Thinking ahead about funeral expenses is both practical and necessary. For every person who wonders, "How much does a funeral price?" there are countless others who never ask the question. And many stop up saddling themselves or their family unit with expenses they could have avoided.
That's why nosotros've assembled the most recent costs associated with funerals, burials, and cremations. Nosotros hope these stats and averages assistance you set realistic expectations and make up one's mind whether your current life insurance policy provides adequate coverage.
Nosotros've also included some time-tested tips to help you save on final expenses for yourself or a family member.
Table of contents
- How much does a funeral cost?
- Breakdown of funeral costs
- Cost of cremation vs. burying
- Toll of visitation or wake
- Median cost of funerals & cremations by state
- Paying for the funeral costs
- Getting financial assistance
- Tips for saving on funeral costs
- Ofttimes asked questions
- Further resources
How Much Does A Funeral Cost?
Co-ordinate to data published by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the median cost of a traditional funeral in the U.S. in 2021 is $seven,843. That number includes all of the typical expenses associated with funeral services, viewing, and burying. If you lot buy a vault for the burying, the cost increases to $9,420.
What those numbers don't tell you lot, however, is that funeral costs vary significantly amidst regions, states, and cities. Depending on the wishes of the deceased or the options chosen by family members, the prices for any given funeral could exist higher or lower than these medians.
Since those totals account for the costs of funerals and burials lonely, they too don't include any number of ancillary expenses you may incur. Flower displays, headstones or grave markers, and fifty-fifty cemetery plot costs volition add to your expenses.
Breakdown of funeral costs
So, what's included in the almost $8,000 total funeral cost indicated by the NFDA? Permit'due south take a look at the median line particular costs of the services required for traditional funerals and burials:
- Professional services fee ($2,300): This fee covers the cost of their labor and equipment.
- Removal and transport of remains to the funeral home ($350): This is the accuse for transferring the body to the mortuary.
- Embalming ($775): Embalming is oftentimes required for open-casket services or if the body is going to be transferred interstate.
- Miscellaneous corrective preparations ($275): This fee covers the price of applying makeup, clothing, and hairdressing.
- Facility usage for viewing ($450): This cost will apply if you wish to use the funeral domicile's chapel for the service.
- Funeral habitation staff for service ($515): You will only pay this if you cull to use the services of the funeral dwelling staff to aid with the funeral ceremony.
- Hearse ($350): This is the vehicle used to transport the deceased from the funeral abode to the cemetery.
- Service motorcar/van ($150): This vehicle tin can transport family members or may be used to transport a body instead of a hearse.
- Printed memorial package ($183): Funeral homes volition oft print pamphlets and prayer cards honoring the deceased and detailing the outline of the service.
- Metal burial casket ($2,500): How much does a casket toll? It depends on what you need. While $ii,500 is the median price for common metal caskets, y'all can also cull a wood casket (median cost of $3,000) or a "light-green" casket with no chemical treatments (median cost of $1,500).
These expenses don't include the toll of a vault. Per the NFDA, the 2021 boilerplate cost of a vault was $ane,572.
Many cemeteries crave the use of a vault for landscaping purposes. Without i, the ground above graves tends to sink, making property maintenance difficult and increasing the risk of disturbances to the graves themselves.
Other costs
Depending on the details of the funeral service, where the remains are cached, or preferences nigh markers or headstones, you should also consider the following expenses:
- Cemetery plots ($3,581 on boilerplate ): Plot costs vary wildly depending on the region of the country you live in and the specifics of the cemetery, its location, and the size of the plot itself. For example, some plots in Alaska cost equally little as $775, while a plot in California might run you over $seven,000. The all-time manner to decide plot costs is to decide alee of fourth dimension where you want to be cached and note the cost of different plots at that specific location.
- Grave markers and headstones ($two,000 median toll): A reasonable expectation for headstone costs is $500 to $iii,000. Evidently, flat grave markers usually cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands. However, custom upright monuments or statues tin toll more than $ten,000, depending on the projection's complexity.
- Flowers ($50 to $lxxx per organization ): While guests and loved ones often bring or send flowers, a family may desire to buy its ain blossom arrangements for a service. These are typical costs, but special arrangements could stitch to several hundred dollars.
- Funeral insurance costs ($20 to $300/month in premiums): The costs of funeral insurance vary according to how much coverage you lot purchase and your age at the time of buy. Typically, these are whole life insurance policies that pay a expiry benefit following the passage of an insured.
