Corrections & accuracy
How we stay honest.
We help families at the worst moment of their lives, and the only thing we have is their trust. So we hold ourselves to a standard most price tools don’t: we’d rather under-claim than over-claim, we publish our corrections in the open, and we take no money from funeral homes or insurers — ever.
- Conservative by design. The “above fair” figure only ever reflects charges priced above the fair range. Anything we can’t benchmark is left at face value — it never inflates the number.
- We under-claim.We call something a likely FTC violation only when the price list itself proves it. Otherwise we say “worth confirming.” A false accusation is worse than a miss.
- We show our work. Every fair-price range and each of the 27 FTC checks is documented, sourced, and dated on our methodology page.
- We say when we’re unsure. If we couldn’t read your whole bill, or a charge isn’t in our reference set, the result tells you — rather than presenting an estimate as the last word.
What we’ve corrected
We verify our own work continuously and fix it in the open. Recent changes:
- June 2026Made the “above fair” total strictly conservative
We rebuilt the headline figure so it only ever reflects line items priced above the fair range. Selection merchandise you can buy anywhere (caskets, urns, vaults), fixed government fees, and charges we don't yet benchmark never inflate it. The number on screen now always equals the sum of the per-item amounts you can see in the table.
- June 2026Tightened how we flag possible FTC issues
We only call something a likely Funeral Rule violation when the price list itself shows it — for example, a funeral home's own text claiming an item is “required by law.” When we can't prove it from the page you shared, we say “worth confirming,” not “violation.” We would rather miss a real issue than accuse a funeral home of one we can't see.
- June 2026Documented every fair-price source
We expanded our benchmarks to 30 common charges using published industry survey medians and real funeral-home price lists, and we cite each source on our methodology page. Where the public data was thin, we left the item out rather than publish a number we couldn't defend.
- June 2026Added a coverage check
If we read a photo and couldn't make out every line, the result now tells you so — instead of presenting a total as complete when it was built from part of the bill. Anything we can't read or benchmark is left at face value and never counted against the funeral home.
The honest limits
Our fair-price ranges are national benchmarks adjusted for your region — an informational estimate, not an appraisal of any specific funeral home, and not legal or financial advice. They aren’t yet validated against local price lists in every metro, and where they aren’t, the result says so. Use the checker to ask better questions, not as the final word. The full method and its limits are on the methodology page.
Found something wrong?
If you think a fair-price range, an FTC flag, or anything else on the checker is off, tell us — we’ll look into it and correct it here if you’re right. Accuracy is the whole point, and you catching our mistakes makes the tool better for the next family. Email corrections@honestfuneral.co.