For families arranging a funeral, now or ahead of time
Read the price list before you sign.
Type the prices from a funeral home's price list, tick only the items you want, and see what they add up to. Put two lists side by side. Every note quotes the Funeral Rule or the FTC, word for word.
Already yours, under federal law
Three things the Funeral Rule gives every family
Prices by phone
Funeral homes must give you price information on the telephone if you ask. The FTC adds that you do not have to give your name, address or phone number first.
16 CFR 453.2(b)(1) · FTC consumer page
A price list to keep
When you talk about arrangements in person, the funeral home must give you its General Price List, yours to take home, with a price for each item it offers.
16 CFR 453.2(b)(4)
Only what you choose
You may buy items one by one. One fee, for the funeral home's basic services, can be made non-declinable; every other item is your choice.
16 CFR 453.4(b), 453.2(b)(4)(iv)
How the Price List Reader works
- I
Type the prices
Copy the prices from each funeral home's General Price List. Leave a box empty when a list has no price for it.
- II
Tick what you want
Start from a common arrangement or tick items one by one, including cash advance items and cemetery charges.
- III
Read the total and the notes
Totals for each list, split into funeral home, cash advance and cemetery, plus the parts of the Rule that apply to your choices.
A worked example
A funeral with viewing, then burial, from two price lists
These prices are made up for this example; they are not anyone's real prices. List B looks lower, but it has no price for the marker yet, so its total is not complete. That is the kind of gap the Reader points out.
| Item | List A | List B |
|---|---|---|
| Funeral home | ||
| Basic services of funeral director and staff | $2,195.00 | $2,650.00 |
| Transfer of remains to the funeral home | $395.00 | $450.00 |
| Embalming | $795.00 | $850.00 |
| Other preparation of the body | $275.00 | $300.00 |
| Facilities and staff for viewing | $450.00 | $500.00 |
| Facilities and staff for funeral ceremony | $550.00 | $600.00 |
| Hearse | $375.00 | $400.00 |
| Casket | $2,495.00 | $2,495.00 |
| Outer burial container (vault or grave liner) | $1,395.00 | $1,195.00 |
| Funeral home subtotal | $8,925.00 | $9,440.00 |
| Cash advance items | ||
| Death certificate copies (price for one copy) × 5 | $125.00 | $125.00 |
| Obituary notice | $300.00 | $300.00 |
| Cash advance items subtotal | $425.00 | $425.00 |
| Cemetery | ||
| Grave, crypt or niche | $1,500.00 | $1,500.00 |
| Opening and closing the grave | $1,200.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Marker or headstone | $900.00 | No price |
| Cemetery subtotal | $3,600.00 | $2,700.00 |
| Total | $12,950.00 | $12,565.00so far: 1 price missing |
| Compared with the lowest total you entered | $385.00 more | Lowest |
List B has no price for: Marker or headstone. Ask for these prices: a General Price List must show the price of each required item the funeral home offers. Until then its total is not complete, so the comparison is not either.
“The goods and services shown below are those we can provide to our customers. You may choose only the items you desire.”
Pricing
The help is free. A Pass only adds room.
You never need to pay to read a price list or learn your rights. Families comparing several funeral homes can choose the optional Planning Pass.
Free
$0
- The Price List Reader with 2 lists side by side
- Every Rule note
- Paper Check and Your rights
- Printing
- A Family Folder holding 1 estimate
Planning Pass optional
$1.95 for 1 month
or $19.50 for 1 year. Paid once; it never renews.
- Up to 5 price lists side by side
- 20 saved estimates in a Family Folder
- A spreadsheet (CSV) of any estimate
Free during preview. Nothing is charged.
What this site will never do
US Funeral Expense sells no funerals, plots, insurance or loans, takes no referral fees and never names or ranks funeral homes.
- Sell a funeral, a plot, insurance, a pre-need plan or a loan
- Pass your details to a funeral home or anyone else
- Call, text or email you
- Ask for the name of the person who died
- Rush you: no countdowns, no "limited time"
Prices you type into the Reader travel in the page address, so they reach the web server's access log; nothing is saved in our database unless you save it in a Family Folder. See Privacy.