Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
A repatriation is several bills, not one price
Families often ask for “the price” of sending someone home and receive answers that cannot be compared, because each answer covers a different part. A funeral home in Texas charges for its own services and merchandise. An airline or its agent charges freight. A consulate or a state office charges fees. A funeral home or cemetery abroad charges for receiving and burial. No single business sets all of those, and some are quoted in another currency.
This organizer keeps each amount you are given beside the party that charges it, adds the U.S.-dollar amounts within each group and shows which figures you hold in writing. It contains no prices of its own, estimates nothing and never produces an all-in price.
Enter each item
Copy each amount from the document or conversation where it was given to you. Business names are fine; personal details are not.
Item 1
The controls require JavaScript. You can draw the same columns on paper.
What a funeral home must give you in writing
The FTC Funeral Rule gives you tools for the funeral home’s part. Funeral directors must give you price information on the telephone if you ask for it. The funeral home must give you a General Price List that is yours to keep, and a statement listing every good and service you selected, the price of each and the total cost immediately after you make the arrangements. You also have the right to buy separate goods and services, so you can decline items you do not want.
When you compare two Texas funeral homes, compare the same items from each General Price List, and check whether a line such as forwarding remains to another funeral home already includes the basic services fee before adding anything to it. Enter those amounts under “Funeral home in Texas” and mark them as written only when you hold the document.
Third-party amounts are set by someone else
Freight depends on the carrier, the route and what is shipped. IATA’s overview of transporting human remains by air notes that shipping human remains in a heavy, ornate casket can be costly and that lighter options exist, and that there is no universal international standard for processing and documentation. A funeral home can pass on a freight quote, but the carrier sets it and it can change until the booking is confirmed. Consular and government fees are set by those offices, and the receiving side’s charges by the business abroad.
Keep those amounts in their own groups, note who gave each figure and whether you have it in writing, and enter amounts in another currency as they were quoted. The organizer lists them without converting, because an exchange rate is another number nobody has promised you. Our costs and process guide explains each kind of charge.
Read the result
Select Organize when you have entered the amounts you have.
| Line | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Subtotal by who charges | The U.S.-dollar amounts you entered for that party, added together |
| Sum of the USD amounts you entered | Arithmetic on your entries only; it is not a quote and leaves out anything not yet quoted to you |
| Spoken only, no document | How many figures you have not yet received in writing |
| Amounts in another currency | Listed as quoted, never added or converted |
A low sum with many unanswered parties is not a low cost. Look first at which groups are still empty.
Keep it accurate and private
Any edit clears the previous result, so organize again after a change. The organizer script does not transmit your entries or write them to browser storage; other services on this site follow their own privacy terms. Business names may be entered. Do not type card numbers, account details or the name of the person who died.
Questions about comparing repatriation quotes
- Does this tool tell me what a repatriation costs?
- No. It contains no prices. It adds the amounts you were given and keeps them separated by the party that charges them.
- Why does it not add everything into one total?
- It shows a sum of your U.S.-dollar entries, labelled as your own arithmetic. It never converts currencies and never calls the result a price, because parts are usually still unquoted.
- What should I ask every business for?
- The amount in writing, what it includes and how long it stands. A funeral home must give you its General Price List and an itemized statement.
