Choosing a funeral or cremation provider used to be a matter of habit. Most families called the funeral home their grandparents had used, or the one closest to home. That decision happened quickly, often within hours of a death, and price was rarely part of the conversation.
That world has changed. The cremation rate has overtaken burial, online direct cremation arrangers operate in most major cities, corporate consolidation has reshaped what looks like a “local” funeral home, and the FTC is actively reviewing the rules that govern how providers must disclose their prices. Today’s families have far more provider types to choose from — and far more reason to compare.
This guide is designed to help you understand the full landscape of funeral service providers in the US, what each one actually does, what your rights are when you call or visit, and how to compare options without rushing into a decision you may later regret.
The types of funeral service providers in the US today
Until about 25 years ago, “funeral home” meant essentially one thing: a full-service local business that handled everything from body removal through burial or cremation. That single category has now split into several distinct provider types, each with different pricing models, service offerings, and ideal use cases.
Full-service funeral homes remain the most common provider type. These businesses offer the complete range of arrangements — traditional funeral services with viewing and ceremony, direct cremation, direct burial, memorial services, and pre-planning. They usually have their own facilities for visitations and services, refrigeration and preparation rooms, and a staff of licensed funeral directors. Costs are higher than minimum-service providers because the overhead is higher, but the breadth of options is correspondingly wider.
Mortuaries is largely a regional naming convention rather than a different category of business. The term is more commonly used on the West Coast and in the Southwest, while “funeral home” is more common in the East and Midwest. Functionally, most mortuaries operate as full-service funeral homes. Some “mortuaries” are technically separate body-preparation facilities that serve multiple funeral homes — but these are increasingly rare on the consumer-facing side.
Crematories are the actual facilities where cremation takes place. A crematory may be operated independently, owned by a funeral home, attached to a cemetery, or part of a multi-location chain. Many full-service funeral homes do not own a crematory — they contract with a third-party crematory and pass on the cost (sometimes with a markup). This distinction matters for price-shopping, and it’s one of the issues the FTC is currently considering whether to require providers to disclose. You can read more about how cremation actually works in our guide to cremation laws and arranging a cremation.
Cremation societies are membership-style organizations that focus on simple, low-cost cremation services. They typically charge a small membership or registration fee at signup and then offer cremation at a pre-agreed price when needed. Cremation societies have existed for decades — the National Cremation Society, founded in 1972, is the oldest in the US — and remain popular in markets where direct cremation demand is high.
Online direct cremation arrangers are a more recent provider category. These are companies that take cremation arrangements entirely online or by phone, partner with local providers to handle the physical logistics, and emphasize transparent flat-rate pricing. Examples include Tulip, Solace, and Lumen. They are not a fit for families who want a viewing or traditional service, but for families who only need a simple cremation, the price transparency and convenience can be significant. Our sister site, DFS Memorials, operates in the same space — connecting families with vetted, family-owned direct cremation providers across the US.
Combination funeral home and cemetery operations offer funeral, cremation and burial services from a single location with a single contract. There are over 1,000 of these in the US. The main appeal is convenience — one provider handles everything, including grave opening and closing, marker installation and perpetual care. The trade-off is that pricing is harder to compare, because the provider is bundling services that would otherwise come from two separate businesses.
Green and natural burial providers are funeral homes, cemeteries or hybrid operations that specialize in environmentally conscious end-of-life options. This includes natural burial (no embalming, biodegradable casket or shroud, no concrete vault), conservation burial in protected natural areas, and in a growing number of states, alternatives to flame cremation such as alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction. We maintain a directory of green burial providers for families exploring these options.
Death-doula-supported home funerals sit outside the traditional funeral home model entirely. End-of-life doulas help families care for a loved one’s body at home, file the paperwork, and walk through a home vigil before transferring the body to a crematory or cemetery. Home funerals are legal in every US state, although a small number of states require a licensed funeral director to file the death certificate or supervise the disposition. We cover this option in detail in our death doula guide and directory.
The right provider depends on what you actually need. A family planning a traditional service with viewing, ceremony, and graveside burial will be best served by a full-service funeral home. A family who wants only a simple cremation may pay two to four times more at a full-service funeral home than at an online direct cremation arranger or cremation society — for the same outcome.
What does a funeral home actually do?
It helps to understand what services a funeral home is actually providing, since this is what you are paying for.
