The Funeral Rule

What it means

The Funeral Rule is a Federal Trade Commission regulation. It applies to funeral providers across the United States and is not a matter of state law or of a provider's own policy.

Its core requirements are about price information and about bundling: you are entitled to itemized prices, and you are entitled to decline items you do not want.

It also governs what a provider may require, and what it must disclose about items it says the law requires.

Why it matters

Funeral arrangements are made in the first days, by people who are exhausted and who have never done it before, and who are unlikely to negotiate. The rule exists precisely because of that.

Knowing that itemized prices must be provided, and that packages are optional, is often worth more than any comparison — it changes what you are able to ask for.

When you are likely to meet it

• When first sitting down with a funeral home.
• When a provider quotes a package rather than a price per item.
• When told that something is required by law.

Related terms

• Cash advance itemAnything the funeral home bought from somebody else on your behalf — the flowers, the clergy honorarium, the death certificates — which must be itemized separately.
• 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.
• EmbalmingA chemical preservation of the body. It is rarely required by law, and a funeral provider must not tell you otherwise.
• General price listThe itemized list of prices a funeral provider must hand you to keep, as soon as arrangements are discussed in person.
• Immediate burialBurial shortly after death without embalming, viewing or a ceremony at the funeral home.
• 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.
• Right to control dispositionThe legal authority to decide what happens to a person's body — who holds it, and how a state decides when people disagree.

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