The FTC Funeral Rule Explained in Plain English

By Steve Levine · Updated September 24, 2026

The FTC Funeral Rule is a federal regulation that lets you buy only the funeral goods and services you want, and see the price of each one before you commit. Under it, a funeral home must give you prices over the phone, hand you a written price list when you ask in person, and accept a casket or urn you bought somewhere else without charging you for doing so.

The rule is short and specific. It is published as 16 CFR Part 453, “Funeral Industry Practices”, and it has been in its current form since 1994. Knowing exactly what it says, and what it leaves out, is the most useful protection you have in an arrangements meeting.

Who the FTC Funeral Rule covers

The rule applies to any “funeral provider”, which the regulation defines as a person or company that sells or offers to sell both funeral goods and funeral services to the public. That covers almost every funeral home.

Cemeteries and crematories are covered only when they sell both goods and services. The FTC’s own consumer guide to the Funeral Rule says the rule does not apply to third-party sellers such as casket and monument dealers, or to cemeteries that lack an on-site funeral home. The regulation also states that it does not apply to the business of insurance.

The rule applies whether you are arranging a funeral today or signing a contract for the future. The FTC’s compliance guide for funeral providers says it covers both at-need and preneed arrangements, which matters if you are weighing a prepaid funeral plan.

Your rights under the Funeral Rule, at a glance

Your right	What it means in practice	Where it is in the rule
Prices by phone	Staff must answer price questions accurately from their price lists.	§ 453.2(b)(1)
General Price List	A printed list you can keep, given as soon as you start discussing arrangements or prices in person.	§ 453.2(b)(4)
Casket and outer burial container price lists	Shown before you are shown the caskets or containers themselves.	§ 453.2(b)(2)-(3)
Choose only what you want	No bundling one item as a condition of buying another, unless a law requires it.	§ 453.4(b)
Use a casket or urn from elsewhere	No refusal and no handling fee.	§ 453.4(b)(1)(ii)
No embalming without permission	A provider may not charge for embalming you did not approve, with narrow exceptions.	§ 453.5
Alternative container for cremation	No casket can be required for a direct cremation.	§ 453.3(b), § 453.4(a)
Itemized statement	A written list of everything you chose, with each price and the total.	§ 453.2(b)(5)

Prices over the phone

If you call and ask, the funeral home must tell you accurate information from its price lists, plus any other readily available information that reasonably answers your question. The FTC’s compliance guide adds that providers cannot require callers to give their name, address or phone number before answering.

This right is not always honored. In its first undercover phone sweep, FTC staff called 278 funeral providers between February and December 2023. Half answered at least some price questions with estimates or ranges rather than actual prices, and at least 37 quoted different prices for the same service on different calls.

Practical takeaway: ask for a specific line item, such as the price of a direct cremation with an alternative container, and write down the name of the person, the date and the figure.

The General Price List

The General Price List (GPL) is the core of the rule. You must be given one to keep as soon as you begin discussing prices, the type of funeral or disposition, or specific goods and services, whether that conversation happens at the funeral home or somewhere else. It must carry the provider’s name, address and phone number and an effective date.

The GPL must show the price of each of these items the provider offers:

Forwarding remains to another funeral home, and receiving remains from one
Direct cremation, including a price where you supply the container
Immediate burial, including a price where you supply the casket
Transfer of remains to the funeral home
Embalming, and other preparation of the body
Use of facilities and staff for a viewing, a funeral ceremony and a memorial service
Equipment and staff for a graveside service
Hearse and limousine
The basic services fee, or a statement that it is built into casket prices

That basic services fee covers things like the arrangements conference, permits and placing obituary notices. The rule makes it the only provider fee for services, facilities or overhead that you cannot decline, unless another law requires something else. Everything else on the list is optional. Our line-by-line funeral cost breakdown walks through what each item usually involves.

Caskets, urns and containers you buy elsewhere

You can buy a casket or urn online, from a local casket store or anywhere else. The FTC says a funeral provider cannot refuse to handle it and cannot charge you a fee to do so. The regulation reaches the same result by banning any fee charged as a condition of providing goods or services, other than the basic services fee and the items you select.

The FTC’s compliance guide explains the reasoning: a handling fee would be a hidden penalty on people who use their right to buy elsewhere. If you go this route, confirm the delivery date with both the seller and the funeral home so the timing lines up with the service.

Embalming

The FTC states that no state law requires routine embalming for every death. A provider may not tell you embalming is legally required when it is not, and may not say it is required for a direct cremation, an immediate burial, or a closed-casket funeral without viewing when refrigeration is available and local law does not require it.

The GPL must print a specific disclosure beside the embalming price, saying that except in certain special cases embalming is not required by law, but may be necessary for arrangements such as a funeral with viewing.

A provider cannot charge for embalming unless a family member or other authorized person approved it, a law required it in that situation, or the family could not be reached despite due diligence and later approved it. If you choose direct cremation or immediate burial, you do not pay for embalming you did not approve.

Cremation containers

No law, and no funeral home, can require you to buy a casket for a direct cremation. A provider that arranges direct cremations must make an alternative container available, meaning an unfinished wood box or a non-metal container of fiberboard, pressed wood or similar material. It must also say so on the GPL. See our guide to direct cremation costs for what these packages usually include.

Vaults, grave liners and cemetery rules

The rule requires this disclosure on the outer burial container price list: in most areas state or local law does not require a container around the casket, but many cemeteries require one so the grave will not sink, and either a grave liner or a burial vault will satisfy that requirement.

In other words, a vault requirement usually comes from the cemetery’s own rules, not from the law. A funeral provider may not claim that a law or a particular cemetery requires a container when that is not true. Our guide to direct burial and vault requirements covers how to check the cemetery’s policy.

Cash advance items and markups

Cash advance items are things the funeral home buys from someone else on your behalf, such as cemetery or crematory charges, clergy honoraria, flowers, obituary notices and death certificates. If the provider adds a charge, or keeps a rebate or discount, on those items, the itemized statement must say “We charge you for our services in obtaining” followed by the items concerned.

The itemized statement, and “required” purchases

At the end of the arrangements conference you must get a written, itemized statement listing each good and service you chose, its price, the cash advance items and the total. If the provider says a law, a cemetery or a crematory requires you to buy something, it must identify and briefly describe that requirement in writing on this statement.

Read this document before you sign. It is where an unwanted package, an embalming charge or an unexplained “required” item will show up.

What the Funeral Rule does not do

It does not set or cap prices. It requires disclosure, not low prices.
It does not require online price lists nationally. The FTC opened a review in an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published November 2, 2022, and held a public workshop in 2023 on whether providers should post prices online. As of September 2026 no amended rule has been adopted, according to the FTC’s Funeral Rule topic page and the Federal Register record.
It does not cover everyone. Stand-alone casket and monument sellers, and cemeteries with no on-site funeral home, are outside it.

Some states go further. California, for example, requires a funeral establishment that has a website to post the list of goods and services required on its GPL, with a statement that the GPL is available on request, under Business and Professions Code section 7685. Other states’ rules differ, so check with your state’s funeral licensing board.

What to do if a funeral home breaks the rule

Start by pointing to the specific requirement; the table above gives the section numbers. Many problems end there. If they do not, you can report the provider to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or by calling the FTC at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357), and file a complaint with your state’s funeral licensing board.

Violations carry real penalties: the FTC’s compliance guide lists civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation, a figure the agency adjusts for inflation. If you are organizing a service this week, our funeral planning checklist shows where to ask for the GPL in the order of events, and the first thing to request at any funeral home is that list, in writing, before any choices are made.

Sources

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