Funeral costs and help
Prepaid funeral plan, insurance or savings: which costs less
Type the prepaid price you were quoted. The calculator grows it to the age you are likely to reach and works out what saving instead would take today.
Independent site, not an insurer or a broker, and not a funeral home or a government agency.
Prepay the funeral or set money aside
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
To save instead, set aside today
$5,852
| Same funeral at age 87 | $9,804 |
| Prepaid price today | $6,263 |
| Saving costs less by | $411 |
Median age at death from the NCHS US life table. A prepaid contract only fixes what it lists, and protection of the money differs by state.
A prepaid funeral plan, also called a pre-need contract, buys a funeral from one provider at today’s price, paid in one sum or by installments. Its value depends on two numbers: how fast funeral prices rise, and how long the contract waits. On the BLS funeral index, prices rose 2.6% a year from 2015 to 2025. A woman of 70 has even odds of living past 87.5 on the NCHS life table, so a funeral priced $6,263 today, the national funeral home spending per death, would cost about $9,792 by then. A prepaid contract that fixes that price is worth more than savings that earn less than the funeral trend after tax, and less than savings that earn more. Burial or final expense insurance is a third way: it pays a fixed sum that loses value as prices rise. The calculator compares the prepaid price with what you would need to set aside today at your own savings rate.
Data read and sums checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the figures are worked out
The same funeral, by age at purchase
A funeral priced $6,263 today (the US funeral home spending per death at September 2026 prices), grown at 2.6% a year to the median age at death of a woman of each age, and what would have to be saved today to pay it then at 2% or 4% a year after tax.
| Age today | Median age at death | Funeral by then | Save today at 2% | Save today at 4% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 86.3 | $12,286 | $7,295 | $4,376 |
| 65 | 86.8 | $10,944 | $7,107 | $4,654 |
| 70 | 87.5 | $9,792 | $6,930 | $4,937 |
| 75 | 88.3 | $8,813 | $6,767 | $5,222 |
| 80 | 89.6 | $8,017 | $6,623 | $5,492 |
| 85 | 91.5 | $7,405 | $6,505 | $5,729 |
When the savings rate after tax is below the funeral trend, the sum needed today is above today’s price, and prepaying at today’s price comes out ahead on the items it guarantees. When the rate is above the trend, saving does. The younger the buyer, the longer the wait and the larger the difference either way.
What else to weigh
The calculator compares money. Three other things decide many purchases.
- Flexibility. Savings, or a payable-on-death bank account naming the person who will arrange the funeral, can pay any funeral home, in any state, for any choice made later. A prepaid contract binds the money to one provider and one plan, unless it can be transferred.
- Protection of the money. Each state sets how a pre-need seller must hold the payments: in a trust, in an insurance policy, or in some other way, and how much of each payment must be set aside. If the seller goes out of business, that protection is what remains. The state regulator can say which rules apply.
- What is left outside. Items the contract does not guarantee, cemetery charges bought separately, and cash advance items are paid at the later price, by the family. The Funeral Rule page lists them.
Paying by installments
Many sellers offer installments over several years. They raise the total paid, and if the buyer dies before the last installment, what the family receives depends on the contract: some contracts are backed by an insurance policy that completes the payments, others refund what was paid. Ask for both the single price and the installment total in writing, and type the single price into the calculator.
Where insurance fits
A final expense policy or a burial policy pays its face amount to a beneficiary, who can use it for any funeral. It does not fix a price, so its value at the funeral falls by the funeral inflation rate every year. Its cost is the premium, paid for as long as the policy requires; the break-even page shows the age at which the premiums add up to the face amount.