Keeping a dead body at home is legal in every U.S. state. In 41 states, a family can handle the entire process themselves, from bathing and dressing to filing the death certificate and arranging burial or cremation. Nine states require a licensed funeral director to handle at least part of the process: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New York. Even in those states, you can still hold a vigil at home and take part in caring for the body; a director just has to sign off on certain legal steps.
The right to take custody of a family member’s body is old law. Courts have recognized for well over a century that the surviving spouse or next of kin has a legal right to immediate possession of the body for preservation and burial. When multiple relatives share equal standing, courts look at who had the closest relationship to the deceased.
What to Do in the First Hours
The first thing you do depends on how the person died.
If the person was under hospice care, call the hospice provider. A hospice nurse will come to the home, pronounce the death, and walk you through what comes next. Hospice deaths are expected deaths, so there is no need to call 911 or law enforcement.
If the death was unexpected, if the person was not under a physician’s care, or if the cause of death is unknown, you have to notify authorities right away. Every state requires that sudden, unattended, or suspicious deaths be reported to the coroner or medical examiner, which in practice means calling 911. The coroner or medical examiner may need to investigate before releasing the body, and that can delay a home funeral by hours or days.
Once a physician, coroner, or medical examiner has pronounced and certified the death, the legal clock on paperwork begins. You do not need to rush the body out of the home. Take the time you need for an initial farewell while you gather the information required for the death certificate.
How Long You Can Keep the Body at Home
A body that is not embalmed or cooled will begin to show visible changes within about 24 hours, faster in warm rooms. Cooling is what makes a multi-day vigil practical.
No federal law requires embalming under any circumstances, and the FTC’s Funeral Rule specifically prohibits funeral providers from claiming embalming is legally required unless it actually is under the specific circumstances in the state.1Federal Trade Commission. Complying with the Funeral Rule Most states impose no general embalming requirement. What many states do require is that the body be embalmed or refrigerated within 24 to 48 hours if disposition has not yet occurred.
A few states set specific outer time limits for disposition. Delaware requires it within five days, Washington, D.C. within one week, and North Dakota within eight days. Rules vary widely, so check your state and local health department.
Cooling the Body
Dry ice is the most common method. Plan on roughly 15 pounds per day, placed around the torso in cloth-wrapped blocks and replaced about every 12 hours. Gel packs and commercial cooling blankets are alternatives, though less effective for extended periods. Keep the room as cool as possible, close blinds against sunlight, and use fans to circulate air. In cooler climates during winter, an unheated room can do much of the work on its own.
The Death Certificate and Disposition Permit
The death certificate is the document that unlocks everything else: permits for burial or cremation, life insurance claims, Social Security, estate proceedings, and the final tax return. Getting it right the first time matters, because corrections later create delays and extra fees.
Two separate people supply information for the certificate. A physician, medical examiner, or coroner fills in the cause-of-death section. A family member or other person close to the deceased serves as the “informant,” providing personal details like the deceased’s full legal name, date and place of birth, marital status, parents’ names, and last occupation. Being the informant is purely administrative and does not give you legal authority over the estate.
In the 41 states that allow families to handle their own arrangements, you file the completed death certificate with the local registrar or vital records office yourself. Order multiple certified copies at the time of filing; banks, insurers, and government agencies each want their own certified copy, and fees for additional copies later are typically higher. Fees generally run $5 to $25 per certified copy.
Before a body can be buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of, you also need a disposition permit, sometimes called a burial-transit permit. The local registrar or health department issues it after the death certificate has been filed and accepted. In some places the burial permit and transit permit are combined; in others they are separate. The permit must accompany the body to its final destination. Fees range from nothing in some jurisdictions to a few hundred dollars in others. No cemetery or crematory will accept the body without it.
The Nine States That Require a Funeral Director
In Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New York, a licensed funeral director has to be involved in at least some part of the process, such as filing paperwork or overseeing disposition. That does not mean you have to hand over the body or buy a full-service funeral. You can still keep the body at home, wash and dress it, and hold a vigil.
The federal Funeral Rule, codified at 16 CFR Part 453, protects families from being pressured into services they do not want.2Legal Information Institute. 16 CFR Part 453 – Funeral Industry Practices Even if you use a funeral director for part of the process, the Rule gives you specific protections:
- Funeral homes must provide a written, itemized price list before you discuss arrangements, so you can choose only what you want.
- A funeral home cannot condition one service on buying another, aside from a basic services fee and items required by law.
- If you buy a casket elsewhere, the funeral home cannot charge an extra fee for using it.
- A provider cannot tell you embalming is legally required unless state law actually mandates it in your circumstances.
Those protections matter most in the nine states above. The director has to be part of the process, but you are not required to buy a package.1Federal Trade Commission. Complying with the Funeral Rule
What Happens After the Vigil
Cemetery Burial
If the family chooses a cemetery, the cemetery’s own rules layer on top of state law. Expect to pay for the plot, opening and closing fees, and often a required outer burial container (a vault or liner that keeps the ground from settling).
Private Land Burial
Most states allow burial on private property, but this is one of the most locally regulated areas of the entire process. County zoning codes and health department rules control whether you can bury on your land, and they vary enormously. Common restrictions include minimum acreage, setback distances from wells, septic systems, waterways, and property lines, and prohibitions on burial in flood zones or near public water supplies. Some counties require you to record the burial location on the property deed so future owners know about it. California and Washington effectively prohibit private burial unless you get special zoning approval or establish a certified cemetery. Before committing to a home burial, contact your county zoning office and health department.
Cremation
Cremation adds several legal steps. Most states impose a mandatory waiting period after death of either 24 or 48 hours, to allow time for the medical examiner or coroner to determine whether further investigation is needed.
Authorization from the legal next of kin is required. When multiple people share equal next-of-kin status, all or a majority typically must sign the cremation authorization form. Disputes at this stage can delay the process significantly, which is one reason having written wishes from the deceased is so valuable.
If the deceased had a pacemaker or other battery-powered medical implant, it must be removed before cremation. These devices can explode under the heat of a crematory. Disclose any implants to the cremation provider.
Cremated remains can be kept at home indefinitely, buried in a cemetery, placed in a columbarium, or scattered. Scattering on private land requires the property owner’s permission; scattering on public land may require a permit.
Burial at Sea
Federal law governs the placement of human remains in ocean waters. Under 40 CFR 229.1, cremated remains can be scattered at sea at any depth, but no closer than three nautical miles from shore.3eCFR. 40 CFR 229.1 – Burial at Sea Non-cremated remains have stricter requirements: burial must take place at least three nautical miles from land, in water at least 600 feet deep, with additional depth restrictions near certain Florida and Louisiana coastal areas. All burials at sea must be reported to the EPA Regional Administrator within 30 days.4U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Burial at Sea
What It Costs
The financial difference between a home funeral and a conventional one is substantial. The national median cost of a traditional funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300 in 2023, and a funeral with cremation ran about $6,280, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Those figures do not include cemetery costs, monuments, or flowers.
A home funeral eliminates the largest line items: the funeral home’s basic services fee, facility charges for viewing, and embalming. The main expenses that remain are dry ice (roughly $1 to $3 per pound, with 15 pounds needed per day), certified copies of the death certificate, the disposition permit fee, and the cost of the burial or cremation itself. Families who handle everything themselves commonly spend under $1,000 total, though the final number depends heavily on the type of disposition chosen.