NHFA's 2023 US Funeral Consumer Survey concluded in September 2023. Over three hundred respondents participated from across the United States.

In summary -- NHFA found that cost does matter to funeral consumers in the United States. The majority of funeral consumers in our survey indicated that the cost of a funeral posed a substantial burden, and a majority of consumers surveyed indicated that if prices were available online, they would do price comparisons to find the best affordable options. A majority of consumers surveyed also preferred price transparency, stating a strong preference that the costs of funeral products and services be made available online.

Our findings are in contrast to claims made by the National Funeral Directors Association that cost "doesn't matter" for most US funeral consumers, a response to the FTC proposal to make funeral prices more transparent and require that they be made available online.

Here is a breakdown of our findings.

Our respondents were fairly evenly distributed across large cities (27%), moderate cities (29%), small cities (23%), and rural areas (21%).

The majority of our respondents were between the ages of 25 and 64 (85%), with about 15% of our respondents under 25 or 65 and older.

55% of our respondents had personally planned a funeral; 38% of our respondents knew someone who had planned a funeral.

82% of our respondents indicated that the median cost of a funeral* would significantly impact their ability to afford what they needed, with 49% responding that they would need to use credit or crowdfunding to afford the cost of a funeral.

79% of our respondents stated that they have either personally have had trouble covering the cost of a funeral, or that they know someone who has.

When asked "If you had to cover the cost of a funeral this month," 53% stated that "cost would be a significant factor;" 34% stated that cost would factor "a lot" or a "moderate amount."

62% of respondents indicated that the very first thing they would do, if they had to plan a funeral, would be to look at funeral products and prices online (if they were available). 29% ranked "looking at funeral products and prices online" as their second and third preferred steps in funeral planning. 76% of respondents ranked "making an in-person appointment" as their very last or second-to-last action step in their preferred order, despite NFDA's claims that requiring consumers to come in for consultation without prior access to information mirrors what most consumers want.

See a selection of free text responses following the links below. 

*According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost of a funeral in 2021 was $7,848.00.

Link to graphs and free text responses.

Selected Free Text Responses

• "My mom died recently and we did not have a funeral for her for a couple reasons, but one being cost."
• "I don't just know one person who has been financially burdened by a funeral. Almost everyone I know who has gone through the process of arranging a funeral has gone into debt doing it."
• "The grief-stricken shouldn't have to parade their pain on GoFundMe or organize a fish fry."
• "We are working on my moms funeral at the moment. I’m shocked at how much each line items costs."
• "I am a clergy person, and I regularly see people spending at least the average you noted in the survey. I serve in a suburban parish where people are generally well-off, and/or well-insured, but I know that many people do struggle to cover funeral costs."
• "I have had family members die suddenly, and had to scrape together funds to pay for the funeral, which adds to the traumatic experience of losing a loved one."
• "I am clergy and have done a few funerals for free to help with expenses."
• "Options should be clearer for non-embalming / burial / cremation options."
• "Most people I know don't want to be buried due to financial burden."
• "I’m a pastor and I have had more people in the last two years come to me asking for help to have a funeral at my church because the cost was too much."
• "My family is still paying for a funeral of someone who died 18 years ago."
• " I worry that my mother-in-law will use all of her assets to pay for nursing home care. I don’t know how we will pay for her funeral & burial."
• "There are so many unexpected or hidden costs, things you have no idea about. Education about funerals and their costs, plus other options, is poor."
• "Having worked near the medical examiner's side of things, I know funeral costs are a huge and growing issue for those needing to claim their loved ones. Increasingly, people are not claiming the bodies as costs go up, leaving the state to take care of the deceased."
• "Needs to be more help for low income . Right now if you don't have the money you either have no services and still have the expense of the buried or you go in debt with a loan that you really can't afford . More people don't than do have insurance because that's expensive also."
• "I feel that fees are not transparent and are not available online in most cases. In our rural area, folks are not aware of their options and the legalities relating to funerals. Most are paying high $ for services they believe are required by law (embalming, fancy casket, vault)."
• "It's so expensive! and I don't know how people figure out how much something costs. When I had to plan a funeral, i just went to the closest funeral home. i was shocked by how expensive everything was, but by the time I got the price it felt too late to try to go somewhere cheaper."
• "Being able to look at prices online before I call a professional is imperative. I'm not going to call professionals to help me with services before I know what I'm expected to pay them, what they can offer me for that cost, etc. I won't talk details BEFORE I know price."
• "I fully expect to be a financial burden when I die."
• "There was trouble in both my parents funerals financially. There was no help, the decisions are made so fast, and no one is prepared for a death. It was a brutal decision."
• " I’m an estate planning attorney but am seeing more people forego a funeral and tell their family they don’t want one."
• "I’m very anxious about having to plan funerals for aging parents. None of us has the money to pay for a funeral."
• "I work in hospice and I would love more resources for people planning funerals. And for myself!"
• "I have had to plan multiple funerals for friends & family in the past couple years. Neither I, nor my friends families could afford the cost. Our loved ones were cremated without a wake or viewing & a celebration of life was planned afterwards. My father was also cremated, but his actual funeral service & burial was only possible because he was a veteran."
• "Also, I wanted information from a funeral home and now they won't stop hounding me for pre-planning services. The guilt and cost of funerals is ridiculous."
• "Be aware that most of my generation feels like we may as well be buried in the woods, because we and those surviving us cannot possibly afford things like the older generations, due to the state of the economy."
• "I have price shopped, or tried to price shop many times in the past both after person deaths, and on behalf of others I'm supporting. If a funeral home doesn't have their GPL online I move along, assuming we are in a big city and there are other options. In a small town, I often have to call the funeral home, and I have had a funeral home unwilling to even email a copy of their price list to us."

