Pricing funerary services is notoriously difficult since the overwhelming majority of providers refuse to disclose rates online with only 1 in 5 providers showing the cost via the internet. Unfortunately, cremation is no different even though the process has grown drastically in popularity over the last 20 years with the service expected to eclipse burials and represent the preponderance of funerals by 2018. This is due, in no small part, to the lower cost associated with cremation and the ease with which memorials for the dead can be held at locations other than a funeral home. However, pricing the service is extremely difficult in many locals since the federal law that dictates how prices are disclosed being from 1994 and did not contemplate the internet when it was passed. As a result, the bereaved must call, or more often go in person, in order to get a price quote which allows a vast disparity in price to exist even in the same city. New York City is the most striking example with the top known price being nearly $10,000 more than the lowest. But change might be on the horizon as individual states take action to require greater transparency in pricing which will be of great assistance to those that are grieving and trying to plan a funeral.
See, How Much Does A Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call, Priceonomics, January 27, 2016.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
