General Price List Required Items: FTC Funeral Rule Field Guide

Direct answer and scope

The controlled identification fields are the provider identity, the title General Price List, and the effective date. Record each independently. A visible date should not be used as a substitute for the title or identity, and a completed heading does not establish licensure, ownership, current service availability, or overall document completeness.

The principal disclosure check covers the consumer’s ability to select only the goods and services wanted, subject to the basic-services fee and anything required by law or by a cemetery or crematory. The document can be checked for that federal disclosure, but the disclosure itself does not establish that a particular item is required. That determination depends on current written authority and the facts of the arrangement.

The GPL also carries the prescribed embalming disclosure, which explains that embalming is not required by law except in certain special cases. Its presence is a document field, not a determination about medical need, public-health requirements, suitability for viewing, or preservation. When direct cremation is offered, the GPL must also include the Funeral Rule disclosure that alternative containers are available for direct cremation. That field remains conditional because the document alone should not be used to infer whether the provider currently offers direct cremation.

The basic-services entry has two components to check separately: the prescribed disclosure concerning the non-declinable basic-services fee and the listed price for that fee. A differently named charge or a package amount should not be reclassified or allocated without additional authoritative information. The field review therefore records what the current document says without deciding whether a particular billing practice meets the Rule.

How to use the official evidence

Use the current Federal Trade Commission rule and guidance to identify the federal field categories, then compare them with the exact current GPL. Preserve the wording, location, and applicability of each field rather than treating a package heading as proof that every underlying category appears. A document-level review should distinguish what is printed from what would require facts about an individual arrangement.

Check the core service categories independently: basic services of the funeral director and staff, transfer of remains, embalming, and other preparation of the body. Their appearance on a GPL does not show that any service was selected, performed, legally required, or separately charged in a particular case. The task is to identify the categories and their listed information, not to reconstruct an arrangement.

Check four event-related categories as distinct rows: facilities and staff for viewing, facilities and staff for a funeral ceremony, facilities and staff for a memorial service, and equipment and staff for a graveside service. Do not combine them under a general ceremony or facilities label. Their listing does not establish facility availability, staffing, suitability for a proposed event, religious accommodation, or inclusion in a package.

Transportation and merchandise require separate checks. FTC guidance identifies hearse and limousine prices, along with casket and outer-burial-container price information, among the GPL fields. Record the transportation rows without assuming that transportation was selected. For merchandise, determine whether prices appear on the GPL or whether the Funeral Rule calls for a separate written price list at the applicable point.

Decision framework

First, confirm that the document being examined is the current GPL and capture its provider identity, title, and effective date as three separate fields. Next, locate the right-of-selection, embalming, and basic-services-fee disclosures. For the basic-services fee, separately record whether the disclosure appears and whether a price is listed. If direct cremation is offered, add the alternative-container disclosure to the applicable-field check.

Then move through the service rows without using one row to answer for another. Review basic services of funeral director and staff, transfer of remains, embalming, other preparation of the body, viewing, funeral ceremony, memorial service, graveside service, hearse, and limousine. The review should preserve the labels and amounts shown without deciding what was purchased, performed, bundled, or required.

Evaluate forwarding remains, receiving remains, direct cremation, and immediate burial as conditional disposition categories. Confirm the provider’s offerings and the exact current document before recording one of these categories as absent. An unanswered or unclear field should remain unresolved rather than being converted into a finding that the category applies or does not apply.

Finish with the merchandise pathway. For caskets, determine whether individual prices are on the GPL. If they are not, ask whether a written Casket Price List was offered before caskets or their prices were shown or discussed. For outer burial containers, determine whether prices are on the GPL; if not, check for the separate written Outer Burial Container Price List before those containers or their prices were shown. These checks address document location and timing, not inventory, selection, or whether a container is required.

Limits and what to verify next

A federal GPL field review is limited to the supplied FTC requirements and guidance. It should not resolve licensing, ownership, service availability, medical or public-health questions, cemetery policies, crematory acceptance standards, or state-specific obligations. Current written sources from the relevant authority are needed for those separate questions.

When the right-of-selection disclosure refers to requirements imposed by law, a cemetery, or a crematory, verify any claimed requirement against current written authority and the facts of the arrangement. Likewise, the alternative-container disclosure should not be expanded into a conclusion about a provider’s container standards or the rules of a particular jurisdiction.

Outer burial container treatment needs particular care. The federal merchandise-list check does not establish that federal or state law requires such a container. A cemetery may have its own current requirement, which should be verified directly in current written materials. For every conditional category, retain an unresolved status until applicability and the current document are confirmed.

Readers seeking a determination about a specific transaction should compare the exact documents and arrangement facts with current official guidance and obtain appropriate regulator or legal guidance when needed. The field map identifies what to inspect under the federal guidance; it does not decide a dispute or supply conclusions about a provider’s conduct.

Evidence behind this page

Each point below is restricted to what the cited primary source supports. Administrative listing status is not a quality endorsement.