Federal law gives you rights to itemized prices, telephone quotes, individual services, and outside caskets and urns. Here’s how to use them.
In This Article
Funeral decisions often happen during grief, under time pressure, and without prior experience comparing the services involved.
The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule gives consumers specific price and purchasing rights when dealing with a funeral provider. These rights apply whether you're planning ahead or arranging a funeral after a death.
Here’s what the rule requires and how to use it.
Before 1984, the FTC’s investigations of the funeral industry documented a pattern: families told embalming was legally required when it wasn’t, refusal to give itemized prices, bundled packages that forced you to buy things you didn’t want, and a lock on casket sales that kept prices high [9].
The Funeral Rule, formally the Funeral Industry Practices Rule, 16 CFR Part 453, was built to dismantle exactly those practices [2]. It applies any time you deal with a funeral provider, whether you’re planning ahead or someone just died.
Prices over the phone. Call any funeral home and ask what things cost, and they must tell you [3]. You don’t have to give your name or visit in person. The FTC used an undercover phone sweep in 2023 to check provider compliance with this requirement [4].
The General Price List, yours to keep. When you meet in person and begin discussing arrangements, the provider must give you an itemized General Price List [3]. You can take it home and compare it with another provider's list.
Buy only what you want. Itemized means declinable. You can skip the viewing, the limo, the “memorial package.” The only fee they can make non-declinable is the basic services fee, plus anything your state law actually requires, which must be cited on the price list by name [1].
Bring your own casket or urn. The Rule allows you to buy a casket or urn from another seller. The funeral home must accept it and can’t charge a handling fee [3].
Embalming disclosure and permission. Embalming isn’t routinely required by law. The Rule prohibits a provider from claiming it’s legally required when it’s not, requires written disclosure, and generally requires permission before embalming [1] [3]. Direct cremation doesn’t require a casket, and providers offering it must make an alternative container available.
An itemized statement before you pay. After you choose, you get a written Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected showing exactly what you’re buying and what each piece costs, including estimates for third-party “cash advance” items [1].
Violations carry civil penalties of up to $53,088 each, an amount the FTC raises every January for inflation, and the FTC runs undercover inspection sweeps to catch them [1] [4].
The Funeral Rule was written in 1984 and centers on telephone and in-person price disclosures.
As of 2026, it doesn’t require funeral homes to post prices online. The FTC opened a proceeding in 2022 to consider changes, and a 2022 Consumer Federation of America review found that 18 percent of the 1,046 funeral-home websites it examined posted a full price list [5] [6]. Consumers may still need to call or visit to obtain the required information.
Cemeteries generally fall outside the Rule unless they also function as funeral providers, so cemetery property, vaults, and care fees may follow different disclosure requirements [3]. Pre-need contracts, where someone pays now for a funeral later, are governed primarily by state law, and protections vary by state [7].
The median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial runs north of $8,000 before the cemetery, per the industry’s own surveys [8]. Cremation-based funerals typically run less but still thousands. The spread between funeral homes in the same city can be enormous for identical services. So:
Call three funeral homes minimum. Ask for prices on the specific things you want. They must answer.
Get the General Price List from any you visit. Take it home. Decisions made outside the building are better decisions.
Review every package line and remove optional goods or services you don’t want.
Price caskets independently before you look at theirs.
If a provider refuses required phone prices, won’t provide the General Price List, or falsely claims embalming is legally required, choose another provider when possible and report the issue at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
And if you want the shopping done before anyone is crying, that’s the entire argument for planning ahead. You can also start from our directory of providers, sorted by state.
The Funeral Rule provides enforceable rights to itemized prices, telephone quotes, individual goods and services, and outside caskets and urns. Use those rights while planning ahead, or share them with the person who may make arrangements after a death.
Sources: FTC Funeral Industry Practices Rule, 16 CFR Part 453; FTC, “Complying with the Funeral Rule”; FTC Funeral Rule review and ANPR proceedings (2020-2022, open as of 2026); FTC undercover sweep announcements (2023-2024); NFDA member price surveys; Consumer Federation of America funeral pricing studies. See our Sources & Methodology.
This article is education. It doesn’t replace legal advice. For disputes with a funeral provider, contact your state funeral board or the FTC.
Sources & References
All factual claims in this article are sourced from peer-reviewed research, government data, and named institutions. Citations follow APA 7th edition format.
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