The NHFA has been Advocating for Home Funerals at the FTC Workshop in Washington DC 

This past Thursday, the National Home Funeral Alliance Board President Isabel Knight was advocating for funeral consumers, including home funeral families and individuals, at a workshop the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was holding regarding updating the Funeral Rule in Washington DC.

Isabel served on 2 of the 5 panels during the day, which covered how the FTC should require funeral homes to post prices if the FTC mandates that funeral homes post prices online, and revisions to the general price list, such as whether or not the embalming disclosure should be re-written. 

The NHFA advocated for funeral homes posting clear pricing pages from the topline navigation of their websites, as well as ensuring that funeral homes do not try to get around the legislation by hiding their pricing pages from Google search results. We also advocated for more disclosures so that people who are shopping for funeral prices can understand their rights under the funeral rule, as well as their right to a home funeral in every state.

You can view a recording of the workshop here.

Some useful timestamps:

• 15:20 A panel of 4 industry representatives and one consumer representative answer the question of whether they think funeral homes should be required to post prices online and why
• 1:47:10 Beginning of the first panel that the NHFA served on, regarding Practical Considerations for Online Disclosures
• 3:48:50 Beginning of the second panel the NHFA served on, regarding General Price List Updates

Link to a news piece on the issue.

Vote to see Community Deathcare Panels at SXSW 2024!
See links to vote below.

NHFA Board Member Isabel Knight & former Board Member Lashanna Williams are pitching two panels on community deathcare for the 2024 South by Southwest Conference. Your input during the Community Voting Period (until 8/20) can help make these panels a reality!

PANEL #1: ARE YOU AFRAID TO DIE ALONE? WHY WE NEED COMMUNITY DEATHCARE
Join us, a group of nonprofit leaders whose organizations are championing community deathcare as we talk about why deathcare is inherently a community-driven project. You cannot have a good death without a community, and the heroic, difficult, often thankless act of building that community is something that itself will help you live a longer, richer life. You simply can’t lift a body, wash and shroud a body, or dig a grave by yourself. The future we want to see is one where people die when they want to, where they want to, and how they want to. You are an integral part of making that happen.

With:
Isabel Knight, President, National Home Funeral Alliance
Sarit Wishnevski, Executive Director, Kavod v'Nichum
Lashanna Williams, Executive Director, A Sacred Passing
Emily Miller, Board Member, Green Burial Council

Vote for "Are You Afraid to Die Alone?" at SXSW 2024 here.

PANEL #2: ALIX IN FUNERALLAND: OVERCOMING IMPOSSIBLE DEATHCARE THINGS
Inspired by the nonsensical world of Alice in Wonderland, we identify “impossible” challenges experienced with deathcare, suggesting ways to overcome them, individually and collectively. Included: The Rabbit Hole (pressure for getting it right and doing enough), The White Rabbit (white western world social expectations for death and funerals), The Cheshire Cat (grief which comes and goes forcefully, without warning), The Queen of Hearts (marginalization of experiences from personal and professional structures), and a sequel, The Jabberwocky (a fearsome life that remains).

With:
Bonnie Bizzell, Owner & Guide, BOANN
Ashley Johnson, Founder, Death Doula, Loyal Hands
Lashanna Williams, Executive Director, A Sacred Passing
Sara Williams, President, Funeral Consumers Alliance North Carolina

Vote for “Alix in FuneralLand” at SXSW 2024 here.

Join NHFA at the FUNERAL RULE WORKSHOP with the Federal Trade Commission! September 7, 2023 at 9:30am. Washington, DC. In-person, virtual, or submit a public comment!

Let the FTC know that we want transparent funeral pricing for all – nobody should have to jump through hoops to understand funeral pricing, especially when they are grieving. 

The FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, is the governing body that regulates the funeral industry. They have one regulation called the Funeral Rule that determines what funeral homes can and cannot do.

This past November, they put out an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, basically letting the public know that they are considering amending the Funeral Rule and asking the public to comment on the changes to the Funeral Rule that they would like to see. This is a very rare occurrence since the FTC governs so many different industries.

Now they are having a free workshop in DC on September 7th to cover topics such as:

• Online or electronic disclosures of price information
• New forms of disposition of human remains
• The General Price List mandated by the rule
• The disclosures required by the rule, including the embalming disclosure;
• Whether third-party crematory fees and other third party fees should be disclosed in the general price list; and
• Whether funeral providers should be required or permitted to give out General Price Lists in languages other than English in certain circumstances.

Pro-consumer advocates aren’t asking for cumbersome, onerous, or costly accommodations, and they aren’t even asking for funeral homes to lower their prices: we are simply asking for funeral homes to post their prices online to make it easy and convenient for grieving people who are likely going through some of the worst times in their lives.

You can submit comments directly to the FTC by October 10, 2023. Link to submit comments here.

Special thanks to @thedeathdesigner on Instagram for this content.