Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: a federal rule gives you rights at a funeral home that the industry has no incentive to lead with. You can get an itemised price list before you are shown anything, you can buy only the items you want rather than a package, and you cannot be required to buy a casket for a direct cremation. These are enforceable trade regulations, not courtesies.
You may buy only what you want
Under 16 CFR 453.4(b)(1) it is an unfair or deceptive practice for a funeral provider to “condition the furnishing of any funeral good or funeral service to a person arranging a funeral upon the purchase of any other funeral good or funeral service, except as required by law”. That is the anti-package rule. A provider may show you packages; it may not make the package the only way to obtain a piece of it.
The rule also limits what can be charged as a condition of doing business at all: aside from the basic services of the funeral director and staff, you pay for what you select and for items genuinely required, explained on an itemised statement.
You get the prices in writing, before you are shown anything
16 CFR 453.2(b) requires printed price lists. A casket price list must be given to anyone who asks in person about caskets, before the caskets are shown. An outer burial container price list works the same way. Getting the numbers before you are standing in a showroom is the entire point, and it is the step most people skip.
No casket for a direct cremation
16 CFR 453.4(a) makes it an unfair or deceptive practice for a funeral provider or a crematory to require that a casket be purchased for direct cremation, and requires providers who arrange direct cremations to make an alternative container available. If you are told a casket is necessary for cremation, that is not correct.
Embalming is not required by law, except in special cases
This is the one that costs families the most. It has its own page: is embalming required — including the disclosure the rule compels the funeral home to print next to the embalming price.
How to use these rights without a confrontation
- Ask for the general price list and the casket price list at the start, in writing, before viewing anything.
- Say plainly which items you want. You do not need a reason, and you are not required to justify declining a package.
- Ask for the itemised statement before you sign. Anything described as required should be identified there as required, and why.
- You can call several homes and compare on the phone. Prices for identical services vary far more than most families expect.
- Bring someone who is not grieving, if you possibly can. That is worth more than any of the above.
None of this is adversarial. Most funeral directors comply with the rule as a matter of course; the rights exist because at-need buying is the least price-sensitive purchase most people ever make, and knowing what you may decline changes the conversation.
Related: who actually pays · whether prepaying is worth it · veterans burial benefits · the Social Security death payment.
The Funeral Rule provisions on this page are read from 16 CFR part 453 via the official eCFR; the Social Security figure from 20 CFR 404.390; VA amounts from va.gov, current at the date above. General information, not legal advice. State law adds requirements in some places and we flag that as a class rather than enumerating it.