Memorial Merits is a free platform that helps families with end of life planning services, funeral costs, probate and grief, in plain language.
I need help with…
Choose the situation you are in.
I am planning my estate and legacy.
Wills, documents, life insurance and family stories, for yourself or a parent you care for.
Choose what you need help with.
Making a will or a trust
Memorial Merits helps you make a will or a trust with the free Estate Readiness Tool, which shows the documents that fit your situation and the online services that prepare them.
Open the Estate Readiness Tool Compare online will and trust servicesDiscount for Memorial Merits readers
Save on an online will or trust from LVED. Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Code: YFY63MX8
See the review of this will and trust serviceOrganizing the documents and accounts my family will need
Memorial Merits helps you organize the documents and accounts your family will need with free checklists and workbooks to download, and with reviews of document vaults and organizer kits.
See the free estate planning checklists and workbooks Compare document vaults and organizer kitsI hold crypto
Memorial Merits helps you make sure your family can reach your crypto with a guide to crypto estate planning.
Read the crypto estate planning guideI hold Bitcoin only
Memorial Merits helps you pass Bitcoin to your family with a review of a Bitcoin inheritance plan, written by a paying client.
Read the Bitcoin inheritance plan reviewArranging my own funeral or cremation ahead of time
Memorial Merits helps you arrange your own funeral or cremation ahead of time with two free calculators that show what a funeral costs in your state, what cremation costs in your state, and what a prepaid cremation plan would save you.
Open the Cremation Savings Calculator Open the Funeral Cost CalculatorDiscount for Memorial Merits readers
Save 10 percent for life on a prepaid cremation membership from Cremation Club.
Code: MEMORIAL10
See the review of this prepaid cremation planChoosing life insurance
Memorial Merits helps you choose life insurance by comparing the types of coverage and the companies that sell it, including coverage with no medical exam.
Compare life insurance optionsCaring for a parent who is declining
Memorial Merits helps you care for a parent who is declining with free caregiver guides, a guide to anticipatory grief, and a guided journal of more than 200 writing prompts for recording a parent's stories.
See the free caregiver resources Read the guide to anticipatory grief See the journal with 200 writing promptsRecording my family's stories
Memorial Merits helps you record your family's stories with a guide to recording a life story, and with the Legacy Journal books.
Read how to record a life story Read the legacy building guide See the Legacy Journal books
Free printable guide
End of Life Planning Checklist and Workbook
A printable checklist and workbook for your will, documents, accounts, life insurance and funeral wishes, for yourself or a parent.
Download the Free PDFSomeone has just passed away.
First steps, costs, funeral homes and help paying.
Choose what you need help with.
Knowing what to do first
Memorial Merits helps you with what to do when someone dies by giving you a list of who to contact, in order, and a checklist for the first 24 hours.
See who to contact, in order Open the first 24 hours checklistFinding a funeral home and what a funeral should cost
Memorial Merits helps you find a funeral home and what a funeral should cost with the free Funeral Cost Calculator and a directory of funeral homes and cemeteries for every state, next to the average prices and your rights as a buyer.
Open the Funeral Cost Calculator Find funeral homes and prices in your statePaying for a funeral
Memorial Merits helps you pay for a funeral by listing the assistance programs and charities that help with funeral costs, a free fundraiser page that family and friends can give to, and payment plan options.
See funeral assistance programs and charities Compare payment plans and funeral loansChoosing between cremation and burial
Memorial Merits helps you choose between cremation and burial by listing vetted cremation and burial services with their prices, including natural alternatives, and by explaining what happens during cremation.
Compare cremation and burial options Read what happens during cremationChoosing a casket or an urn
Memorial Merits helps you choose a casket or an urn by showing what each type costs and reviewing sellers that deliver to the funeral home.
See casket and urn prices and reviewsWriting an obituary or a eulogy
Memorial Merits helps you write an obituary with ten tips, post the obituary online for free, and write a eulogy with a step-by-step guide and examples.
Read ten tips for writing an obituary Post a free obituary Read how to write a eulogyVeteran burial benefits
Memorial Merits helps you with veteran burial benefits by listing the VA benefits a veteran's family can claim and where to apply for them.
See veteran burial benefits and resourcesFree printable guide
What to Do When Someone Dies: Funeral Arrangements Checklist
A printable checklist for the first two weeks: who to call first, funeral arrangements, your rights, costs and help paying.
