How to read a General Price List (GPL)
Every funeral home has to give you a General Price List. It can look like a dense page of line items, but it follows a set pattern. Once you know the pattern, you can use it to see what you're being charged for.
The General Price List is the funeral home’s menu of individual prices. Check the date, find the basic services fee, then find the lines for the arrangement you want. Casket and outer burial container prices are often on separate lists.
What a GPL is
The FTC Funeral Rule requires every funeral home to have a General Price List and to hand you one to keep when you start talking about arrangements, services, or prices in person. It lists each good and service separately, so you can choose only the items you want. The only fee every arrangement includes is the basic services fee, apart from items required by law or by the cemetery or crematory.
A funeral home can also offer packages, but only in addition to the itemized prices. See funeral packages vs. itemized pricing.
The prices every GPL must show
The Funeral Rule lists 16 items that must appear, if the funeral home offers them:
- Basic services of funeral director and staff
- Transfer of remains to the funeral home
- Embalming
- Other preparation of the body
- Use of facilities and staff for viewing
- Facilities and staff for a funeral ceremony
- Facilities and staff for a memorial service
- Equipment and staff for a graveside service
- Hearse
- Limousine
- Direct cremation
- Immediate burial
- Forwarding remains to another funeral home
- Receiving remains from another funeral home
- Caskets (or a note pointing to the casket price list)
- Outer burial containers (or a note pointing to their price list)
A GPL also carries required notices, including that embalming isn’t required by law except in certain cases, and that alternative containers are available for direct cremation.
Cash advance items: costs paid to others
Some costs aren’t the funeral home’s own: death certificates, an obituary, flowers, or an officiant’s honorarium. When the funeral home pays these for you, they’re called cash advance items. They may not appear on the GPL at all, or only as a note. If the funeral home adds a charge for arranging them, it must say so in writing. See what’s included vs. what’s extra.
How to use the GPL to compare
- Choose the arrangement
- Circle the lines it uses
- Add the basic services fee
- Add merchandise and cash advance items
- Do the same on the other GPL
Totals from two funeral homes only compare if they cover the same things. For a full side-by-side method, see how to compare funeral home prices.
If something is unclear
Ask the funeral home to explain the exact line: what it covers, when it applies, and whether it’s required for the arrangement you want. Line names aren’t the same everywhere, so it’s a normal question to ask.
“Can you walk me through which GPL items apply to the arrangement we are considering?”
Reading a GPL: a short checklist
- Check the effective date.
- Find the basic services fee.
- Mark the lines your arrangement uses.
- Ask for the casket and outer burial container price lists, if you need them.
- Ask which cash advance items apply.
- Keep the GPL. It’s yours.
Ready to see how these choices apply to your situation?
Your Wayfinder Plan can help organize the options you’re considering and give you a clearer picture of what to ask and compare.
Build My Wayfinder Plan- GPL contents, the 16 items, required notices, when a GPL must be given, basic services fee, packages, cash advance items: FTC, Complying with the Funeral Rule (updated July 22, 2025).
- Your GPL to keep; casket and container price lists: FTC Funeral Rule (consumer guidance).
The sample list is an illustration. Real GPLs vary in layout and wording. This page is general information, not legal advice.