Cash advance item

What it means

A cash advance item is anything described to you as a cash advance, an accommodation or a disbursement, and anything the funeral provider obtained from a third party and paid for on your behalf.

The federal definition names the ordinary contents of a funeral: cemetery or crematory services, pallbearers, transport, clergy honoraria, flowers, musicians, obituary notices, gratuities and death certificates.

Why it matters

Each of these has to appear separately on the itemized statement rather than folded into a package price, which is what lets you see what the flowers actually cost.

Each is also something a family could arrange and pay for directly, often for less. And where the price charged is not the provider's own cost, failing to say so is a deceptive practice.

When you are likely to meet it

• On the itemized statement of goods and services at the end of the arrangement conference.
• When a line on the bill is larger than you expected and nobody has said whether it is at cost.
• When a price was estimated and the final bill has arrived.

Related terms

• Casket price listA separate itemized list of caskets and prices that a funeral provider must show you before showing you the caskets.
• Direct cremationCremation without a viewing or ceremony beforehand. It is one of the least expensive options a funeral provider must offer.
• The Funeral RuleA federal consumer protection rule that gives you the right to prices in writing and the right to buy only what you want.
• General price listThe itemized list of prices a funeral provider must hand you to keep, as soon as arrangements are discussed in person.
• Outer burial containerA vault or liner placed around a casket in the grave. Cemeteries often require one; state law usually does not.
• Preneed funeral contractAn agreement, usually paid for in advance, for funeral goods and services to be provided when the person dies.

Official sources

The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.

• 16 CFR Part 453 — the Funeral Rule, as published (opens in a new tab)The rule itself. The FTC's consumer guidance summarizes it.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Funeral price rights
• Death certificates