State rules, licensing & filing
What each state requires of a funeral home: licenses, death certificates, cremation, preneed, and recorded calls.
Other topics
- Buying & evaluating software
- Case management & operations
- Phones, answering & after-hours calls
- Documents, e-signatures & forms
- Payments, collections & accounting
- Preneed & cremation operations
- Records, security & compliance
- Marketing, SEO & growth
- Funeral home business & strategy
- Assistive AI & operational memory
- Paper, spreadsheets & your first system
- Sales, leads & growing your firm
10 articles in this topic.
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GuideCalifornia Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)California regulates funeral establishments, funeral directors, embalmers, crematories, hydrolysis facilities and reduction facilities. This owner’s guide organizes the main license, death record, disposition, preneed, price disclosure and call recording rules by section.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min read
GuideTexas Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Texas regulates funeral establishments and professionals through the Texas Funeral Service Commission. This guide organizes the main licensing, death certificate, cremation, prepaid contract, price disclosure and recording rules for an owner.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min read
GuideFlorida Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)What Florida requires of a funeral home, with the section numbers: the establishment license under Chapter 497, director and embalmer licensing, the 5 day death certificate deadline, cremation authorization, preneed trusting, price disclosures and recorded calls. Read on the state’s own sites in September 2026.FuneralHQ Editorial Team20 min read
GuideNew York Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)New York registers funeral firms, licenses funeral directors, and runs death registration differently inside New York City. This guide sets out the rules on licensing, death certificates, cremation, preneed, prices and recorded calls, each with its section number.FuneralHQ Editorial Team18 min read
GuidePennsylvania Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Pennsylvania licenses the funeral director and approves the place of practice, limits who may own a funeral home, and requires all preneed money to be held in escrow or trust. This guide gives each rule with its section number and a compliance calendar to print.FuneralHQ Editorial Team19 min read
GuideOhio Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Ohio licenses funeral homes, funeral directors, embalmers and crematory operators under Revised Code Chapter 4717. This guide sets out the licensing, death certificate, cremation, preneed, price disclosure and call recording rules, each with its section number, and ends with a compliance calendar.FuneralHQ Editorial Team18 min read
GuideIllinois Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Illinois regulates funeral directors and embalmers through the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, with separate laws for vital records, crematories and preneed funds. This guide organizes the sections an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min read
GuideMichigan Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Michigan regulates funeral homes through LARA under Article 18 of the Occupational Code, registers deaths under the Public Health Code, and holds preneed funds in escrow under the Prepaid Funeral and Cemetery Sales Act. This guide states what each section says, with a compliance calendar an owner can print.FuneralHQ Editorial Team19 min read
GuideNorth Carolina Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)North Carolina’s Board of Funeral Service regulates funeral establishments, professionals, crematories and preneed funeral contracts. This guide organizes the permits, filing deadlines, authorization rules and recurring records an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min read
GuideGeorgia Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Georgia’s State Board of Funeral Service regulates funeral establishments, directors, embalmers and disposition facilities. This guide organizes the license, death record, cremation, preneed, price disclosure and recording rules an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min read
Funeral service is regulated state by state. These guides set out what one state requires of a funeral home: the licenses for the establishment and for the people who work in it, the deadline for filing a death certificate, the waiting period and authorization for cremation, how preneed money must be held, and whether a phone call may be recorded.
Each guide is built from that state’s statutes and the pages of its licensing board and vital records office, with the date each was read. Rules change, and a guide is not a substitute for the board or an attorney. The guides are general information, not legal advice.
GuideCalifornia Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)California regulates funeral establishments, funeral directors, embalmers, crematories, hydrolysis facilities and reduction facilities. This owner’s guide organizes the main license, death record, disposition, preneed, price disclosure and call recording rules by section.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min readGuideTexas Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Texas regulates funeral establishments and professionals through the Texas Funeral Service Commission. This guide organizes the main licensing, death certificate, cremation, prepaid contract, price disclosure and recording rules for an owner.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min readGuideFlorida Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)What Florida requires of a funeral home, with the section numbers: the establishment license under Chapter 497, director and embalmer licensing, the 5 day death certificate deadline, cremation authorization, preneed trusting, price disclosures and recorded calls. Read on the state’s own sites in September 2026.FuneralHQ Editorial Team20 min readGuideNew York Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)New York registers funeral firms, licenses funeral directors, and runs death registration differently inside New York City. This guide sets out the rules on licensing, death certificates, cremation, preneed, prices and recorded calls, each with its section number.FuneralHQ Editorial Team18 min readGuidePennsylvania Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Pennsylvania licenses the funeral director and approves the place of practice, limits who may own a funeral home, and requires all preneed money to be held in escrow or trust. This guide gives each rule with its section number and a compliance calendar to print.FuneralHQ Editorial Team19 min readGuideOhio Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Ohio licenses funeral homes, funeral directors, embalmers and crematory operators under Revised Code Chapter 4717. This guide sets out the licensing, death certificate, cremation, preneed, price disclosure and call recording rules, each with its section number, and ends with a compliance calendar.FuneralHQ Editorial Team18 min readGuideIllinois Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Illinois regulates funeral directors and embalmers through the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, with separate laws for vital records, crematories and preneed funds. This guide organizes the sections an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min readGuideMichigan Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Michigan regulates funeral homes through LARA under Article 18 of the Occupational Code, registers deaths under the Public Health Code, and holds preneed funds in escrow under the Prepaid Funeral and Cemetery Sales Act. This guide states what each section says, with a compliance calendar an owner can print.FuneralHQ Editorial Team19 min readGuideNorth Carolina Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)North Carolina’s Board of Funeral Service regulates funeral establishments, professionals, crematories and preneed funeral contracts. This guide organizes the permits, filing deadlines, authorization rules and recurring records an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min readGuideGeorgia Funeral Home Laws and Licensing: A Guide for Owners (2026)Georgia’s State Board of Funeral Service regulates funeral establishments, directors, embalmers and disposition facilities. This guide organizes the license, death record, cremation, preneed, price disclosure and recording rules an owner should verify.FuneralHQ Editorial Team10 min readSee how this works in software
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