A typical full-service funeral home handles: removal of the deceased from the place of death; refrigeration or preparation of the body; embalming if requested or required; dressing, casketing, and cosmetology; coordination of obituaries, death certificates, and burial or cremation permits; use of facilities for viewing, visitation, and ceremony; staff for the service; transportation to the place of disposition; and aftercare such as helping with veteran’s benefits or insurance claims.
Some of these are optional. Embalming is not required by federal law for any disposition method, and is required by state law only in narrow circumstances (typically extended public viewing or transport across some state lines). A casket is not required for cremation; an alternative cremation container made of cardboard or unfinished wood is permitted everywhere in the US.
Understanding which services are actually mandatory versus which are optional add-ons is one of the most useful things a consumer can do before calling a provider, because the difference between the two often determines whether a funeral costs $1,500 or $15,000.
Independent vs corporate-owned funeral homes
One of the most consequential things consumers don’t usually know is whether the funeral home they’re calling is locally owned or part of a national chain.
Roughly 80% of US funeral homes are still independently owned, often by families that have run them for multiple generations. The remaining 20% or so are owned by publicly traded or private-equity-backed corporations. The largest of these is Service Corporation International (SCI), headquartered in Houston. SCI owns roughly 1,500 to 1,900 funeral home and cemetery locations across North America under the Dignity Memorial umbrella brand, generating around $4 billion in annual revenue. We have a separate detailed profile of Service Corporation International and how it operates for readers who want to go deeper.
Other major corporate operators include Carriage Services, headquartered in Houston, which operates roughly 165 funeral homes and 30+ cemeteries across the US; Foundation Partners Group, a private-equity-backed network focused on cremation-forward businesses; Everstory Partners (the rebranded former StoneMor), which operates predominantly cemeteries; and a number of regional roll-ups such as Legacy Funeral Holdings, NorthStar Memorial Group, and Heritage Family.
Why does this matter to you as a consumer?
Three reasons.
First, naming. When SCI or another corporate operator acquires an independent funeral home, the home almost always continues operating under its original local family name. The signage, staff, and even some of the longstanding employees often remain. There is rarely any external indication that the business is now corporate-owned. Consumers who believe they are choosing a “local family-owned funeral home” frequently are not.
Second, pricing. Multiple independent studies, including pricing surveys conducted by the Funeral Consumers Alliance, have found that corporate-owned funeral homes tend to charge meaningfully more than independent funeral homes in the same market — often 20% to 50% more for comparable services. This isn’t universally true, and pricing varies by region and by specific location, but it’s a strong enough pattern that it warrants careful price comparison whenever you suspect a provider is part of a larger network.
Third, decision-making. Independent funeral homes typically have more flexibility on pricing, package customization, and how they handle special requests. Corporate-owned homes generally operate under standardized package structures, casket displays, and pricing tiers set at the regional or national level.
You can usually identify whether a funeral home is part of a corporate network by looking at the bottom of its website (look for fine print referencing SCI, Dignity Memorial, Carriage Services, or another parent company), checking the “About” page for ownership information, or simply asking. Funeral homes are not required to disclose corporate ownership unprompted, but most will confirm if asked directly.
Your rights under the FTC Funeral Rule
The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, originally enacted in 1984 and last meaningfully amended in 1994, is the federal regulation that governs how funeral homes must disclose pricing and what they can and cannot require consumers to buy. It applies to every funeral home in the United States.
In plain English, the Funeral Rule gives you the following rights:
You have the right to a written General Price List (GPL). Any funeral home must hand you a printed, itemized price list of every good and service it offers, free of charge, for you to keep, the moment you ask in person. This includes situations where you are inquiring on behalf of someone else, comparison shopping, or simply curious. You do not have to be a “customer” to receive a GPL.
You have the right to itemized pricing. Funeral homes cannot require you to buy a package. You are entitled to choose only the goods and services you actually want and to be quoted a price for each line item. This is the single most powerful provision in the Funeral Rule, because it is what enables real comparison shopping.
You have the right to a Casket Price List (CPL) before being shown caskets. This prevents funeral directors from anchoring you on the most expensive caskets in the showroom before you’ve seen the lower-priced options.
You have the right to phone price disclosures. A funeral home must answer pricing questions over the phone if asked. They are not required to read the entire GPL aloud, but they must provide accurate price information for the items you ask about.
