General price list

What it means

A general price list — a GPL — is a printed list of what a funeral provider charges for each item it offers. Federal law requires it to be given to you, to keep, as soon as discussion begins about prices, about the overall type of service, or about specific goods or services.

It is a list rather than a quote. Its point is that the parts are separable: you may choose only the items you want, and the list itself must say so.

Why it matters

Prices for identical services vary enormously between providers in the same town, and the variation is invisible to a family that visits only one. Two general price lists compared at a kitchen table is a completely different exercise from two conversations remembered.

The same federal rule requires a provider to answer price questions by telephone, so the comparison can be made before anybody visits anywhere.

When you are likely to meet it

• At the start of an arrangement conference, before caskets are shown.
• When you call a funeral home and ask what something costs.
• When a package is presented as the only way to get one element of it.

What must be given, and when

The federal Funeral Rule attaches different disclosures to different moments. Knowing which moment you are in is what makes the price comparable.

1. On the telephone Prices must be given over the phone, to anybody who asks, without requiring a name This is the disclosure that makes comparing two providers possible before either has met you.
2. At the start of an in-person discussion The general price list is handed over, before anything is shown or recommended, and you keep it
3. Before caskets are shown A separate casket price list, so the range can be seen rather than only what is on display
4. Before outer burial containers are shown A separate list for those too, with the same purpose
5. Once the arrangements are chosen An itemized statement of goods and services selected, with the total, before payment This is the document a life insurer, a veterans' burial allowance and the estate's accounting will each ask for.

Each of these is a right rather than a courtesy. A provider who will not give a price on the telephone is not exercising a preference.

How this varies by state

The federal Funeral Rule applies nationwide. Some states add requirements on top — a longer disclosure, or a filing with a state board — and none of them subtracts.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Veterans' burial benefitsWhat a veteran's family may claim after a death: interment in a national cemetery, a headstone or marker, a burial flag, and in some cases an allowance toward costs.

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
• The first days