---
name: funeral_home_arrangement_operations
description: "Running the arrangement side of a funeral home without dropped details: first call intake that captures legal next of kin and authority to arrange, an arrangement conference checklist covering service, disposition, and merchandise in one pass, permits and death certificate filing tracked against state deadlines, obituary and service program proofing with the family, and a case file audit before the service so nothing surfaces on the day. Use when taking a first call, checking who may authorize arrangements or cremation, running an arrangement conference, tracking a death certificate or disposition permit deadline, proofing an obituary or program, or auditing a case file before a service."
---

# Funeral Home Arrangement Operations

## Purpose

Run one case as one chain: first call, authority check, arrangement conference, paper track, proofing, pre-service audit, service, closeout. Cases fail in predictable places. A transfer made before anyone checked who may authorize it. A cremation sold to one child when the state wants the whole class. A death certificate that sits waiting on a physician while the filing deadline runs. An obituary with a wrong service time, printed twice. This skill closes each break at the step where it happens, with a dated record a second director can pick up cold.

Two facts shape everything below. The FTC Funeral Rule, 16 CFR Part 453, is federal and sets the price disclosure and statement duties in every state. Almost everything else, who may authorize, filing deadlines, permits, cremation signatures, is state law, and it differs enough that a rule borrowed from another state is a defect waiting for a date.

## Workflow

### 1. Build the state profile before the first case

Do this once per state, and redo it when the statute or the vital records guidance changes. No case runs on a profile borrowed from another state.

- Right of disposition: the priority list in statute order, the majority rule inside a class, what a written designation needs to be valid, and what removes a person from the list.
- Death certificate: who files, the deadline and how it is counted, the medical certifier and their window, the electronic filing system, and the correction route.
- Disposition permit: the name the state uses (burial transit permit, disposition permit, burial permit), who issues it, what must be filed before it issues, and where the completed permit goes.
- Cremation: waiting period if any, who must sign (all of a class or a majority), medical examiner or coroner release, and implant disclosure.
- Holding and transport: refrigeration or embalming timing rules if the state sets them, and the rules for crossing a state line or shipping by carrier.

Verified examples for Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, California, and the Washington permit rule live in `references/state-rules-and-sources.md`, with their sources. Check a deadline with the tool:

    python3 scripts/case_tracker.py deadlines --state MN --death-date 2026-11-03
    # filing_deadline: 2026-11-08 (5 calendar days after death)

A state with no verified profile returns BUILD_PROFILE. That answer is the work, not an error: read the state rule, add the state with its source, then run the case.

### 2. First call intake

Take the call on the sheet, in this order, and write answers as you go. Keep three people separate on paper even when one person fills two roles: the caller, the informant who gives vital statistics, and the person who may hold the right of disposition.

1. Date and time of the call, and who took it.
2. Decedent full legal name, spelled back, date of birth, date and time of death, place of death, last address, and Social Security number for the death certificate when the caller can give it.
3. Current location of the remains: facility or residence, full address, the contact name and phone at that location, release requirements, and after hours access.
4. Caller name, relationship, and phone. Informant name and phone if different.
5. Transfer facts: approximate height and weight for staffing and equipment, communicable disease or hazard flags the facility reports, whether family is present and wants to be present, and permission to transfer, with the time it was given.
6. Pre-need check: search the file for a contract or prior arrangements under the decedent name before asking the family what they want. If a contract sits at another home, say so plainly and stop selling.
7. Authority flag, in plain words: who the caller believes the next of kin is, any spouse, any written designation anyone mentions, and anything that sounds like a dispute, a missing person, or a competence question. A flag does not block the transfer. It blocks the sale until section 3 settles it.
8. Arrangement appointment time, and a short list of what to bring: vital statistics information, a recent photograph, clothing if the family wants it ready, discharge or service papers for a veteran, insurance or payment information, and cemetery papers if they hold them.

Give an approximate transfer arrival window. Read the name spelling and the location back before hanging up. Let the caller end the call.

### 3. Authority check, before anything is sold

Run the state profile list from the top, and write down how each level was settled.