You cannot be required to buy a casket from the funeral home. You have the legal right to purchase a casket from a third party (including online retailers) and have the funeral home use it without an additional handling fee.
You cannot be told that embalming is required when it is not. A funeral provider cannot misrepresent legal requirements to encourage you to buy services you don’t legally need.
The Funeral Rule is currently under FTC review. In November 2022, the FTC issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering seven potential amendments, the most consequential of which is whether providers should be required to publish their GPLs online. As of early 2026, the rulemaking is still in process.
In a 2024 FTC undercover phone sweep of more than 250 funeral homes, half of providers answered pricing questions with estimates or ranges rather than actual prices, and 39 received warning letters for Funeral Rule violations. At least 37 funeral homes quoted different prices for the same services on different calls — a strong reason to get any quoted price in writing.
For a deeper walkthrough of the rule and how it affects your specific arrangements, see our full guide to the FTC’s Funeral Rule and your consumer rights.
How to compare funeral homes: a price-shopping framework
The General Price List is the foundation of meaningful price comparison, but it only works if you know how to read it.
Every GPL contains a similar set of line items, listed in roughly the following structure: a non-declinable basic services fee (the funeral director’s professional fee), removal of the deceased, embalming, other body preparation, use of facilities and staff for viewing or ceremony, use of a hearse and service vehicles, immediate burial packages, direct cremation packages, and forwarding or receiving of remains. Specific line items and their prices vary substantially between providers — even providers in the same town.
A practical price-shopping process looks like this:
Decide what kind of service you actually want before you call. A direct cremation, a graveside-only service, a traditional funeral with viewing, and a memorial service after cremation are four very different products at very different price points. Comparing prices only works if you’re comparing the same configuration.
Request GPLs from at least three providers. Three is a useful minimum because it lets you spot outliers in either direction. In most US markets, you can collect three GPLs in an afternoon by phone or email; in some markets you may need to visit in person.
Compare line items, not totals. The non-declinable basic services fee is the first place to look — it varies more than any other line item and can range from under $1,000 to over $4,000 in the same market. Then compare the specific items you’ll actually be using. Ignore items you won’t be selecting.
Ask whether third-party fees are included. If the funeral home does not own a crematory, the cremation fee is paid to a separate crematory and may or may not be marked up. The same applies to cemetery fees, obituary placement, and certified copies of the death certificate. A “$2,000 direct cremation” with $800 in third-party fees is really a $2,800 cremation.
Be cautious about “package” pricing presented as a discount. Packages are convenient, but they often include items you don’t need (a basic memorial printed package, a register book, an outer burial container) and obscure the true line-item costs. The Funeral Rule guarantees your right to itemized pricing — use it.
For families specifically focused on cremation, our state-by-state cremation cost guides include median pricing data for direct cremation, cremation with memorial service, and full cremation funerals.
Red flags and questions to ask
A small number of questions, asked early, will tell you most of what you need to know about a funeral home.
Before you visit or commit to anything, ask:
- Are you locally owned and operated, or part of a national network?
- Can you email or fax me your General Price List today?
- Do you operate your own crematory, or contract with a third party? If a third party, what is the crematory fee?
- What is your charge to use a casket I purchase elsewhere?
- Is embalming required for the service I’m planning? (For most cremations and many burials, the answer is no.)
- What is your basic services fee?
- Are there any fees that are not listed on the GPL?
Red flags to watch for include: a funeral home that won’t email or fax you the GPL; a director who insists embalming is required when it is not; pressure to make decisions on the same day; package-only pricing with no itemized breakdown offered; a casket showroom where the lowest-priced options are not visibly displayed (these are sometimes kept in a back room or in a small printed catalog); and any reluctance to disclose the cremation fee or whether the cremation is performed on-site.
None of these are necessarily evidence of bad intent. The funeral profession is overwhelmingly populated by people who care deeply about the families they serve. But they are signals that the provider may not be the right fit for a price-conscious consumer, and they are reason to call somewhere else.
What to expect to pay
According to the most recent NFDA General Price List Study, the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300, and the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and cremation was $6,280. Direct cremation — the simplest cremation option, with no service — has a much wider national range, generally falling between $1,000 and $3,500 depending on the market and provider type. Direct burial, similarly, generally falls between $2,000 and $5,500.