Cost of cremation vs. burial
A cremation unremarkably costs less than burial because you avoid all cemetery expenses, many ship costs, and the costs of materials similar a burial casket or a vault. Withal, you notwithstanding need to consider the costs of a memorial service and the cremation itself.
Assuming a service or visitation with the trunk present occurs earlier the cremation, yous still need to consider the costs of embalming, preparation, and funeral dwelling staff.
Median cremation cost
In 2021, the NFDA reports that the national median toll of a funeral with viewing and cremation is $6,970. That's $873 less than a funeral and burial.
Those costs assume that one pays the same amounts for a funeral that are listed above:
- Professional services fee: $ii,300
- Removal and transport of remains to the funeral home: $350
- Embalming: $775
- Miscellaneous cosmetic preparations: $275
- Facility usage for viewing: $450
- Funeral home staff for service: $515
- Hearse: $350
- Service auto/van: $150
- Printed memorial package: $183
Boosted median costs associated with cremation include:
- Cremation fee ($368): This is the typical price if a 3rd party performs the cremation.
- Cremation casket ($ane,310): These caskets are different from those used for burial and typically toll less.
- Urn ($295): The choice of urn or urns is personal, and costs can vary quite a bit depending on the preferences of the deceased or the family.
When you know you lot plan to exist cremated, it'southward a proficient idea to buy cremation insurance. These variants of whole life insurance policies are earmarked to cover cremation expenses. Monthly premiums are often less than $20 depending on age at the time of purchase and the coverage amount.
Average burying price
Ignoring the costs of a funeral, ship, and preparation of the remains, Americans can expect to pay $9,653 simply for a burying. This total includes:
- Metal catafalque ($2,500)
- Cemetery plot (average cost: $3,581)
- Headstone (boilerplate cost: $2,000).
Combined with all funeral expenses, that ways the total cost of burial can easily approach $15,000.
Add in a vault ($one,572), and your costs increase further. In the event one opts for entombment in a mausoleum, the average cost is nearly $iv,000. Private mausoleums can cost many thousands more.
Families might exist surprised at costs this high, which is why it'due south so important to programme ahead. In addition to burial insurance for seniors, exist certain to consider other options that may reduce your expenses or make information technology easier to manage the costs.
For example, many families purchase cemetery plots well in advance or pool resource for a family plot in a section of the cemetery. If you're a veteran, you may also be eligible for a burial allowance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Diplomacy.
To salve on catafalque expenses, consider a dark-green (environmentally friendly) catafalque. These caskets price around $1,500, according to the NFDA. They're made from sustainable woods and aren't treated with chemic agents. Green caskets are simpler and more utilitarian, which keeps costs down.
Price of a visitation or wake
As a part of overall final expenses, wake or visitation expenses tin can be significant.
All of the procedures required for a funeral — service fee, transportation, embalming — are besides necessary for a wake. According to the NFDA, the median cost of facilities and staff for visitation is $450 in 2021. Similarly, the median price of facilities and staff for a funeral is $515.
Most families opt for a wake and a funeral service. The median price of these activities — the same total described to a higher place for funeral and burial expenses — is $7,843. This figure includes all services and items associated with a visitation and a funeral. However, information technology excludes burial-specific costs, such as a vault or headstone.
Median Toll of Funerals & Cremations By State
Funeral and cremation costs vary considerably among states and regions. Below is a breakdown of the median costs of final expenses in dissimilar parts of the U.s.a..
| Region & States | Median Cost of Burial
(with viewing and ceremony) | Median Cost of Cremation
(with viewing and ceremony) |
New England
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont | $vii,881 | $seven,069 |
Middle Atlantic
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania | $viii,093 | $7,463 |
Due south Atlantic
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Due north Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia | $vii,800 | $seven,070 |
Due east South Central
Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee | $seven,271 | $6,314 |
West Southward Central
Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas | $7,334 | $6,405 |
East North Central
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin | $7,868 | $half dozen,953 |
West North Central
Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Southward Dakota, Nebraska | $8,500 | $7,560 |
Mountain
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming | $6,888 | $5,694 |
Pacific
Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington | $seven,225 | $6,028 |
Paying for funeral costs
With the costs of funerals, burials, and cremations beingness then loftier, you may be wondering how you'll pay them. Yous might likewise exist wondering who pays for funeral costs.
