Local Laws & Resources
Nation-wide Regulation
The FTC offer a series of articles on advice in dealing with funeral homes, including selecting a provider, shopping, filing a complaint.
Only FUNERAL HOMES are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under The Funeral Rule.
CEMETERIES and CREMATORIES might be slightly impacted by the FTC’s rules, but they are mostly regulated by each state, if at all.
State Laws & Local Resources
States Vary in the Rights you are Permitted
A small handful of states REQUIRE that a funeral director be involved: Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New York.
Most other state regulations, if they exist at all, involve embalming and/or the handling of bodies that had a communicable disease.
Each state includes links to and information on:
- Nolo's page for Home Funeral Laws
- Nolo's page for Burial and Cremation Laws
- Nolo's page for Avoiding Probate Laws
- State laws not on Nolo's site
- State agencies governing the death care industry
- Green Burial Council's page with the Interactive Map of Providers
- National End-of-Life Doula Alliance's Directory
- National Home Funeral Alliance's Directory
- State-specific forms, such as death certificates and burial permits
- Organ & Tissue Donation state rules