Pre-planning a funeral means three decisions: what happens to your body, who's in charge of it, and where the money comes from. You can make all three without paying a funeral home anything.
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Pre-planning a funeral means making three decisions while you can: what happens to your body, who’s in charge of it, and where the money comes from. You can make all three without paying a funeral home anything. The Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit consumer group, advises planning ahead without paying ahead unless Medicaid requires you to spend down your savings.[1]
Here’s how it works, in the order it gets done.
Three things:
The point is fewer decisions for your family in the first days. The Funeral Consumers Alliance lists that as one of three benefits of planning ahead, with lower costs and getting the services you want.[1]
Start with a conversation. The Funeral Consumers Alliance suggests talking through cremation or burial, a viewing or a graveside service, and where a ceremony would happen, if there’s one at all.[1] Write down what matters to you and what doesn’t.
Direct cremation and immediate burial are usually the lowest-cost arrangements. Neither includes embalming or a viewing, and neither has a ceremony with the body present, except that an immediate burial can have a graveside service.[1][3] A funeral home that offers either one has to list its price range on its General Price List.[3]
Body donation to a medical school is often free or close to it, but the paperwork usually has to be done in advance, and some medical conditions can rule a donor out.[2] Body donation to science covers how to register.
The Funeral Rule, the federal regulation on funeral pricing, covers arrangements made in advance the same way it covers arrangements made after a death.[4] Every funeral home has to give you prices over the phone, and an itemized General Price List to keep when you ask in person.[3]
Use both. The Funeral Consumers Alliance says some funeral homes charge twice as much as others in the same area for the same services.[1] You also have the right to buy goods and services item by item instead of as a package, so price only what you want.[1] Get price lists from several homes for the arrangement you picked. How to compare funeral homes walks through the comparison line by line.
For a sense of scale, the National Funeral Directors Association’s most recent study put the 2023 national median at $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial and $6,280 for one with viewing and cremation, before any cemetery costs.[6]
If you don’t name anyone, state law gives control of your body to your next of kin, in an order each state sets.[5] Most states let you name someone else in a signed document, and some build the choice into their official forms. Maine and Maryland include it in their advance directive forms, and North Carolina includes it in its health care power of attorney form.[5]
A few states do it another way. In New Mexico the person carrying out your funeral wishes has to be named in your will, South Carolina requires a will or another verified and attested document, and in Massachusetts the personal representative named in a will may carry out your written instructions.[5]
Two cautions from the Funeral Consumers Alliance. A will often isn’t read until the funeral is underway or over, so instructions that live only in a will can arrive too late. And the person you name isn’t obligated to carry out wishes that are illegal, highly impractical, or more expensive than the money you left.[5] Pick someone who’ll follow through, tell them, and set the money aside.
Your state’s rule, and whether it has an official form, is in your MORTL state guide under “Naming someone in advance.”
Paying ahead is optional. These are the common ways to set money aside:
Medicaid is the exception. Buying a funeral contract or a burial plot can help you spend down assets to qualify, and money in an irrevocable funeral trust doesn’t count toward the asset limit.[1][4] Asset limits vary by state, so check with your state’s Medicaid office before you sign anything irrevocable.[1][4]
Protection differs a great deal by state. The Funeral Consumers Alliance names New York and New Jersey as the two states whose preneed laws come closest to protecting consumers, and New York requires all of the money to be held in trust.[1]
Put the plan on paper: the arrangement, the person in charge, where the money is, and any contract or policy numbers. Then get copies to the people who’ll use them. The Funeral Consumers Alliance says to walk your family through every detail and give them copies right away, and not to put the papers in a lockbox.[1] Families who don’t know a funeral was prepaid can end up paying a second funeral home.[1]
If you sign a prepaid contract, Michigan’s consumer guidance adds three steps: give a copy to someone you trust, keep the original with your important papers, and if you live in a nursing home, give the facility a copy too.[4]
MORTL’s free planning pages cover each step. Plan your funeral starts with your wishes and your price rights. The funeral cost planner prices an arrangement line by line, in the same categories a General Price List uses. How to plan your funeral budget turns the price into a number you can save toward, and your state guide covers who decides and how to name them.
Get prices from several funeral homes for the same arrangement, buy only the items you want, and think hard before prepaying. The Funeral Rule lets you buy goods and services item by item, and the Funeral Consumers Alliance says some funeral homes charge twice as much as others in the same area for the same services.
The Funeral Consumers Alliance advises planning ahead without paying ahead, unless you need to spend down assets to qualify for Medicaid. If you do prepay, get in writing how the money is protected, whether the price is guaranteed, and whether you can cancel or move the contract.
State law does. Each state sets the order of next of kin who control the body. In most states, naming a person in the form your state accepts puts that person ahead of the order.
Many states allow it, but a will is often read after the funeral is over, so the wishes can arrive too late. Use a separate signed document if your state allows one, and give copies to your family now.
Choose direct cremation or immediate burial, get price lists from several funeral homes, and set the money aside in a payable-on-death bank account. Neither includes embalming or a viewing, and an immediate burial has no ceremony beyond a graveside service.
If you planned without paying, your family can use any funeral home. If you prepaid, it depends on the contract and your state’s law. Many contracts can move to another funeral home, but the new one doesn’t have to honor the first one’s prices.
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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A prepaid funeral plan may lock in prices for covered items or help with Medicaid planning. Contract protections, refunds, transfers, and guarantees vary, so review the terms before paying.
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