Download the Free PDFI am grieving, or I want to memorialize someone.
Grief support, keepsakes, headstones and pet loss.
Choose what you need help with.
Grief support
Memorial Merits helps you with grief by comparing online grief counseling services and what each one costs, and with free grief guides to download.
Go to grief support services Compare online grief counseling See the free grief guidesChoosing a memorial or a keepsake
Memorial Merits helps you choose a memorial or a keepsake by reviewing cremation jewelry, memorial diamonds, medallions and other keepsakes.
See memorial and keepsake ideasDiscount for Memorial Merits readers
Save $10 on memorial tattoo ink made with ashes from Engrave Ink.
Code: memorialmerits10
See the review of this memorial tattoo inkA headstone
Memorial Merits helps you with a headstone by showing what headstones cost and how to clean one without damaging it.
See what a headstone costs Read how to clean a headstoneThe loss of a pet
Memorial Merits helps you after losing a pet by listing what to do first, what pet cremation and burial cost, and the urns and keepsakes made for pets.
Read what to do first after a pet passes away Open the pet memorial guideFree printable guide
Grief Workbook and Worksheets: Grief Support, Memorial Choices and Headstones
Printable grief worksheets plus a guide to grief support, memorial keepsakes, what to do with ashes and ordering a headstone.
Download the Free PDFI am settling someone's estate.
Probate, forms, debts and accounts.
Choose what you need help with.
Probate: whether it is required, the forms and the cost
Memorial Merits helps you with probate by showing whether probate is required in your state, which forms you need, and what probate costs.
Check if probate is required in your state Open the Probate Cost Calculator Read how to get letters testamentary Open the probate guideServing as the executor
Memorial Merits helps you serve as an executor with a step-by-step guide to an executor's duties, from appointment to distribution.
Read the executor step-by-step guide See the executor resource listDebts and accounts
Memorial Merits helps you with debts after someone has passed away by explaining who pays each type of debt in each state.
Read who pays debts after someone passes awayAn inherited annuity or a life insurance claim
Memorial Merits helps you with an inherited annuity or a life insurance claim with the free Inherited Annuity Tax Calculator and a step-by-step guide to filing a claim.
Open the Inherited Annuity Tax Calculator Read your inherited annuity options Read how to file a life insurance claimFree printable guide
Probate Checklist: How to Settle an Estate Step by Step
A printable executor checklist for probate, letters testamentary, debts, inherited annuities and final tax returns, with worksheets.
Download the Free PDFSomeone I care about is grieving.
What to say, how to help, flowers and sympathy gifts.
Choose what you need help with.
Knowing what to say and how to help
Memorial Merits helps you support someone who is grieving with a guide on what to say, what to do and how to help.
Read what to say and how to helpSending flowers or a sympathy gift
Memorial Merits helps you send flowers or a sympathy gift by listing florists that deliver the same day and sympathy gift options.
See funeral flowers and sympathy giftsA gift for someone who lost a pet
Memorial Merits helps you choose a gift for someone who lost a pet with a guide to pet memorial gifts.
See gifts for someone who lost a petFree printable guide
What to Say When Someone Dies: Sympathy Card Messages and Ways to Help
A printable guide to what to say, what to write in a sympathy card, how to help in the first year and what to send.
Download the Free PDFGive Your Visitors More! Add this same Help Finder to your own website for free. The instructions are at the bottom of this page.
Browse End of Life Planning Services by Category
Go straight to a section of Memorial Merits.
Legacy and estate planning
Funeral assistance
Free tools and calculatorsAsk Solace, the Memorial Merits AI Companion
Not sure what you need? Tell Solace what is happening, and Solace points you to the right page on Memorial Merits. Solace is free, needs no account and is available at any hour.
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Video: Getting Started with Memorial Merits
This video runs 2 minutes and 15 seconds. It shows how Memorial Merits is organized: estate planning, funeral planning and grief support, and where the free tools, printable guides and partner directory are.
What Is Memorial Merits? A Free End of Life Planning Platform
Memorial Merits is a free platform that helps families understand the costs, rules and paperwork of end of life planning and the months after a death, in plain language. It brings together free calculators, printable guides, a directory of funeral homes and cemeteries for every state, reviews of vetted services with discount codes for readers, planning books and journals, and Solace, a free AI companion for grief and planning questions.
