Service Corporation International, the company behind the Dignity Memorial network of funeral homes and cemeteries, told investors in October that rising costs will show up in what families pay.
Some of the company’s rising costs are inflationary, and CEO Tom Ryan said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call, “We’re probably going to have to pass some of those along to the consumer.”
The company is already collecting more per funeral. Ryan said core average revenue per service rose 2.8% in the quarter, even as more families chose cremation. He described the company’s approach as pricing “in kind of waves throughout the year.”
A funeral is one of the few large purchases most families make under time pressure, often within days. Federal rules give buyers more control over that bill than many use.
1. Call for prices before you need them
Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, funeral homes must give price information over the phone if you ask, and they cannot require your name, address or phone number first. Visit in person, and you are entitled to an itemized general price list to take home.
Calling two or three homes in the same area takes an afternoon. Doing it while no one is ill turns a rushed decision into a comparison.
2. Buy the pieces, not the package
The same rule lets you buy individual goods and services instead of a bundle. A funeral home cannot refuse a casket or urn you bought somewhere else, and it cannot charge a fee to handle one.
Before you pay, the home must give you a written statement listing each item, its price and the total, along with any cemetery or crematory requirement that obligates you to buy something specific.
No state law requires routine embalming for every death, according to the FTC, and refrigeration is usually an acceptable alternative.
3. Price cremation against burial
Cremation is now the majority choice. The National Funeral Directors Association projected a U.S. cremation rate of 63.4% for 2025, compared with 31.6% for burial. In the association’s most recent price survey, the median funeral with viewing and burial cost $8,300 in 2023, while a funeral with viewing and cremation cost $6,280.
Skipping the viewing, or choosing direct cremation with a memorial service later, can trim the bill further. Ask for each option on the price list side by side.
No law requires a casket for cremation, and providers that offer it must tell you about alternative containers.
4. If you prepay, ask where the money goes
Prepaid funeral sales are growing at SCI. Ryan said the company is seeing “mid to high single-digit sales production growth” in its funeral and cemetery preneed businesses, along with “higher down payments” and fewer buyers financing.
Locking in arrangements can spare relatives decisions later, but state law governs prepaying, and the FTC notes that protections vary widely from state to state. Before signing, the agency suggests asking:
- Are you buying merchandise only, or services too?
- Where is the money held, and who keeps any interest?
- What happens if the funeral home goes out of business?
- Can you cancel for a full refund?
- Can the plan move with you, and at what cost?
You can also decide everything in advance without paying for it. Put your choices in writing and tell family where to find them, along with any prepaid contract, so no one pays for the same arrangements twice.
Making sure a bank account names a beneficiary is one way to leave money for final expenses that does not wait on probate.
5. Claim every benefit owed
If you’re a veteran, it is a good idea to check what is already earned. Eligible veterans can be buried in a VA national cemetery with the gravesite, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care and a government headstone or marker at no cost to the family.
Eligible spouses may be buried there too, even if they die first, and families can ask the VA for an eligibility decision ahead of time.
For a veteran whose death is not service-connected and occurs on or after Oct. 1, 2026, the VA’s burial and plot allowances are $1,032 each for those who qualify. The burial allowance for service-connected deaths since Sept. 11, 2001, is $2,000.
Social Security also pays a one-time death benefit, though the $255 payment has not changed since 1954. Life insurance a spouse forgot about can matter more, and nearly $17 billion in unclaimed life insurance is waiting to be found.
The price list is the leverage
Service Corporation International prices in waves, and its CEO has said more increases are likely. A general price list collected now, and a written plan the family can find, can do more to control the eventual bill than anything decided in the days after a death.
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