This editorial policy describes how US Funerals Online sources, reviews, and publishes the guidance you read on this site, and how we disclose every commercial relationship we hold. We’ve maintained an independent consumer position since 2003 and this document explains the practices that keep us accountable to readers.
Our independence
US Funerals Online has been an independent funeral consumer resource since 2003. We exist to help US families make informed, confident, and affordable end-of-life decisions — not to sell them upgrades they don’t need.
No funeral home, cemetery, casket retailer, embalming supplier, life-insurance company, or third-party referral network pays us for editorial coverage. We do not accept paid placements in our state guides, cost comparisons, funeral planning resources, or death doula directory. Where a service is named on this site, it is because our editorial team believes it serves the consumer interest.
Commercial relationships, disclosed
We operate two consumer-facing services, and we disclose them clearly wherever they appear on the site:
DFS Memorials — our sister network of low-cost direct cremation providers, operating in 200+ US cities at prices starting from $795. DFS Memorials is owned by the same team behind US Funerals Online. We recommend it because it addresses the 4–5× markup that traditional funeral homes apply to direct cremation, but we always identify it as a network we operate, not as a third-party referral. References to DFS Memorials on our pages carry a “Network partner” disclosure label.
Travel Protection Plan — our funeral repatriation product, marketed at deathawayfromhome.com, which covers repatriation costs when a member dies more than 75 miles from home. Like DFS, this is a service we operate ourselves to close a specific gap in the standard funeral cost picture. References carry the same “Network partner” disclosure. The US Funerals Online & DFS Memorials partner network embraced a real opportunity to bring this plan direct to consumers.
Outside of these two named services, no commercial entity pays for placement on US Funerals Online. If we ever introduce additional sponsored content, affiliate relationships, or paid editorial features, they will be marked inline with a clearly visible disclosure label and itemised on this page within 48 hours of going live.
How we research
Our content draws on a defined set of primary sources:
- The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) for national cost benchmarks.
- The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule and accompanying enforcement guidance for consumer-rights coverage.
- State funeral and cemetery regulatory boards for jurisdiction-specific licensing, embalming, and burial-on-private-land rules.
- The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) for industry trends and operational data.
- Direct surveys of funeral homes and cremation providers were conducted by our editorial team.
- Peer-reviewed academic and trade research where it bears on the topics we cover.
Cost figures are reviewed annually against current NFDA and provider-survey data. State-specific legal claims are reviewed at least annually, and immediately whenever a state regulatory change is enacted.
Editorial review and authorship
Every cost figure, legal claim, and procedural recommendation on US Funerals Online is reviewed by our Editor-in-Chief, Sara Marsden-Ille — funeral consumer advocate, co-founder of DFS Memorials, and a regular contributor to industry publications. Sara has been researching and writing about the US death care industry for 16+ years.
Recent guest contributions include “From Tradition to Transformation: Women, Death Doulas, and the New Shape of Cremation & Death Care” for the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), and “Outdoor Cremation: the Funeral Pyre of a Mountain Town in Colorado” for ASD.
You can read more about Sara on her author profile.
Our most-read pages — the state guides, cost comparisons, and FAQ resources — carry a “Last reviewed” date. When a page is materially updated, that date is refreshed. If you spot a date that hasn’t been updated in over 12 months, please contact us — it’s a flag we want to action quickly.
Corrections
If you believe any content on this site is factually inaccurate, out-of-date, or misleading, please contact us. We treat correction requests as a priority and aim to respond within five business days. Substantive corrections are noted at the foot of the affected page with the date of correction, so readers can see what changed and when.
Memberships and industry engagement
US Funerals Online is a member of, and subscribes to, both the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA). Our membership in these bodies is editorial — neither organisation has any influence over the content we publish. We use both as primary research sources for industry trends and operational data, and we have contributed guest editorial to CANA’s blog. Sara Marsden-Ille speaks at industry events on funeral consumer advocacy and emerging end-of-life practices.
Last reviewed
This editorial policy was last reviewed and updated on April 29, 2026. We review it annually or whenever our editorial practices materially change.
Questions about this policy? Get in touch — we read every message.
