If you've ever arranged a funeral, you were legally entitled to a document that itemizes every good and service the funeral home offers, with individual prices, before you committed to anything.
Did you get one?
If you're not sure, you probably didn't. And you're not alone.
The General Price List, or GPL, is the centerpiece of the FTC Funeral Rule. It is the single most important consumer document in funeral service. It is the mechanism through which every other protection in the Rule functions. Without it, your right to choose, your right to compare, and your right to decline are theoretical.
And yet, the majority of American families who arrange funerals never see one until they're already sitting in the arrangement room, making decisions under emotional and time pressure, with a professional guiding them through options they've never evaluated before.
What the GPL Is
The General Price List is a written document that every funeral provider in the United States is required to maintain. It must list, individually and with specific prices, every good and service the provider offers to the public. Not ranges. Not estimates. Not "starting at" figures. Specific prices.
The Rule requires that the GPL include several categories of information. First, the provider must list the basic services fee, which is the only non-declinable charge. This fee covers the funeral home's overhead: staff, facilities, and the coordination that happens regardless of what services a family selects. The Rule permits providers to charge this fee to every customer, and it must be clearly described on the GPL.
Beyond the basic services fee, the GPL must itemize the cost of each optional service: embalming, use of facilities for viewing, use of facilities for a ceremony, a hearse, a service vehicle, graveside services, and any other services the provider offers. Each one gets its own line and its own price.
The GPL must also include the provider's prices for direct cremation and immediate burial, which are the two simplest disposition options. For direct cremation, the provider must show the price in three forms: the total with a casket provided by the provider, the total with a container provided by the provider (an alternative container, which is a simple, unfinished box), and the total when the customer provides their own container. This distinction matters more than most families realize, and we'll return to it in Part 5.
Finally, the GPL must include a statement informing consumers that they have the right to select only the goods and services they want, with certain exceptions that the provider must explain.
When You Must Receive It
The Funeral Rule is specific about timing. A funeral provider must give you the GPL at the beginning of any in-person discussion of funeral arrangements, the prices of goods and services, or the type of funeral or disposition you're considering. You don't have to ask for it. The provider is required to offer it.
That word "offer" is important. The Rule says the provider must "furnish" the GPL. In practice, that means physically hand it to you or make it available for you to keep. It is not sufficient for a provider to read prices aloud from a list they hold, or to show you a binder you can look at but not take with you. The GPL must be given to you, and you are entitled to take it home.
If you're calling on the phone rather than visiting in person, the provider must give you price information over the phone for any items you ask about. They don't have to read the entire GPL, but they must answer your specific pricing questions accurately. The FTC's 2024 telephone pricing sweep found that a meaningful number of providers did not comply with this requirement, with some failing to provide pricing information at all and others quoting different prices on different calls for the same services.
What Most Families Don't Know
Here's the gap between what the Rule requires and what actually happens.
The GPL is designed to be a comparison tool. The idea is that a family can collect GPLs from two or three funeral homes, lay them side by side, and see exactly what each provider charges for the same services. In theory, this creates the same kind of competitive transparency that exists when you get quotes from contractors or compare car insurance.
In practice, several things work against this.
First, most families don't know the GPL exists. Nothing in the consumer's daily experience prepares them for the idea that funeral pricing is itemized and that they have a right to see it. By the time a death occurs, families are operating under time pressure and emotional weight. They typically contact one funeral home, the one they've heard of or the one a hospital recommends, and begin the arrangement process. The GPL arrives during that conversation, not before it.
Second, the Rule does not require providers to post their GPL online. This has been the single most debated issue in every review cycle since the FTC began considering updates to the Rule. In 2022, the FTC's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking specifically asked whether online price posting should become mandatory. As of this writing, no such requirement has been adopted. A family that wants to compare prices before visiting a funeral home can call and ask, but they cannot, in most cases, find the information on a website.
Third, GPLs are not standardized in format. The Rule specifies what information must be included, but not how it must be organized or presented. Two GPLs from two different funeral homes may list the same services under different names, group charges differently, or present package options alongside itemized pricing in ways that make direct comparison difficult. This is not necessarily intentional, but the effect is the same: comparison shopping requires more effort than most grieving families can reasonably invest.
What to Look For
If you're a family reading this, here's what matters when you have a GPL in hand.
Look at the basic services fee first. This is the floor. You will pay this regardless of what else you choose. It typically ranges from $1,500 to $3,500, though it can be higher. This fee varies significantly between providers, and it is the single largest variable in the total cost of a funeral.
Look at embalming. The GPL must include a disclosure that embalming is not required by law in most cases, and that you have the right to choose an alternative. If the GPL does not include this disclosure, the provider is not in compliance with the Rule.
Look at the direct cremation line. If cremation is what you're considering, the price for direct cremation with an alternative container is the number that matters most. This is the functional minimum cost for cremation through that provider. Compare this number across providers.
Look at what's not on the GPL. Cemeteries, for instance, are generally not covered by the Funeral Rule (we'll cover this in Part 8). Cemetery costs, monument costs, and many third-party fees are separate from the GPL. The total cost of a funeral extends well beyond what the GPL shows.
If You're a Funeral Professional
You already know all of this. But it's worth considering how the GPL looks from the other side of the arrangement table.
The families sitting across from you have, in most cases, never seen a GPL before. They don't know what a basic services fee is. They don't know the difference between a casket price list and a GPL. They are making a five-figure purchasing decision in an emotional state that would disqualify them from signing most other contracts.
The GPL is your opportunity to demonstrate that your pricing is transparent and that your recommendations are honest. The providers who benefit most from the Rule are the ones who use it proactively: who hand the GPL to the family early, walk them through it, and make clear that the family has choices.
The providers who are harmed by the Rule's current limitations are the honest ones competing against providers who make comparison difficult. A stronger, clearer, more accessible GPL standard would benefit ethical providers and the families they serve.
What Comes Next
In Part 3, we'll look at what happens after the GPL is in your hands: the right to choose only what you want, the non-declinable basic services fee, and what unbundling actually means in practice.