Where the list is
A NSW funeral director without a website must still display its prices at each place of business, and must give them to you when it meets you somewhere else, such as at home. You can ask for the list before you ask for a quote. What else a director must tell you is in your rights when you buy funeral services.
The list, line by line
NSW Fair Trading publishes a sample price list showing one way a funeral director could set out its prices. Its prices are all written as “$X”, so it shows the shape of a list, not what anything costs. Here are its main sections in the order it gives them, each with what the rules say about it.
Transport of the body$X within 30 km, $X a km beyond
The sample charges by distance from the place of death. In NSW a director may break down its transport prices as it chooses, but must give you the total before you enter an agreement.
Storage in the mortuary$X a day
Charged by the day in the sample, with refrigeration plates hired by the hour or the day. Time is one of the quieter ways a total grows.
Coffinsa range, $X to $X
A NSW director may list each coffin or give a price range, for example its three top sellers plus the range of all. In Victoria, a list that gives only a range must say that a full list of coffin, casket and shroud prices is available. The sample includes a cardboard coffin among its lines.
Care, embalming and viewing$X each
Embalming and viewing are separate lines. NSW allows viewing to be priced as a flat rate within a set time, or by the hour with extra fees outside business hours; in the sample, viewing outside business hours is charged as a disbursement.
Arranging and conducting the service$X
In the sample this covers venue hire and a celebrant, for up to one hour at the director’s own venue. A service elsewhere is charged at cost as a disbursement.
Disbursementsapproximately $X
Fees the director pays to others for you: in the sample, the death certificate, a cremation certificate, cemetery and crematorium fees, newspaper notices, a family limousine and flowers, given as the director’s reasonable estimates and subject to change. In Victoria the list must estimate certificate and permit costs, the third party’s burial or cremation fee, and the disbursements inside the least expensive package.
Other goods and servicesoptional to display
The sample lists repatriation, priced on individual circumstances, webcasting of the service and a personalised funeral program, under a heading that says they are optional to display. A NSW director must show prices for the funeral goods and services the information standard covers; showing the rest is its choice. If a list seems short, ask about anything you are offered that is not on it.
Funeral packagesleast expensive first
The sample’s least expensive package is a cremation with no funeral service and no attendance, using a cremation capsule, with transport within 30 km and care before the cremation. Its other three packages show what each one adds: a standard cremation brings a composite board coffin and a one-hour service; a standard burial brings an A1 timber veneer coffin and a one-hour service; and a deluxe burial brings an A2 mahogany coffin, a service of an hour and a half, and transport in a luxury car. In NSW, packages may be shown only alongside the itemised prices, never in their place.
Disclosuresno price
The sample closes with a short statement rather than a price: the street location of its mortuary and crematorium, the company that owns them, that the body travels in a suitable vehicle the company owns, and that the body stays in its mortuary and moves only for the service set out in the final agreement. A NSW director that does not own its mortuary or crematorium must name the owner or manager.
A selection of the sections in NSW Fair Trading’s sample price list, summarised, with notes from the NSW and Victorian rules.
The line that may not be on the list
A professional service fee is the funeral director’s own charge for its work. In NSW it does not have to be displayed, but its price must be disclosed before you enter an agreement. NSW Fair Trading’s sample list has no line for one, so if a list you are reading has none either, it is a fair thing to ask.
From the list to the agreement
Before you sign, a NSW funeral director must turn the list into prices for your own funeral: an itemised price for each good and service it will supply, the cost of any disbursements, and the total payable. There is no waiting period: once you have the prescribed information, a director can give you a quote and you can agree at any time. Holding the quote against the list line by line shows whether every item carries the price the list gave it.
Elsewhere in Australia
In Western Australia, the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board licenses funeral directors who operate in the Perth metropolitan area, and they agree to its code of conduct as a condition of the licence. The code includes giving a written estimate of all funeral charges and disbursements, packages and the professional service fee, with a line-by-line breakdown in quotes and tax invoices.
South Australia’s Law Handbook (its funeral page was last revised in 2014) says there are no set fees for a funeral, that funeral directors offer very different facilities, and that it is worth contacting more than one.
The NSW rules carry penalties: a court can impose up to $5,500 for each offence, and Fair Trading can issue penalty notices of $550 for individuals and $1,100 for corporations, as at October 2026.