Memorial Merits is organized around five situations: planning your own estate or a parent's, the first days after someone passes away, grief and memorials, settling an estate, and supporting someone who is grieving. The Help Finder at the top of this page sorts every tool, guide and service on Memorial Merits by those five situations, so you only see what applies to you.
Free End of Life Planning Tools and Calculators
Every Memorial Merits tool is free, needs no account and saves nothing you type. Each one answers a specific question with numbers for your state.
Funeral Cost Calculator
Estimates what a funeral with burial or cremation costs in your state, line by line, so you can compare it with a funeral home's price list.
Cremation Savings Calculator
Shows what cremation costs in your state and what a prepaid cremation plan would save compared with paying at the time of need.
Probate Cost Calculator
Estimates court filing fees and the other costs of probate in your state before you start the process.
Inherited Annuity Tax Calculator
Estimates the tax on an inherited annuity under each payout option, so you can see which option keeps more of the money.
Estate Readiness Tool
Shows which estate planning documents fit your situation, such as a will, a trust or a power of attorney, and the online services that prepare them.
Solace, the AI Companion
Answers grief and planning questions at any hour and points you to the right page on Memorial Merits. No account needed.
All of the tools are listed on the free tools and calculators page, and each one can be added to another website for free.
Free Printable Funeral Planning Checklists and Estate Planning Guides
Memorial Merits publishes a free printable PDF guide for each of the five situations. Each guide is a checklist plus worksheets you can fill in by hand, print for family members, or bring to a meeting with a funeral home or an attorney.
End of Life Planning Checklist and Workbook
Covers your will, documents, accounts, life insurance and funeral wishes, for yourself or a parent.
What to Do When Someone Dies: Funeral Arrangements Checklist
Covers the first two weeks: who to call first, funeral arrangements, your rights, costs and help paying.
Grief Workbook and Worksheets
Covers grief support, memorial keepsakes, what to do with ashes and ordering a headstone.
Probate Checklist: How to Settle an Estate Step by Step
Covers probate, letters testamentary, debts, inherited annuities and final tax returns, with worksheets.
What to Say When Someone Dies: Sympathy Card Messages and Ways to Help
Covers what to say, what to write in a sympathy card and how to help in the first year.
More checklists, worksheets and workbooks are on the free downloads page, including the estate planning checklists and workbooks and the grief guides and trackers.
Funeral Homes and Cemeteries in Every State
The Memorial Merits funeral home directory lists funeral homes and cemeteries for every state, including older and well known cemeteries and veterans cemeteries. Each state page shows the listings next to what a funeral and a cremation cost in that state, the help available for paying, and your rights as a buyer under the FTC Funeral Rule.
The directory is built to help you compare. Memorial Merits publishes what funerals cost, not what they should cost, so you can walk into any funeral home with the numbers in hand.
How Memorial Merits Vets Its Partners
Memorial Merits works with more than 45 vetted partners in estate planning, funeral and cremation services, caskets and urns, memorial keepsakes, grief counseling, life insurance and funeral financing. Every partner is researched before it is listed, and each category has its own standard, because a will service and a cremation provider are judged on different things.
Before any partner is listed, Memorial Merits asks one question:
"Would I recommend this to a close friend or a family member?"
To answer it, every partner goes through the same review:
Background and history
How long the company has operated, who runs it, and how it has treated its customers over time.
Independent customer reviews
What customers say on Trustpilot, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and other independent review sites, compared with what the company says about itself.
Terms, pricing and fees
Contract terms, cancellation and refund rules, hidden fees, and interest rates. Unclear or one-sided terms rule a partner out.
Fit for the families Memorial Merits serves
Whether the service meets a real need for someone planning ahead or dealing with a death, at a fair price, in the states where they live.
Funeral financing shows how strict the standard is. Memorial Merits turned down many lending programs because they looked predatory: interest rates built to keep borrowers in debt, terms that were hard to understand, or offers that did not fit a family paying for a funeral.
Vetting does not end once a partner is listed. Memorial Merits keeps an open line of communication with its partners and partner networks, checks them again over time, and has removed several partners that stopped meeting its standards. Browse every current partner in the partner directory, and find the discount codes partners give Memorial Merits readers in the Family Savings Center.
