Home Funerals: What They Involve and What Your State Requires

Until roughly the middle of the last century, an American funeral usually happened in the front room of a house. The family washed the body, dressed it, sat with it, and buried it. The parlor got renamed the living room partly to stop people associating it with death.

Home funerals never became illegal. Most families just stopped knowing it was an option.

A home funeral, sometimes called a family-directed funeral, means the family cares for the body after death rather than transferring it immediately to a funeral home. The body stays at home for a period of hours or days while people visit, then goes to burial or cremation.^[1]

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Plenty of families do part of it: keeping the body at home for a night before the funeral home collects it, or washing and dressing the person themselves and letting professionals handle the rest.

Embalming isn’t required for a home funeral. It's rarely required by law at all, and no state requires it routinely.^[2]

Home funerals are possible in the United States, but the tasks a family may perform without a funeral director vary by jurisdiction. State and local law may assign death-certificate filing, permits, transport, or other steps to a funeral director or another authorized filer.^[1]

A requirement for professional involvement in one task doesn’t necessarily prevent the family from caring for the person at home. Confirm exactly which tasks the family may perform and which require a licensed or otherwise authorized person.

State rules change, so check the current law before you plan. Start with the state vital-records office and the agency that regulates funeral service, then confirm the cemetery or crematory's written requirements. The National Home Funeral Alliance maintains a state-by-state guide, and the Funeral Consumers Alliance has local affiliates who may help explain local practice.^[2] Your state's broader death law is in the MORTL state guides.

State requirements can be described incorrectly online or in conversation. Ask which statute or regulation requires a funeral director for the specific task.

The physical work is less clinical than people expect and it's the part families most often say they're glad they did.

• Washing and dressing. Usually with soap and water. Families can choose clothing that reflects the person's wishes, subject to any cemetery or crematory requirements.
• Positioning. Closing the eyes and mouth soon after death, before the body stiffens, and laying the person flat.
• Cooling. Dry ice or gel packs to keep the body cold. More below.
• Sitting with the body. This is the actual point. People come, stay as long as they want, and leave. Children can be present, and many families find that easier than a viewing at a funeral home.
• Transport. Whether a family may transport the person, which vehicle may be used, and which permit is required vary by jurisdiction and receiving provider. Confirm both before moving the person.

Home funeral guides exist to walk families through this. Their role is teaching, which doesn't require a license. A death doula often does the same work.

There's no nationwide one-to-three-day rule for keeping a person at home after death. The safe and lawful timing depends on state and local requirements, the condition and cause of death, the available cooling method, and the receiving cemetery or crematory's requirements.

Before planning the timing, ask the state or local health or vital-records office and the receiving provider what’s required. If an infectious illness is known or suspected, or if the death is under medical-examiner or coroner jurisdiction, follow instructions from the clinician, public-health agency, or investigating office before washing, dressing, or moving the person.

Official guidance is specific to the place and circumstances. Massachusetts public-health guidance, for example, advises keeping the body as cool as possible, avoiding direct contact with body fluids, using appropriate barriers when contact is possible, and washing hands thoroughly. It’s guidance for Massachusetts, not a national timeline.^[5]

Do not assume there's no infection risk because the death seemed ordinary or no infectious disease was listed. CDC notes that germs may be present in blood or other body fluids even when an infectious disease wasn't the stated cause of death. Ask for situation-specific precautions before providing hands-on care.^[6]

The care plan and the paperwork both need to follow current requirements. Confirm the required steps before the death when possible, especially if the family hopes to keep the person at home.

1. Pronouncement of death. Someone with legal authority has to confirm the death. If the person is on hospice, hospice does it. If not, it may be a doctor, a coroner, or a medical examiner.
2. The death certificate. A physician, medical examiner, coroner, or another authorized medical certifier completes the medical portion. The person authorized to file the certificate varies by jurisdiction and may be a funeral director, institution, family member, or another filer designated by law. Confirm the current process with the state or local vital-records office.^[1]
3. A burial transit permit. Usually issued by the local registrar. You generally need it to move the body, including to a cemetery or crematory.
4. The cemetery or crematory's own rules. These are private policies rather than law, and they vary. Confirm before the day that they'll accept a body delivered by a family.

List the institutions you expect to contact and ask each whether it needs a certified copy or accepts another form of proof. Order an initial quantity based on those confirmed requirements. The paperwork after a death explains how different documents are used.

The 2023 national median was $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial, excluding cemetery costs, and $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation.^[3] A home funeral may avoid some provider charges when family members handle permitted tasks themselves, but disposition, transportation, documents, merchandise, and cemetery or crematory costs still vary.

What you still pay for: the casket or shroud if you use one, the cemetery plot and opening fee or the crematory fee, certified copies, and dry ice.

Home funerals also pair naturally with green burial, where the body isn't embalmed and is buried in a shroud or simple container. The Green Burial Council certifies cemeteries to a published standard, so you can check a specific one rather than take a claim at face value.^[4] More in the green burial explainer.

Money is a real reason families choose this, and it isn't the main one most give afterward.

Be honest about a few things before you plan one.

It takes people. One person can't do this alone while grieving. You need several who've agreed in advance.

Everyone has to be on board. A relative who finds it disturbing will find it disturbing on the day, and a death is a bad time to litigate that.

Some deaths rule it out. A death under medical examiner jurisdiction, a badly damaged body, or certain circumstances can make it impractical or impossible.

You can change your mind. Families who start a home funeral and decide partway through to call a funeral home haven’t failed at anything.

If you want it, write it down now and tell the people who'd carry it out. A wish nobody knows about doesn't survive the first hour after a death. Put it in your plan through the letter of instruction, and walk the alternative through how to arrange a funeral.