While families typically pay for a funeral, burial, or cremation, the funds don't always take to come from their own pockets. Funeral planning tin help alleviate the massive financial brunt for surviving loved ones who confront these unexpected expenses. Here are some of the best means to prepare for last expenses:
- Ready aside cash — Put cash aside specifically to comprehend end-of-life costs. Information technology's vital that this coin is never used for emergencies or any other life upshot. If yous employ it, it won't be in that location to pay your funeral costs. Also, brand sure the deceased is not the only person named as the account holder where the funds are beingness held. That would subject field the funds to the probate process. You can fifty-fifty establish a funeral trust to agree the coin. That will ensure that the money is accessible to pay for funeral expenses.
- Go burying insurance — Purchase burial insurance specifically to cover terminal expenses. These are pocket-sized confront-value whole life policies explicitly designed to cover funeral costs. Burying insurance rates are affordable, policies are available for seniors upwards to age 85, and they accept very lenient underwriting. Some plans really take no underwriting, which means everyone is guaranteed to be canonical.
- Pre-pay at a funeral dwelling house — You can take out a pre-need policy directly at a funeral domicile. It'due south a contract at the funeral habitation of your selection that uses a life insurance policy to fund the funeral where the funeral home is named every bit the policy's beneficiary. Pre-payments are a bang-up option if your goal is to pay off the funeral over a period of fourth dimension. They also allow you lot to document all of your final wishes, so both the funding and planning of the funeral are consummate.
- Sell off avails after death — Liquidate assets to acquire the funds to pay off the funeral bills. This pick really should exist a last resort because assets (property, 401(thousand), investments) must get through the probate process before they are accessible. For that reason, at that place volition be a substantial amount of time between the appointment of expiry and when you'll have the cash in manus to pay for the funeral. However, if all other options are unavailable, this might very well be the simply way to pay off the last expenses.
- Purchase life insurance — All life insurance pays out a tax-gratis cash benefit to whomever you proper noun as the beneficiary. There is no reason this money can't exist used to pay for burial costs. Believe it or non, you tin fifty-fifty purchase baby life insurance if you want to insure your kids. Basically, anyone from age 0-90 tin get life insurance (bold they medically qualify) to cover final expenses.
The key is to think ahead almost how much funeral costs, get specific in your will about your wishes, and fix aside money for the big costs. You lot should also consider pre-paying for some of the more expensive items, like the burial plot, and make sure your family unit knows about your plans ahead of fourth dimension.
Getting Fiscal Help
If yous're struggling with funeral expenses, you're not alone. Many grieving families get hit with a huge financial burden subsequently a loved i passes away. Thankfully, qualifying families can often become financial help from:
- State and local funding: Some states run programs that provide assistance for funerals, burials, and cremations. Check what'south bachelor in your state. You may also find that your city has a program that can help pay for last expenses.
- Medicaid: Low-income families are often eligible for aid from country-run Medicaid programs. Since individual states operate their own programs, y'all'll need to meet what's available in the country where you lot reside. For instance, Michigan'south Medicaid program has a plan that provides $475 for funeral services, $145 for a cemetery, and $100 to offset the cost of a vault. Rhode Island, similarly, pays up to $900 for funeral expenses via its Medicaid program.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): When deaths occur in a federally alleged disaster area, victims are often eligible for burying assistance services.
- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): If your loved one was a veteran, you should be eligible for VA benefits. The current maximum VA burying assart is $2,000.
- Social Security: Surviving spouses or eligible children can receive a one-fourth dimension death payment of $255. Depending on your situation, you may also authorize for survivor's benefits from the Social Security Assistants. These can exist used to help cover last expenses.
FEMA COVID-19 funeral assistance
Following the passage of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Program Act of 2021, FEMA has begun paying funeral expenses for individuals who succumb to COVID-19.
If your loved 1 passed away due to COVID-nineteen after January xx, 2020, you lot must present a death certificate stating the crusade of decease. At nowadays, FEMA COVID-19 aid recipients can receive a maximum of $9,000 per deceased person. The awarding maximum is $35,500.
Tips For Saving On Funeral Costs
Every bit families can await to pay over $15,000 in fees, it's very important to sympathize funeral expenses and know what y'all're buying.
