The FTC Funeral Rule explained for families

What the Rule is

The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453) is a federal regulation that took effect in 1984 and was last substantively amended in 1994. It applies to every U.S. funeral provider that sells funeral services to the public. The Rule was promulgated under the FTC's authority to prevent unfair or deceptive trade practices and is enforced by the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Six rights it grants families

• Right to itemized pricing (16 CFR § 453.2(b)).
• Right to telephone price quotes (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(1)).
• Right to refuse unwanted goods and services (16 CFR § 453.4(b)(2)).
• Right to refuse embalming except in narrow circumstances (16 CFR § 453.5).
• Right to use an alternative container for cremation (16 CFR § 453.4(b)(1)(i)).
• Right to provide your own casket without handling fee (16 CFR § 453.4(b)(1)(ii)).

Eighteen specific disclosures the home must make

The Rule requires the funeral home to make 18 specific disclosures during arrangement. The most important:

• The General Price List (GPL) on request, free of charge, before any pricing discussion.
• The Casket Price List (CPL) on request, before showing any caskets.
• The Outer Burial Container Price List (OBCPL) on request, before showing any outer burial containers.
• The Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected before the family pays.
• Disclosure that embalming is not required by law except in specific narrow circumstances.
• Disclosure that an alternative cremation container is available at a lower price than a casket.
• Disclosure that the home will not refuse or charge a handling fee for outside-supplied merchandise.
• Disclosure of any markup on cash advance items.

How enforcement works

FTC Funeral Rule violations are reportable at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The Funeral Rule Offenders Program (FROP) is the standard enforcement track for first-time minor violations: the home enters a three-year compliance program administered by the National Funeral Directors Association, pays a fee to the FTC, and submits to periodic compliance reviews. Repeat or serious violations result in formal FTC enforcement action and civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation (the 2026 inflation-adjusted maximum).

Common violations include: refusing to provide the GPL by phone, requiring purchase of a casket for cremation, charging a handling fee for outside-supplied merchandise, requiring embalming when not legally necessary, failing to provide the Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected before payment.

Pricing source disclosure

Every dollar amount on Cheap Funeral is sourced from each funeral home's published General Price List (GPL) under the FTC Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453). The Rule requires every U.S. funeral home to provide an itemized GPL on request — by phone, in person, or in many cases online. Where a home has not published a GPL we mark the listing accordingly rather than estimate.

National benchmarks throughout this article are drawn from the National Funeral Directors Association 2023 Member General Price List Study (NFDA, July 2023), which reports the median U.S. cost of a funeral with viewing and burial at $8,300 and the median direct cremation at $2,495.