Skip to content
Menu

PDF guide · 2026 edition

Arranging a Funeral, a PDF workbook for the family

Cover of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"

$2925-page PDF guide · taxes included

Get my PDF guide · $29By paying, you accept the Terms.

The four TributePen guides, $69 (the 4 separately: $106)

One-time payment by Stripe · Apple Pay · Google Pay · PDF to download right away, link also emailed

Instant access right after payment.

  • Secure paymenton Stripe
  • PDF right awaylink also emailed
  • Full refundwithin 14 days
You receive
A 25-page PDF guide: 3 letters and scripts to adapt, 8 tables and worksheets, 32 checkboxes.
Format
US Letter PDF to read on screen or print at home, clickable table of contents, sources listed at the end.
Price
$29, one-time payment, taxes included · refund on request within 14 days.
Delivery
Download right after payment, and the link by email to come back to it.
For
The family arranging a funeral in the coming days, and anyone planning their own funeral, or a parent's, in advance.

The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule gives families real rights, but few people know them before the arrangement meeting. This workbook puts them in plain words, walks through the price list line by line, and gives you the questions to ask and a sheet to compare two funeral homes side by side.

Cover of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"
The real cover of the guide (25 pages)
  • 25pages
  • 3letters and scripts to adapt
  • 8tables and worksheets
  • 32checkboxes

How we check

Verified, page by page

  • 108automatic checks run on the site before every update
  • 14official .gov pages read and cited, on October 22, 2026

Reviewed by industry professionals.

  1. Primary sourcesThis guide is built from the guidance of the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, the Office for Victims of Crime and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  2. Every fact has its sourceEach guide lists the pages it relies on, with links, so you can check any point yourself.
  3. DatedSources read on October 22, 2026; each page shows when it was last updated.

What you will be able to do

  • Know your rights in ten minutes: prices by phone without giving your name, the written price list, buying only what you want, your own casket or urn with no fee.
  • Read the General Price List line by line: the 16 items it must show, the one fee you cannot decline, cash advance items and packages.
  • Know who pays and how to spend less: prepaid plans, life insurance, the estate, the VA allowance, crime victim compensation, and the FTC's own ways to keep the cost down.
  • Choose between burial, cremation and the options in between, with the questions that decide it.
  • Recognize what is never required, and ask the one question that settles it: "Is that required by law, by the cemetery, or by you?"
  • Handle the cemetery, the obituary and the veterans benefits: flag, honors, national cemetery, headstone.
  • Arrive prepared: a comparison sheet, twenty questions for the meeting, a checklist, and a letter to ask for a corrected statement if needed.

Who it is for, and who it is not for

For you if you want to make decisions calmly, at a fair price, and feel sure you are not paying for something you did not choose.

Not for you if you are looking for a list of funeral homes near you: for that, see our page on finding a professional.

What makes it different

The FTC's consumer pages are the authority, and this guide quotes them; but they are articles, not a workbook. Guides published by sellers rarely put the price list and the comparison sheet at the center. This one does, with an invented family's walk-through of a typical arrangement meeting.

The complete table of contents

The real table of contents of the guide, with its page numbers.

  1. Your rights in ten minutesp. 5The rights that matter most · Why it is worth knowing
  2. Before the arrangement meetingp. 7Who decides · Paying for it, and spending less · Look for what already exists · Calling two funeral homes · What to bring to the meeting · What the meeting looks like: a walk-through
  3. The price list, line by linep. 10The basic services fee · Cash advance items · Packages
  4. Burial, cremation and everything in betweenp. 12The main options · Questions that decide between them · Embalming, viewing and refrigeration
  5. What is never requiredp. 14
  6. The cemetery and the memorialp. 15If there will be no burial
  7. Veteransp. 16
  8. The service itselfp. 17Choosing the kind of gathering · A typical order of service · The obituary and the death notice · The decisions sheet
  9. Planning ahead and prepayingp. 19Deciding without paying · If you prepay, ask these questions first · Tell the family where the plan is
  10. Worksheets to printp. 20Comparison sheet: two funeral homes · Checklist for the arrangement meeting · Twenty questions for the arrangement meeting · Notes from the meeting
  11. If something goes wrongp. 23
  12. Sourcesp. 24

A look inside: real pages of the guide

Page 10 of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"
Page 10 of the guide, exactly as you will receive it.
Page 14 of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"
Page 14 of the guide, exactly as you will receive it.
Page 20 of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"
Page 20 of the guide, exactly as you will receive it.

In pictures

White lilies and carnations in a funeral arrangement
White lilies and carnations in a funeral arrangement. Photo: sridgway, CC BY 2.0
Old headstones under autumn trees in a quiet cemetery
Old headstones under autumn trees in a quiet cemetery. Photo: Muffet, CC BY 2.0
A white wooden church and its churchyard in a green valley
A white wooden church and its churchyard in a green valley. Photo: Tom Skarbek-Wazynski, CC0 1.0

Illustrative photos, published by their authors under free licences.

Cover of the PDF guide "Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision"
Arranging a Funeral: Your Rights, the Prices, Every Decision
$29

The workbook to take to the funeral home: your rights under the FTC Funeral Rule, how to read and compare General Price Lists, burial, cremation and their options, what is never required, veterans honors, the questions to ask and a side-by-side comparison sheet.

Get my PDF guide · $29By paying, you accept the Terms.

One-time payment by Stripe · Apple Pay · Google Pay · PDF to download right away, link also emailed

Full refund within 14 days, no reason needed · refund policy

Secure payment by Stripe · Apple Pay · Google Pay · no account, no subscription · Questions? Email us

  • Secure payment on StripeCard or Apple Pay on Stripe's secure page. Your card number never reaches our servers.
  • One price, taxes includedA one-time payment. No account to create, no subscription.
  • Yours right after paymentDownload the PDF at once; the link is also emailed to you, and Find my purchases sends it again.
  • Full refund within 14 daysWrite to us within 14 days of your purchase and we refund you in full, no reason needed (see the refund policy).

Common questions

Does the guide tell me which funeral home to choose?

No. It recommends no funeral home, cemetery or product. It shows you how to compare two of them on the same items, with the FTC's own checklist categories.

Does it give prices?

It gives no local prices, which vary too much. The only figures are the national medians published by the funeral directors' association for 2023 ($8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial, $6,280 with cremation), which exclude cemetery costs, and the guide says so.

Is embalming required?

Not routinely. According to the FTC, no state law requires routine embalming for every death; some states require embalming or refrigeration after a certain time. The guide explains the options, including a private family viewing.

I am planning my own funeral. Is it useful?

Yes. A chapter covers planning ahead without paying ahead, the six questions to ask before prepaying, and where to keep your wishes so your family finds them.

Sources cited in the guide

Related guides

$29Full refund within 14 daysGet my PDF guide · $29By paying, you accept the Terms.