Even basic services can lead to a lot of debt. Here are some unproblematic steps to significantly reduce funeral expenses:
- Ask for the full general toll list — All funeral homes are required by police to show you a general price list upon request. Many funeral homes volition verbally inflate their prices, hoping you hold to them. All the same, they are required to honor the rates shown on their general toll list regardless of what they country verbally. Every price listing will have a separate line entry for each item. It is your right only to purchase the services and appurtenances that yous want.
- Shop around — Call iv to 7 funeral homes to get estimates on the services y'all are interested in.
- Go on your budget a secret — Don't tell the funeral homes how much coin you have to spend. If they ask you what your budget is, merely say, "I'm not certain, just it won't exist much. What'southward the best you tin practice?"
- Consider buying a casket/urn separately — You aren't required to purchase a casket, urn, prayer cards, or flowers directly from the funeral home. All of those items are typically up-charged past the funeral abode, and alternatives tin can be a nifty bargain cheaper. For example, Costco actually sells caskets and urns.
- Don't insist on a viewing — Embalming and trunk preparation are often not required unless the body is not buried within a specific time. Ask about refrigeration.
- Consider a direct cremation/burial — A directly cremation is a simple cremation without a funeral service of whatsoever kind. A directly burial is a burial service that does not include whatever sort of service or funeral ceremony. Either tin cutting thousands from the cost. Some of the cheapest funeral costs are for direct cremation. That could exist followed by an at-abode service. This can be a difficult choice, however, equally many families may not want to host a total service themselves.
Organizations like the Funeral Consumers Alliance besides offer tips and resources for minimizing the costs of funerals, burials, and cremations. See the FCA's detailed overview of your legal rights after a loved i dies to become more than savings tips.
The FCA's four-step funeral planning guide also gives you an piece of cake-to-follow game plan for funerals and burials that don't break the banking concern.
When dealing with funeral homes, always ask for the general price list and double-bank check for changes. Know that a funeral abode cannot strength y'all to brand unnecessary purchases, like caskets with "sealer" or gilded memorial prints.
Use the numbers in this article to help you create a baseline and budget, but remember that prices volition vary a great bargain depending on where you are. Yous can also print this official FTC checklist for funeral expenses and use it as yous price shop or compare your options.
If a funeral dwelling house includes a fee non listed on the official FTC checklist, never exist shy to ask what it is and why it's in that location.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average cost of a funeral in 2021?
Funeral and burial costs without a vault (U.South. median): $seven,843
Funeral and burial costs with a vault (U.Southward. median): $9,420
Flower displays, cemetery plots, headstone costs, obituaries, and other expenses volition add to your full.
What is the average price of a cremation in 2021?
Currently, the median U.Southward. cost of a cremation is $vi,970. That includes all of the typical funeral service fees.
What are reasonable funeral costs?
The answer depends on your land and region. Utilize the FTC checklist for typical funeral expenses. Don't be afraid to question whatsoever funeral dwelling fees that don't appear on that list. Likewise, know that you can store around. Enquire for a full general toll list, and refuse whatever services y'all don't feel are necessary (embalming, for instance, isn't required by law).
See our regional breakup above for more information about costs in unlike areas of the U.S.
What is the cheapest funeral choice?
In well-nigh cases, the least expensive funeral option is a direct cremation and at-habitation service. When you lot become this route, you but incur the costs of cremation and costs associated with having a funeral at your home. Yous avoid the costs of funeral dwelling house services, a catafalque, a vault, and cemetery fees. Yous'll likely salvage thousands this way, but information technology can be a difficult choice. Many grieving families don't want the added brunt of hosting an event.
How do y'all coffin someone with no coin?
Direct cremation is the least expensive option for well-nigh families. If your family qualifies for Medicaid, your state may offer funds to offset end-of-life expenses. You lot may also be eligible for assistance from FEMA, the VA, Social Security, or other state and local programs. See our listing of funeral assistance resources for more information.
What if you can't beget a funeral?
Funerals don't accept to exist expensive. Families choosing direct cremation and at-home funerals can avoid nearly all of the typical expenses associated with funerals and burials. If yous're concerned almost future funeral expenses for yourself or a loved one, await at the current burying insurance rates to find a policy you lot can afford. You might exist surprised at how inexpensive information technology is to maintain a policy that protects your family unit from the high costs of a traditional funeral and burial.
Further resource
- Buying life insurance for seniors over 80
- FTC'south funeral & pricing checklist
- Getting life insurance for a parent
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