How to read a funeral home's General Price List (GPL)

What the GPL is required to contain (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(4))

The federal regulation prescribes the GPL's exact contents. Every GPL must include these 16 line items in this category:

• Forwarding of remains to another funeral home
• Receiving remains from another funeral home
• Direct cremation
• Immediate burial
• Transfer of remains to funeral home
• Embalming (with the disclosure that it is not required by law)
• Other preparation of the body
• Use of facilities and staff for viewing
• Use of facilities and staff for funeral ceremony
• Use of facilities and staff for memorial service
• Use of equipment and staff for graveside service
• Hearse
• Limousine
• Other automotive equipment
• Casket price list (referred to)
• Outer burial container price list (referred to)
• Basic services of funeral director and staff (the non-declinable fee)

Some homes will combine items or use slightly different wording. The FTC Funeral Rule allows reordering and labeling variation but not omission of any required item.

How to read the price columns

The GPL prints the price for each line item. Some homes will also list one or more 'package' prices — bundled groupings of line items at a single price. Federal law (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(4)(iii)(C)(2)) requires the home to also offer the items individually, even if they are listed as a package.

When the home only quotes a package price for an arrangement, you are entitled to ask for the individual line items. The package is almost always more expensive than buying only what you need.

The single most important line: the basic services fee

The 'basic services of funeral director and staff' line is the only fee the FTC Funeral Rule allows the home to charge non-declinably (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(4)(iii)(C)(1)). Every other line is, in principle, refusable. The basic services fee covers the home's overhead, licensing, on-call coordination, and initial arrangement time. National range is $1,200-$3,500, with an average of $2,300 in 2026.

Compare this number across providers. A home with a $1,200 basic services fee and a $1,495 direct cremation is meaningfully cheaper end-to-end than a home with a $3,500 basic services fee and a $895 'starting price' direct cremation, even though the latter advertises a lower headline number.

The casket price list — pulled separately

The Casket Price List (CPL) is a separate document the home is required to provide on request (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(2)). The CPL must be provided before the home shows you a casket selection room, by federal regulation. Casket markup at retail funeral homes typically runs 300-500% over wholesale.

Federal law explicitly forbids the home from refusing to accept a casket or alternative cremation container that you supply yourself, and forbids the home from charging a handling fee for an outside-supplied casket (16 CFR § 453.4(b)(1)(ii)). Costco, Walmart, and Amazon casket prices typically run 30-60% of retail funeral home pricing for an equivalent product.

Cash advance items — what these really are

Cash advance items (sometimes labeled 'disbursements' or 'pass-through') are amounts the funeral home pays to third parties on the family's behalf — clergy honorarium, certified death certificates, obituary placement, flowers, hairdresser, organist. The FTC Funeral Rule (16 CFR § 453.3(f)) requires that the home disclose if any cash advance item carries a markup over the actual cost.

Read the cash advance section closely. A 100-300% markup on certified death certificates is common; a 50-150% markup on the obituary placement is common. The cheaper path on every cash advance item is to pay the third party directly.

Reading the price ranges versus the fixed prices

Some line items on the GPL are listed as a range (e.g., 'Casket price range: $850 to $4,995') rather than a fixed price. Federal law (16 CFR § 453.2(b)(2)(iii)) allows ranges only for the casket and outer burial container categories, and only when the home also provides the separate Casket Price List and Outer Burial Container Price List on request.

Direct cremation, immediate burial, basic services, transport, embalming, and the other 16 mandatory items must be quoted at fixed prices. A GPL that gives ranges for those items is non-compliant; you can report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

What to ask after you read the GPL

• Is this GPL current? (Federal law requires the home to keep the GPL current — typically updated annually.)
• What is included in the included service radius for transport?
• What is the per-mile rate beyond the included radius?
• How many certified death certificates are included? (Typically 0-3.)
• Is the basic services fee charged in full for direct cremation, or pro-rated?
• Will you provide an itemized statement of goods and services selected (the 'Statement of Funeral Goods and Services') before I sign?

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.