collect the general price list from each and compare them at home rather than at a desk. The lists are directly comparable by design; the conversations are not.

The pressures worth recognizing, none of which is a rule: that a decision has to be made today; that a package is the only way to get a particular element; that a more expensive casket is a measure of feeling; and that asking about price is somehow improper. A provider following the Funeral Rule expects these questions.

None of this is an argument for spending as little as possible. It is an argument for knowing what each part costs so the money goes where the family actually wants it. Some families will read this and spend more, deliberately, on the one thing that matters to them.