Step 5: Buy or provide a casket or container.
Most crematories require that the body must be placed in some type of rigid container before being cremated. However, caskets are never required for cremation -- and as caskets are the most expensive of all funeral goods and services, this alone can offer substantial savings over a body burial.
Many mortuaries will now rent a casket to survivors who want to have a body present for visitation or a funeral service, then transfer it to an inexpensive container before the cremation. This also allows for substantial savings.
Under a federal law called the Funeral Rule, funeral directors who offer direct cremations, in which the body is not embalmed and there is no viewing or visitation, must follow these rules:
- They may not tell consumers that state or local laws require a casket.
- They must disclose in writing the right to buy an unfinished wooden box or an alternative container.
- They must make such simple containers available.
Survivors are also free to make or furnish their own suitable containers.
For more information about cremation containers, including sources for low-cost and unique alternatives, see "Caskets: Everything the Mortician Won't Tell You and Some Better Places to Shop," published by the Funeral Consumers Alliance.