Where Memorial Merits Gets Its Data
Memorial Merits builds its cost figures and rules from primary sources and its own research, and names the source next to the number.
Funeral costs
A Memorial Merits review of 21 funeral home price lists from 7 states, plus the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) 2023 General Price List Study, brought to 2026 dollars with the Bureau of Labor Statistics funeral price index.
Your rights as a buyer
The FTC Funeral Rule, the federal rule every funeral home must follow on price lists and itemized charges.
Death certificate fees
The CDC Where to Write for Vital Records list, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Probate rules and costs
State laws and court fee schedules for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with each figure traced to a statute or a court.
Federal benefits
The Social Security Administration for the $255 death payment and the Department of Veterans Affairs for burial benefits.
What is left out
Research published by a company to support its own product is not used as a source, no matter how well known the company is.
Figures are checked again when a source publishes new data, and updated pages show the date they were last reviewed.
Why Memorial Merits Exists: Our Mission
Memorial Merits exists so that anyone planning ahead, or dealing with a death right now, can find the costs, the rules and honest options in one place, free, and without pressure to buy anything.
Gabriel Killian founded Memorial Merits after going through loss in his own family and seeing how hard it was to get clear answers about costs, paperwork and choices while grieving. Read why Gabriel Killian built Memorial Merits.
Memorial Merits is not against funeral homes or any other provider. It publishes what things cost and what the rules are, so families can make their own decisions with the facts in front of them.
Memorial Merits has been featured by SociologyGroup.com and Animal Hospice Group, has been listed in the Home Funeral Alliance directory for three years, and was featured as a Home Funeral Alliance Member in the Spotlight. U.S. Army CENTCOM requested use of Memorial Merits as a resource for service members and their families. Gabriel Killian's Legacy Journal books earned him a #1 author ranking in journal writing on Amazon. Read answers to common questions about Memorial Merits.
Frequently Asked Questions About End of Life Planning and Funeral Help
What are end of life planning services?
End of life planning services help a person put their wishes in writing before they pass: a will or trust, a health care directive, life insurance, and a funeral or cremation plan arranged ahead of time. Memorial Merits lists free tools and vetted services for each of these on the legacy and estate planning page, and the free End of Life Planning Checklist and Workbook walks through each step on paper.
What should you do first when someone dies?
The first call depends on where the person passed. If the person was at home under hospice care, call the hospice agency. If the person passed at home without hospice care, call 911. If the person passed in a hospital or nursing home, the staff will handle the first steps. After that, contact a funeral home and tell close family. Memorial Merits has a list of who to contact, in order, and a checklist for the first 24 hours.
How do I get help paying for a funeral?
Help paying for a funeral can come from government benefits, county programs, charities and fundraisers. Social Security pays a one-time $255 death payment to an eligible surviving spouse or child, and the VA pays burial benefits for eligible veterans. Memorial Merits lists funeral assistance programs and charities and payment plans and funeral loans.
How do I know if an estate has to go through probate?
An estate usually has to go through probate when the person who passed owned property in their name alone, with no beneficiary or joint owner named, and the value is above the state's small estate limit. Each state sets its own limit. Memorial Merits shows whether probate is required in your state and estimates the cost with the free Probate Cost Calculator.
Where can I find free end of life resources?
Memorial Merits has free end of life resources in one place: printable checklists and workbooks, calculators for funeral, cremation and probate costs, a directory of funeral homes and cemeteries for every state, and Solace, a free AI companion. Start with the Help Finder at the top of this page, or go to the free downloads page and the free tools and calculators page.
Is Memorial Merits free to use?
Yes. The tools, calculators, printable guides and directories on Memorial Merits are free, and no account is needed. Memorial Merits earns a commission from some of the services it reviews, at no extra cost to you, and lists the discount codes those services give Memorial Merits readers.
About the Author: Gabriel Killian
Gabriel Killian
Founder of Memorial Merits. US Navy Certified Instructor, Missile Defense Systems. Navy veteran.
Gabriel Killian founded Memorial Merits and writes and reviews its guides, tools and partner reviews. He is the author of the Legacy Journal books, Should Tomorrow Never Come and How to Legacy Journal, guided journals for recording a life story and final wishes. The books earned him a #1 author ranking in journal writing on Amazon.
Read Gabriel Killian's full profile | ORCID 0009-0008-0751-6129
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