What is the FTC Funeral Rule?

The Funeral Rule is a federal regulation that gives you the right to itemized prices before you buy anything from a funeral home. It is the reason you can walk in, ask for a price list, and walk out.

It took effect on 30 April 1984 and was revised in 1994. The text in force today is the 1994 text. Thirty-two years, no substantive change, which matters, because the funeral market has changed considerably since.

Knowing what it covers is useful. Knowing what it does not cover is more useful, because that is where families lose money.

The five rights it gives you

1. Prices over the phone

Tell persons who ask by telephone about the funeral provider's offerings or prices any accurate information from the price lists described in paragraphs (b)(2) through (4) of this section and any other readily available information that reasonably answers the question.

That is the entire provision. It means you can price three funeral homes from your kitchen table.

The FTC adds that you do not have to identify yourself first: "Funeral directors must give you price information on the telephone if you ask for it. You don't have to give them your name, address, or telephone number first." Worth noting that this particular point is the FTC's interpretation, the regulation itself says nothing about caller identification.

A provider who answers "you'll need to come in" is not complying.

2. The General Price List, to keep

The central document. The rule requires the provider to:

Give a printed or typewritten price list for retention to persons who inquire in person about the funeral goods, funeral services or prices of funeral goods or services offered by the funeral provider.

Two words do real work. For retention, it is yours to take away and compare. And upon beginning discussion, you get it at the start of the conversation, not after an hour of selection.

The trigger is specific: discussion of prices, of the overall type of service or disposition, or of specific goods and services offered. It applies "whether the discussion takes place in the funeral home or elsewhere," including at your kitchen table.

The list must carry the provider's name, address and phone number, a caption describing it as a general price list, and an effective date. It itemizes up to sixteen categories where offered, forwarding and receiving remains, direct cremation, immediate burial, transfer of remains, embalming, other preparation of the body, facilities and staff for viewing, for a funeral ceremony, for a memorial service, graveside services, hearse, and limousine.

3. Casket and outer burial container price lists

You are entitled to see casket prices "upon beginning discussion of, but in any event before showing caskets." Same rule for outer burial containers, vaults and grave liners.

A distinction worth knowing: the General Price List must be given for retention. The casket and container lists must be shown before merchandise, but the regulation does not grant a right to keep them. Providers may also fold both into the General Price List, and many do.

The sequencing is the point. Prices before the showroom, so the first number you hear is not attached to the casket you are already standing in front of.

4. Buying only what you want

The anti-tying provision makes it unlawful to:

Condition the furnishing of any funeral good or funeral service to a person arranging a funeral upon the purchase of any other funeral good or funeral service, except as required by law or as otherwise permitted by this part

And it permits only three categories of fee: services of funeral director and staff, the goods and services you actually selected, and items you are required to buy as explained in writing on your itemized statement.

That closed list of three is how the outside-casket rule works. There is no sentence in the regulation saying a funeral home cannot refuse a casket you bought elsewhere. Instead, a casket-handling fee fits none of the three permitted categories, so it is not allowed. The FTC states the practical result plainly: "you cannot charge an additional fee or surcharge to consumers who purchase a casket elsewhere. Such a fee would not fall within the three categories of allowable charges."

Your price list must carry this sentence word for word:

The goods and services shown below are those we can provide to our customers. You may choose only the items you desire. If legal or other requirements mean you must buy any items you did not specifically ask for, we will explain the reason in writing on the statement we provide describing the funeral goods and services you selected.

And if a provider tells you the law or a cemetery requires something, they must identify and briefly describe that requirement in writing on your statement. It is also a deceptive practice to claim a law or cemetery requires a purchase when it does not.

5. An itemized written statement before you pay

At the end of the arrangements conference you get an itemized written statement, to keep, listing each good and service with its price, itemized cash advance items, and the total.

If a price is not yet known, they give a good-faith estimate and must provide a written statement of actual charges before the final bill is paid.

Embalming is not required by law

The most valuable single disclosure, and it must appear right next to the embalming price on the list:

Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary, however, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial.

It is a deceptive practice to represent that state or local law requires embalming when it does not, or to fail to disclose that it generally is not required. A provider may not represent that embalming is required for direct cremation, for immediate burial, or for a closed-casket funeral without viewing where refrigeration is available and state law does not require it.

Separately, a provider may not embalm for a fee without authorization. Either the law requires it in the circumstances, or prior approval was obtained and expressly described as approval to embalm, or they could not reach anyone after due diligence and obtained approval afterward.

If you were charged for embalming nobody approved, that is the provision to cite.

No casket is required for cremation

In selling or offering to sell funeral goods or funeral services to the public, it is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a funeral provider, or a crematory, to require that a casket be purchased for direct cremation.

Providers who arrange direct cremations must make an alternative container available, and the price list must say so in immediate conjunction with the direct cremation price:

If you want to arrange a direct cremation, you can use an alternative container. Alternative containers encase the body and can be made of materials like fiberboard or composition materials (with or without an outside covering). The containers we provide are (specify containers).

An alternative container is "an unfinished wood box or other non-metal receptacle or enclosure, without ornamentation or a fixed interior lining." It costs a small fraction of a casket.

The one fee you cannot decline

The basic services fee. The regulation is direct about its uniqueness:

The services fee permitted by § 453.2(b)(4)(iii)(C)(1) or (C)(2) is the only funeral provider fee for services, facilities or unallocated overhead permitted by this part to be non-declinable, unless otherwise required by law.

