Every two years the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts (FCAWM) conducts a project to gather price information from local funeral homes and share the information with the public.
On January 11, 2024, our Price Comparison study committee met and prepared a letter requesting the General Price List (GPL) from all 84 funeral homes located in western Massachusetts. The GPL is a document that federal law requires them to provide to customers. The letter was sent on January 26, 2024 with a requested deadline of March 1. A stamped returned envelope was provided to help busy business owners promptly comply. Our committee then reached out to non-responders by phone, email and/or in-person visits. We collected GPLs from 79 funeral homes, with a response rate of 94%. The response rate in 2022 was 81%; in 2020, it was 65%.
Prior to posting results, the data was revalidated against the supplied GPL for accuracy. A link to a PDF copy of the full GPL is available in the report to enable viewing other services available but not shown in our table.
Results reveal significant variation in price for the same service definition. It pays to shop around!
For example, “Immediate Burial” prices range from $1,750 to $5,760.
The range for “Direct Cremation” is $1,185 to $5,295, which may or may not include the crematory or Medical Examinator’s fees. In our table we note whether these extra fees are included in their quoted price.
To estimate the cost of a full funeral you would begin with the “Basic Services Fee,” which ranges from a low of $1,750 to a high of $5,760, and add the cost of any goods or services that you wish the funeral home to provide (e.g., embalming, casket, visiting hours, a funeral ceremony).
If you obtain a General Price List from a funeral home that did not reply to our survey, please forward a copy to us so we may add it.
A complete directory of the funeral homes, with addresses and links to their websites, is available on our website.