What a funeral costs in 2026, from FTC Funeral Rule price lists

People ask me what a funeral costs in 2026 as if there were a sticker on it. There isn't. Prices vary from one town to the next and from one funeral home to the one across the street. What there is, thanks to the Federal Trade Commission, is a price document every funeral home has to give you. With it, you can answer the question for your own town better than any national average can.

The rule that makes this possible

The FTC Funeral Rule has been in force since 1984. In plain terms, it says funeral providers must:

• Give you a General Price List (the "GPL") to keep when you ask about arrangements in person.
• Give you price information over the phone if you call and ask.
• Show you a casket price list before showing you caskets, and an outer burial container price list before showing those.
• Let you buy only the goods and services you want, with limited exceptions such as items a state law or a cemetery requires.
• Accept a casket or urn you bought elsewhere without charging you a fee to handle it.
• Give you an itemized statement of what you chose, with prices, before you pay.

The FTC publishes a consumer guide to the rule, Shopping for Funeral Services, at consumer.ftc.gov. It is worth the ten minutes.

How to read a General Price List

Most GPLs follow the same order because the rule requires certain items to be listed. Here are the lines that move the total most.

Line on the GPL	What it is	Can you decline it?
Basic services of funeral director and staff	Overhead: planning, permits, coordination	No. This is the one fee the rule lets them charge everyone
Transfer of remains to the funeral home	Bringing the body from the place of death	Not if they handle the body
Embalming	Preservation, usually for a public viewing	Yes, in most cases; the GPL must say it is not required by law except in special cases
Other preparation (dressing, cosmetology)	Getting the body ready for viewing	Yes
Use of facilities for viewing	Room and staff for visitation	Yes
Use of facilities for the ceremony	Chapel and staff for the service	Yes
Hearse, limousine	Vehicles	Yes
Direct cremation	A package price with no viewing or ceremony	Offered as one price
Immediate burial	Burial soon after death, no viewing	Offered as one price

Two things to notice. First, direct cremation and immediate burial are package prices that include the basic services fee. They are usually the least expensive arrangements on the list, and comparing them across homes is the fastest way to see who charges what. Second, caskets and outer burial containers are not on the GPL. They are on separate lists, and they can make up a large share of the bill.

The afternoon method

You do not need to visit every funeral home in the county. Do this:

1. Call two or three homes. Say you are planning ahead and ask for the prices of direct cremation, immediate burial, and a traditional funeral with viewing. Ask them to email or mail the GPL. Many will. Some now post it online.
2. Build one comparison sheet. Put each home in its own column.
3. Fill in the same rows for every home: basic services fee, direct cremation, immediate burial, embalming, viewing, ceremony, hearse.
4. Add the casket range (lowest and highest on the casket price list) and the outer burial container range.
5. Add the cemetery's charges separately. The funeral home does not set them.

Row	Home A	Home B	Home C
Basic services fee
Direct cremation
Immediate burial
Full service with viewing, before casket
Casket range
Outer burial container range

I left it blank on purpose. Your numbers are the only ones that count, and they will be fresher than anything I could print.

What the funeral home doesn't charge for

A complete funeral budget includes bills from other people. The cemetery charges for the plot or niche, for opening and closing the grave, and often for setting a headstone. The monument company charges for the headstone itself. Cash advance items, such as death certificate fees, flowers, an obituary notice or an honorarium for clergy, are paid by the funeral home on your behalf and added to your bill. The rule requires the home to tell you if it adds a service charge to those.

When you want a national figure

If you want a benchmark, the National Funeral Directors Association publishes a periodic survey of median costs for its members, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks funeral expenses inside the Consumer Price Index. Both are useful for seeing the trend. Neither will tell you what the home down the road charges. Only its GPL will.