It covers "conducting the arrangements conference, planning the funeral, obtaining necessary permits, and placing obituary notices."

Three honest observations. The rule does not require it to be non-declinable, it permits it, and essentially every provider takes that option. The rule places no cap on the amount, and it varies enormously between firms. And the fee is already included in direct cremations, immediate burials, and forwarding or receiving remains, so it should not be added again to those.

A provider may also fold the fee into casket prices instead of showing it as a line item, using a prescribed alternative disclosure. If you are comparing two firms, compare this line first, it is often where the difference lives.

Where the rule does not reach

This is the part worth reading twice.

Cemeteries

The rule applies to a "funeral provider," defined as any business "that sells or offers to sell funeral goods and funeral services to the public." The "and" is doing all the work.

A cemetery that sells only plots, markers, and interment rights sells goods, not funeral services. It is outside the rule. You have no federal price-list right at a cemetery. Plot prices, opening and closing fees, monument rules, and vault requirements are governed by state law and by your contract.

The FTC's own guidance confirms cemeteries and crematories "can also be 'funeral providers' if they market both funeral goods and services", which means many do not.

If you are comparing cemetery costs, you are on your own and must ask for everything in writing.

Third-party casket sellers

Online and retail casket stores sell goods only. Not covered, no price-list obligation. In practice they publish prices anyway, because that is their entire business model.

Some crematories

A crematory is defined as one that "performs cremation and sells funeral goods." A wholesale crematory that only performs cremations for funeral homes and sells nothing to the public falls outside most of the rule, though the no-casket-required provision names crematories directly.

Preneed funeral insurance

Expressly excluded: "This rule shall not apply to the business of insurance or to acts in the conduct thereof." Insurance-funded preneed plans are regulated by state insurance law instead.

The size of a markup

The rule addresses cash advance items, things the funeral home buys on your behalf, such as clergy honoraria, flowers, obituary notices, death certificates, and cemetery charges. It is deceptive to claim the price you are charged equals the provider's cost when it does not, and where the provider takes a markup, rebate, or commission, the statement must say:

We charge you for our services in obtaining: (specify cash advance items),

Note what is absent. The rule does not require disclosure of the amount of the markup or the provider's actual cost. You learn that a service charge exists, not how large it is. Ask directly.

Nothing has to be online

The rule requires no prices on any website.

Every disclosure trigger in the regulation is either in person or by telephone. The words website, internet, and online do not appear in the text at all.

The FTC has looked at changing this. It opened an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in November 2022 asking whether the rule should be updated, and held a public workshop in September 2023 that examined "whether and how funeral providers should be required to provide price lists electronically or online."

As of September 2026, no proposed rule and no final rule have been issued. The FTC's own May 2026 filing summarizes the rule as four requirements, the price list, the casket and container lists, telephone prices, and the itemized statement. There is no fifth item about websites.

Two refinements. A funeral home that voluntarily posts prices online still owes you the in-person list and the telephone answer, the FTC has said directing callers to a website "is permissible but doesn't replace answering questions over the phone." And a small number of states have enacted their own online-posting requirements, so check your state.

Whether it is enforced

Yes, though modestly, and the FTC's own findings are the best evidence of how compliance actually looks.

The FTC ran its first undercover phone sweep across 2023 and reported results in January 2024, sending warning letters to 39 funeral homes. The most common violation was refusing to answer price questions over the phone.

A November 2024 staff report gave the fuller picture from 278 randomly selected providers: 26% could not provide pricing after business hours and 7% could not during business hours; at least 37 providers quoted different prices for identical services on separate calls; around half gave estimates or ranges rather than actual prices; at least a third gave package pricing with no itemized breakdown; and nearly 70% required multiple calls or callbacks.

Read that list as a shopper rather than a regulator. Different prices for the same service on different calls is the finding that should change your behavior: get it in writing, and get the price list rather than a quote.

The FTC also conducts undercover in-person inspections annually. The largest recent monetary action was April 2023, $275,000 in civil penalties against operators accused of misrepresenting their locations to appear local, advertising deceptively low prices, and withholding cremated remains to extract payment. The resulting court order required those defendants to provide price lists online, which is itself evidence that the rule does not require it of everyone.

The current maximum civil penalty is $53,088 per violation. The FTC confirmed in September 2026 that 2026 amounts remain at 2025 levels.

If something goes wrong

Work in this order.

1. Put it in writing to the funeral home first, with the specific charge and what you were told. Many disputes end here.
2. Your state funeral board. This is the body that can actually discipline a license, and for an individual complaint it is usually the most effective route. Nearly every state has one.
3. The FTC, at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Worth doing, with an honest expectation: the FTC does not resolve individual complaints or obtain refunds. Reports feed the Consumer Sentinel Network and inform enforcement.
4. Copy the Funeral Consumers Alliance at funerals.org. A nonprofit advocacy group, not an adjudicator, but it tracks patterns.

The practical version

If you are arranging a funeral this week:

• Call three providers and ask for prices. They must answer.
• Ask each for the general price list, and take it with you.
• Compare the basic services fee first, then the specific line you need.
• Remember no casket is required for cremation, and embalming is generally not required by law.
• Get the itemized statement before paying, and check that any claimed legal or cemetery requirement is explained in writing.
• If you are also buying a plot, know that none of these rights apply at the cemetery. Ask for every charge in writing there.

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Before the Funeral Home has a two-column sheet for pricing the same service at two funeral homes from their own price lists, and the questions to ask at the cemetery, where these federal rights do not reach. See what is inside