I want to point out a few things to everyone. While it is illegal for a funeral home to charge a handling fee for a “third party” casket, many funeral homes do offer a discount on their service charge if you purchase a casket from them. A family needs to be aware of what the discount is, as it may be more than the money they save from buying a casket elsewhere. Also many funeral homes already have their casket prices lowered to match third party sellers or will match them.

In our area the average price for a funeral that includes casket, vault, visitation is 3000-4000 less that the 12,000 that you quoted Wayne. This will vary of course by location and type of services and merchandise selected.