The family takes care of the body. It’s legal in most states.
A home funeral — sometimes called a family-led funeral or family-directed funeral — is when the family handles the body themselves: washing, dressing, holding a vigil at home, and arranging transport to the place of cremation, burial, or donation. It is the way every family handled death until the late 1800s, and it is legal in 42 US states.
What a home funeral is — and isn’t.
It is:the family taking responsibility for the body after death. You wash, dress, and lay out your person yourselves. The body stays at home for a vigil — commonly 1 to 3 days — before being transported to the crematory or cemetery. You file the death certificate yourself (or with help). You transport the body in your own vehicle, an SUV, or a friend’s pickup truck.
It is not: refusing all professional help. Most home-funeral families work with a death doula, a home-funeral guide, or a hospice nurse for support. It is also not the same as a green burial — you can have a home funeral followed by traditional burial, by cremation, by green burial, or by body donation.
Three reasons that come up over and over.
- Intimacy. Bathing and dressing your person yourself, and keeping them at home for a few days, is how families have done this for most of human history. Many find it meaningful in a way no funeral home can replicate.
- Cost.A home funeral followed by direct cremation typically runs $800–$1,500 total — vs. $7,000–$15,000 for a conventional funeral. The savings come from eliminating the funeral home’s basic services fee, embalming, viewing facility, and transportation charges.
- Control. No upsells. No pressure. No protective casket pitch. You handle everything on your own timeline, in your own home, surrounded by people who knew the person.
It’s harder than people expect.
Home funerals are physical, emotional, and administrative work. The body needs to be kept cool (ice packs or dry ice, replaced every 12 hours). Someone has to file paperwork during a vigil. Someone has to arrange transport. Someone has to call the crematory or cemetery and confirm timing.
If you don’t have at least 2–3 family members or close friends willing to do this work, OR if there’s family conflict about whether to do a home funeral, OR if the death involved trauma that left visible injuries — conventional funeral home support is probably the right call.
Most home-funeral families also work with a home-funeral guide or death doula— a non-licensed helper who walks the family through care of the body, paperwork, and transport. Typical fee: $500–$1,500. Find one through the National Home Funeral Alliance.
Required involvement in 9 states. Family-led allowed in 42.
States requiring funeral-director involvement at some step (filing the death certificate, transporting the body, or signing off on disposition):
In these states the family can still hold the vigil at home, wash and dress the body, and participate fully — a funeral director just has to be involved in specific paperwork or transport steps. Hover over a state for the exact requirement.
States where family-led is fully legal end-to-end:
Source: National Home Funeral Alliance. State rules change — verify with homefuneralalliance.org before you commit.
What it actually looks like.
- Pronouncement of death. A hospice nurse, attending physician, or coroner pronounces death and signs the medical portion of the death certificate. (Same first step regardless of how you proceed.)
- Notify your support people. Death doula, home-funeral guide, family members who volunteered to help. Have ice packs / dry ice on hand already — you need them within a few hours.
- Wash and dress the body. Cool water, mild soap, soft cloths. Dress in chosen clothes. Place dry ice or ice packs along the torso to slow decomposition. Position arms at sides; close eyes and mouth gently.
- Hold the vigil. Body laid out at home, typically on a bed or table. Family and close friends visit, share stories, sit with the body. Most vigils last 1–3 days. The room should be cool (60–65°F if possible). Replace ice every 12 hours.
- File the death certificate. In states that allow family-led, you file directly with the county vital records office. Timeline varies but is usually within 5 days of death. Order extra copies (10–15 is typical for the family’s paperwork needs).
- Transport for final disposition. You drive the body to the crematory, cemetery, or donation center yourself, in your own vehicle. You need the burial-transit permit from the county (issued with or after the death certificate). The crematory or cemetery still does its own work; you just deliver instead of paying a funeral home for transport.
Most of what we built is still useful.
The Honest Funeral toolkit is built for families using funeral homes — but if you’re doing a home funeral, several pieces still help:
- The 30-day checkliststill applies — death certificates, Social Security, banks, insurance, accounts to close. These don’t change based on who handled the body.
- The certificate tracker helps you keep track of how many original death certificates you ordered and where each one went.
- The obituary helper, the memorial planner, and the notifications hub all work the same.
- The price-list analyzeris the one tool you won’t need — you’re not negotiating a funeral home’s GPL.
We’ll help you find a death doula.
We don’t maintain a directory of death doulas yet. The most reliable national directories are below. All free to search. Most doulas charge $500–$1,500 to walk a family through a home funeral end-to-end.
If you’re using a funeral home, we can help with that too.
Most of the families we work with go through a funeral home — we just help them avoid getting taken advantage of. If a home funeral isn’t for you, the toolkit still walks you through the rest.
See what fits your situation →This page is general consumer information, not legal advice. Home funeral laws are state-specific and change occasionally. Verify with the National Home Funeral Alliance and your state’s vital records office before making decisions. We are not affiliated with NHFA, NEDA, or INELDA.
Stuck or just need to hear a human voice?
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