How to Plan a Funeral: What It Costs, What You Can Refuse, and Who to Trust
A funeral is the second most expensive thing most families ever buy, and the only one they buy in three days while grieving. Federal law gives you more control over that bill than any funeral director will volunteer, and almost nobody is told which parts of it they are allowed to decline. Below is what we have written, two calculators that give you a real number in a minute, the suppliers we checked ourselves before putting our name next to theirs, and every funeral home in your state. All of it is free to use and none of it asks for your email address.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. Buying through one may pay us a commission and never changes your price.
Four situations, four starting points. A price already in front of you goes to the Funeral Cost Calculator first. No idea what anything should cost goes to the services directory. A director pushing back goes to your rights under the FTC Funeral Rule. Choosing between homes goes to the state directory.
- The calculator takes sixty seconds: It returns an itemized range for your own state instead of the funeral home’s package number.
- What federal law requires: An itemized price list, handed to you, plus a clear statement of which lines you may refuse. Prices have to be given over the phone as well.
- Embalming: Generally not required by law. It is one of the most expensive assumptions a family makes in the first 48 hours.
- What the directory prices: Caskets, urns, markers and cremation from the same suppliers the funeral homes buy from.
- What everything here costs: Free, apart from the partner services, and every partner price on this site is listed with what it renews at.
Built by Memorial Merits, free, no signup
Our Free Tools
Each one gives you a number, not a brochure, and none of them ask for anything before they answer.
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Vetted, partnered, and priced
The Partner Directory
Businesses, services and products we have checked ourselves and partnered with, chosen for fair or discounted pricing and for treating families decently. Between them they cover everything a funeral needs, bought at the price the funeral home pays rather than the price it charges.
The Full Funeral Planning Services Directory
Every funeral partner in one place, priced side by side, with the discount codes that belong to Memorial Merits readers. If you do not yet know which of the three categories below you need, start here.
Open the Full DirectoryReal prices from the provider, not a national average.
What each one charges to ship, and how fast it arrives.
Who we would not buy from, and why.
A note wherever a partner pays us nothing.
Caskets, Urns & Monuments
Priced from the supplier with delivery included, so the showroom markup stops being invisible.
Compare products ›Cremation & Burial Services
Affordable and natural alternatives, compared by what each provider actually charges rather than by its package name.
Compare services ›Flowers, Wines & Sympathy Gifts
Same day delivery for the service, and gifts that reach a family who is grieving without you having to guess.
Compare options ›The codes named across this directory are collected on one page, with what each one takes off and what it renews at.
Open the Family Savings CenterBefore you sign anything
What They Can Charge You, What You Are Buying, How You Pay For It
Three things worth twenty minutes before the arrangement meeting. The first one is the reason the other two save money.
Your Rights Under the FTC Funeral Rule
The protections federal law gives every family, the itemized price list a funeral home has to hand you, and the lines on it you are allowed to decline.
Know your rights ›Casket Types Guide
Every casket style explained, what each one is made of and what it costs, with each style linked straight to that category.
Learn the casket types ›Financial Resources
Financing paths, free memorial crowdfunding, and the routes that do not carry a rate at all.
See the options ›Every state, real listings
Funeral Homes by State
Local funeral homes state by state, the federal rights that apply in every one of them, and partner discounts that work anywhere in the country.
The Funeral Home Directory
Pick your state and the cost cards load first, so you know the local range before you read a single listing. Every state page carries the same federal rights section, because the Funeral Rule does not change at a state line.
Find a funeral home in your stateLocal funeral homes, listed by city.
The cost range for that state, up front.
The federal rights that apply in every one of them.
Partner options for the parts you would rather buy elsewhere.
Print, fill in, hand over
Free Workbooks and Checklists
Fourteen printables covering the first hours, the funeral home comparison, the questions to ask a director, the eulogy and the paperwork afterward. Free to download, free to print, and free to hand to a client or a congregation with our branding left intact. No email address, no account.
Browse the Free DownloadsThe parts nobody hands you a form for
Announcing and Remembering
Three things that get decided in the same week as the casket and almost never get planned for.
Obituaries & Digital Memorials
Publishing an obituary, and a free online tribute page family and friends can add to from anywhere.
Open the memorials ›Memorial & Remembrance Products
Cremation jewelry, keepsakes, custom memorial songs and digital tributes, priced and vetted.
Browse the keepsakes ›Memorial Service Planning
How a service is put together, what happens in what order, and who delivers each part, including where a celebrant fits.
Plan the service ›Written in order
Guides by Topic
Three clusters rather than a feed. Each one opens with its main guide, and the pieces underneath are the sequence that guide sends you through.
The Complete Funeral Planning Guide
Start here, then work down
Funeral Planning Product Reviews
Before you buy anything
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Companion Urns for 2 Adults: How to Choose the Right Double Urn
Companion urns for 2 adults need about one cubic inch of capacity per pound of body weight, so two adults at 180…
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Cremation Jewelry Made in the USA: How to Choose a True Heirloom Piece
Cremation jewelry made in the USA runs from plated keepsakes to solid gold and platinum heirlooms. Learn what the label should mean,…
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Headstone Cost: A Real Price Breakdown for Grave Markers and Monuments
A headstone is usually the last funeral expense a family faces, and the quote arrives weeks after everything else has been paid.…
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Costco Caskets: What They Cost, How Fast They Ship, and Why a Funeral Home Must Take One
Costco sells caskets online, and a funeral home cannot legally refuse one or add a fee for accepting it. This covers the…
Partner prices come from each provider's own site rather than from another directory, and every one is re-checked on a 90 day cycle. Where a partner pays us nothing, the listing says so. Pricing and terms last verified August 2026.
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Answered plainly
Funeral Planning Questions Families Ask First
Related resources
Where to Go Next
Military Resources Center
Burial benefits, headstones and markers, and the paperwork the VA actually asks for.
Open the center ›Pet Support Center
Pet cremation, urns, keepsakes and grief support for the loss nobody gives you time off for.
Open the center ›Legacy & Estate Planning
Wills, trusts, executors and everything that starts once the funeral is behind you.
Open the hub ›