These medians do not include cemetery costs, monument or marker costs, cash advances for items like flowers and obituaries, or third-party crematory fees. A realistic full-cost estimate for any traditional funeral with burial today is closer to $10,000 to $13,000 once cemetery and incidental costs are added.
For an in-depth look at how cremation pricing has shifted in recent years, including state-by-state cremation rates and the factors driving 2026 pricing, see our analysis of US cremation rates and trends.
Find funeral homes by state
For state-specific funeral planning information, regulations, cremation pricing data, and directories of local funeral homes and cremation providers, choose your state below. Each state guide includes the state-specific rules around death certificates, embalming, refrigeration, cremation authorization, and disposition options, as well as median pricing for the most common service types.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
The US funeral industry today
The US death care industry is currently worth roughly $20 billion in annual revenue, with NFDA projecting growth to about $20.6 billion by 2029. There are approximately 18,800 funeral homes operating in the US, alongside more than 1,700 crematories and over 100,000 cemeteries.
The defining trend reshaping the industry is the continued rise of cremation. NFDA’s 2025 Cremation & Burial Report projects a 2025 cremation rate of 63.4% — up from 50% just ten years ago — and forecasts that the rate will reach 82.3% by 2045. By 2035, NFDA expects every US state and Washington DC to have surpassed a 50% cremation rate. The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) puts the actual 2024 cremation rate at 61.8% and projects continued growth, noting that cremation rates accelerate after a state crosses the 40% threshold and only begin to plateau as they approach 80%.
For funeral homes, the implications are significant. Cremation services generate substantially less revenue per case than traditional funerals, which has driven consolidation and operational change. Roughly 30% of NFDA-member funeral homes now operate their own crematory, with another 10% planning to add one. Funeral home employment is projected to grow only 4% between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as the average for all occupations, and personnel shortage is now the top reported business challenge across the sector.
For consumers, the implications are largely positive: more provider options, increasing price transparency, and growing demand-driven pressure on providers to compete on price and service rather than on geographic monopoly. The historical pattern of “use the funeral home in your town because there isn’t another one” no longer applies in most US markets.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between a funeral home, a mortuary, and a crematory?
Funeral home and mortuary are largely regional terms for the same kind of business — a full-service provider that handles arrangements, body preparation, ceremonies, and disposition. “Mortuary” is more common on the West Coast; “funeral home” is more common in the East and Midwest. A crematory is the actual facility where cremation takes place. Some funeral homes own their own crematory; many contract with a third-party crematory.
Do I have to use a funeral home to arrange a cremation?
In most states, no. A direct cremation can be arranged through a cremation society, an online direct cremation arranger, or any licensed funeral provider that offers the service. A small number of states require a licensed funeral director to file the death certificate or supervise the disposition, but you do not need to use a full-service funeral home.
Are independent funeral homes always cheaper than corporate-owned funeral homes?
Not always, but pricing surveys have consistently found that corporate-owned funeral homes charge more on average than independent funeral homes in the same market, often by 20% to 50% for comparable services. The difference varies widely by location, so the only reliable way to compare is to request itemized General Price Lists from both types and compare them line by line.
Can I negotiate the price of a funeral?
Some line items are negotiable; others are not. The non-declinable basic services fee is set by the funeral home and generally not subject to negotiation. Casket and merchandise prices, package configurations, and optional services such as additional viewing hours can sometimes be negotiated, particularly at independent funeral homes. The strongest leverage you have as a consumer is the right to choose only the goods and services you want — guaranteed by the FTC Funeral Rule — rather than to negotiate within a package.
How can I tell if a funeral home is owned by a national chain?
Check the bottom of the funeral home’s website for fine-print references to a parent company such as Service Corporation International, Dignity Memorial, Carriage Services, or Foundation Partners Group. Look at the “About” page for ownership information. If neither is clear, ask directly when you call. Funeral homes acquired by corporate operators almost always retain their original local name, so the brand on the building tells you very little about who actually owns it.
What questions should I ask before choosing a funeral home?
The most useful early questions are: are you locally owned or part of a network; will you email or fax me your General Price List; do you own your own crematory or contract one; what is your basic services fee; what is your charge for using an outside casket; and is embalming required for the specific service I’m planning. Answers to these six questions will tell you most of what you need to know about whether a particular funeral home is the right fit.
