Funeral Costs: Plan the Itemized Prices and Know Your Rights

NFDA’s industry member survey gives a 2023 national median of $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial, including a metal casket, excluding a vault, cemetery charges and cash advances. NFDA’s published total with a vault is $9,995 in 2023 dollars; cemetery charges and cash advances are excluded. These medians are history, not prices for your area. Direct services have no citable national figure here. Enter your own itemized prices to build a worksheet.

NFDA’s industry member survey gives a 2023 national median of $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation, including preparation, viewing and ceremony, cremation, container and urn. This is a service with viewing, not the cost of cremation alone. Cemetery charges and cash advances are priced separately. The median is history, not a price for your area.

Under the FTC Funeral Rule (July 2012), you can ask for prices by phone without giving personal details. When you visit, you get an itemized General Price List to keep. You can see casket and outer-container price lists before the items, choose individual goods and services, and get a written statement of your selections and prices before paying.

The FTC Funeral Rule (July 2012) says state law does not require a vault or liner; a cemetery may. Ask the cemetery for its written requirement. The Rule does not cover cemeteries with no funeral home on site, so compare their charges separately.

Under the FTC Funeral Rule (July 2012), you can use a casket or urn bought elsewhere, and the funeral home cannot charge a handling fee for it. For direct cremation, the funeral home must offer an alternative container.

Yes. Copy and print without an account. The worksheet sums only your own itemized prices, keeps missing prices visible and never adds or subtracts NFDA medians. If a package includes an item, enter 0 for that item so it is not counted twice. The FTC Funeral Costs and Pricing Checklist (July 2012) explains that cemetery charges, monuments, flowers, obituary notices and other cash advances are often priced separately. Web and MCP share 20 free calls per IP per UTC day and a global ceiling of 2,000; no separate tool cap.