- Written designation by the decedent, or an agent named in a document the state honors, sits at the top in most states. If one exists, it controls, and the rest of the list is background.
- The common order after that is spouse or domestic partner, adult children, parents, adult siblings, then the next degree of kin, then a public authority. Your state order is the only order that counts.
- Inside a class, follow the state rule exactly: one child may act in one state, a majority must agree in another, all must sign a cremation authorization in a third. Record who was contacted, who agreed, who objected, and who could not be reached after a real effort.
- A person lower on the list cannot override a higher person who is available and competent. A separated spouse who is not divorced can still hold the spousal place. If competence is in question, settle it with the documentation the state accepts, not with a family vote.
- A dispute, a missing higher person, or a charge related to the death can remove or freeze a right under state law. Stop the arrangement, keep the remains in care, and route the question to the owner and counsel. Do not pick a winner inside a family.

Cremation gets its own signature pass because it cannot be undone. The authorization names the decedent, states that cremation is irreversible, records the implant and pacemaker answer, names where the cremated remains go and who receives them, and carries the signatures the state requires from the authorizing class, plus every permit and medical release the state requires, before the crematory is told to proceed.

### 4. Arrangement conference, one pass

Work the room in this order so price, law, and logistics land before emotion spends the budget twice.

1. Price lists first. Hand over the General Price List when discussion turns to arrangements, specific goods or services, or prices, and let the family keep it. Show the casket price list and the outer burial container price list before showing any casket or container. Give accurate prices by phone the same way, including through after hours coverage.
2. Vital statistics once, read back in full. Legal name, birth date and place, parents names including maiden names as the state form asks, marital status, occupation, residence, and the informant details. Every later document copies this block, so an error fixed here is fixed everywhere.
3. Disposition before service details. Burial, cremation, or another lawful disposition decides the permits, the merchandise that makes sense, and the schedule that is possible. Confirm cemetery or crematory availability before a service time is promised.
4. Service details: type of service, date and time checked against the building, staff, officiant, cemetery, and crematory calendars while the family is still in the room, plus visitation, officiant, music, pallbearers, flowers, vehicles, and facility use.
5. Merchandise from the lists, in list order. A family may bring a casket or urn bought elsewhere. No handling fee may be charged for it, and the statement records it as family supplied.
6. Embalming as its own decision. Explain that embalming is not required by law except in certain special cases, that a viewing arrangement may make it necessary in practice, and get approval that names embalming before it is done or charged. If the family selects direct cremation or immediate burial, no embalming charge follows them.
7. Cash advance items one by one: crematory or cemetery charges, certified copies and the count chosen, obituary placement charges, honoraria the home advances, and any other third party cost, each with its price or a plain note that the exact third party price will be confirmed.
8. Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected, itemized with a price on every line, any legally or cemetery required item explained in writing on the statement, the required embalming explanation when embalming is charged, and the total. The arranger signs, the family signs, and the family takes a copy for retention at the conclusion of the conference, before payment terms take over the conversation.

Price list hygiene sits behind this step. The General Price List carries the business name, address, and phone, its caption, and a current effective date, prices the services in the regulation order, shows a separate direct cremation price for a purchaser supplied container, carries the casket and outer container ranges or full lists, and keeps the prescribed disclosures in their places, word for word. Reissue it the day a price changes.

### 5. Permits and death certificate, tracked by date

Open the paper track the day of the conference, with dates, not intentions.

- Demographic section completed and proofed against the vital statistics block from section 4.
- Medical certification requested the same day, with the certifier name, the time of the request, and a follow up entry each day it stays open. A slow certifier is the most common reason a filing goes late, and a dated request log is what separates the home record from the delay.
- Filing deadline computed from the state profile and written on the case file where anyone covering the case can see it. Use the tracker in section 1.
- Medical examiner or coroner cases held apart: no disposition step that needs a release moves until the release is in the file.
- Disposition permit obtained before burial, cremation, entombment, removal from the state, or shipment, as the state requires, and traveling with the remains or to the person in charge of the place of disposition, as the state directs.
- Certified copies ordered with the count and the recipient recorded. Tell the family plainly that estates often need copies for banks, insurers, and benefit claims, that the count can be raised later, and what the realistic delivery window is in that county right now.
- Social Security and veterans notifications handled as the current agency guidance directs, checked at the time of the case. Never work from a form photocopied years ago.

### 6. Obituary and service program proofing

One approved text feeds every surface. A correction made in one place and not the others is the usual failure.

- Build the obituary and the program from the vital statistics block, not from memory or from a draft the family texted in pieces.
- Family proof is a real step with a record: the authorizing person or the informant reads the full text, names, dates, service date, time and place, disposition note, and any memorial contribution line, and approves it in writing or by a dated reply that is filed.
- Names get the hardest read: every survivor and predeceased name spelled against the family list, every date checked digit by digit, the age checked against the birth and death dates.
- The same approved file goes to the newspaper, the home website, the printed program, and the register book. If a newspaper shortens text for space, the service facts do not change.
- Photo captions and tribute material get the same name and date check before printing or rendering.

### 7. Case file audit before the service

Run the audit the day before the service, early enough to fix what it finds. The tool checks the record:

    python3 scripts/case_tracker.py audit --file case.json
    # verdict: READY

A case file is a JSON object with the decedent and service fields and a signoffs object. The full field list and a complete example sit in `references/worked-case.md`.

The human pass adds what a file check cannot see:

- The casket or container in the room matches the statement, and the urn and any engraving match the approved proof character by character.
- The service time agrees across the statement, the program, the obituary, the cemetery or crematory booking, and the staff schedule. One time, five places.
- Permits, authorizations, and the filed death record are in the file, signed by the right class, with names spelled the same way on every page.
- Payment record matches the statement total, including cash advance receipts received so far and any balance stated in plain terms.
- Staffing, vehicles, flowers, and setup are assigned by name. Nothing on the day runs on the phrase someone will handle it.

A NOT_READY verdict stops the scramble, not the service: close each gap, or file a dated written note from the authorizing person for any item the family has declined, and run the audit again.

### 8. Service day and closeout

- Arranger on site confirms setup against the audited file, not against memory: room, register book, folders, music, photo display, and reserved seating as arranged.
- The permit travels as the state directs. Any change on the day, time, place, officiant, disposition detail, goes on the case file the same day with who approved it.
- Release of cremated remains or personal property only to the person named in the authorization or the file, against a signed receipt that names what was released and when.
- Closeout inside a week: certificates delivered by the recorded method and count, balance or refund settled in writing, thank you and follow up contact made, and the file assembled in chain order, first call sheet, authority note, signed statement, authorizations, permit, proof approvals, release receipt.
- Run the audit a second time on the completed file before it is stored. A closed file that fails its own audit is still an open case.

## Output Contract

For any case this skill runs, produce:

- A first call sheet with the intake fields from section 2, the authority flag in plain words, and the transfer record.
- An authority note that walks the state list level by level and records who agreed, who objected, and who could not be reached.
- A signed, itemized Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected with a copy given to the family at the conclusion of the conference.
- A dated paper track: filing deadline from the state profile, medical certification request and follow up log, permit status, and certified copy order.
- An approved obituary and program proof, with the approver and date filed, feeding every printed and posted surface from one file.
- Two audit results, one before the service and one at closeout, each either READY or a named gap list with its fix recorded.
- A worked example of the full chain is in `references/worked-case.md`.

## Operating Rules

- Never quote a state deadline, a signature rule, or a permit rule from memory. Read it from the state profile, and rebuild the profile when the source changes.
- Never sell arrangements to a person whose authority is flagged and unsettled. Care of the remains continues. Selling waits.
- Never charge for embalming that was not approved in words that name embalming, unless a state or local law required it in those circumstances and that basis is written on the statement.
- Never charge a handling fee for a family supplied casket or urn, and never state that law or a cemetery requires a good or service without the written basis the Funeral Rule requires.
- Keep caller, informant, and authorizing person as separate records even when one person fills all three roles. Most authority errors start as a merged name field.
- Cremation does not proceed on a partial signature set, a missing permit, or an unrecorded implant answer. The process cannot be reversed, so the file has to be right first.
- Prices a family hears by phone, after hours, or in the room all come from the same current price lists. A stale list at an answering service is still the home list in the eyes of the rule.
- Personal information on a case file, Social Security numbers above all, stays in the case system. It never travels in personal email, personal text threads, or a shared photo.
- This skill is an operating workflow, not legal advice. Close questions on authority, disputed remains, and state compliance go to the owner and to counsel or the state board.