The practical side

Arranging a funeral in the UK

There are about six real decisions and a good deal of paperwork. Taken in order, none of it is difficult — the difficulty is that it all arrives at once, in a week when you are least able to deal with it.

What actually has to happen

Stripped of everything optional, arranging a funeral is four things:

Register the death and obtain the authority for burial or cremation.
Decide burial or cremation — the decision that shapes the cost and most of the logistics.
Book a date with a crematorium or burial authority, which in practice means somebody negotiating between their diary, the minister’s and the family’s.
Hold the funeral, in whatever form you choose, or none.

Everything else — the coffin, the cars, the flowers, the notice in the paper, the order of service, the wake — is optional, and every single item can be declined without anybody at the funeral being any the wiser.

The decisions, roughly in order

Was there a will, or a funeral plan? Look before you instruct anybody. A pre-paid plan usually names the firm, and paying twice for a funeral that was already bought is a miserable thing to discover in March.
Who is the executor? They have the legal authority and the legal liability. If that is not the person doing the arranging, they still need to be in the room.
Burial or cremation ? The single largest cost decision, and often the only one the person left an opinion about.
Which funeral director , or none? Compare two standardised price lists. It takes fifteen minutes and saves more money than everything else on this page put together.
What kind of service? Religious, humanist, civil, or nothing at all — see planning the service .
Can it be paid for ? Ask this early, out loud, before the arrangement meeting rather than after it.

After the funeral

The funeral is not the end of the administration — it is roughly the middle. Banks, pensions, the tax position, the house, the utilities and possibly probate all follow, and typically run for six to twelve months. Probate and paperwork sets out what is involved and what can safely be left alone.

And the grief, which most people find arrives properly about the time everybody else stops asking, is dealt with in living with loss .

If you would rather talk to someone

These lines are free, run by national charities, and answered by people trained in bereavement. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral or a reason.

Samaritans
116 123
24 hours, every day
For anyone in distress, whatever the reason. Free from any phone, and the call does not appear on the bill.
Cruse Bereavement Support
0808 808 1677
Weekdays, with longer hours midweek
The main national bereavement helpline for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Cruse Cymru covers Wales; Scotland has its own separate service.
Child Bereavement UK
0800 02 888 40
Weekdays
For families when a baby or child of any age dies, and for children and young people who are grieving.

The full list of helplines →

We answer questions about the guide itself. We cannot arrange a funeral, give legal or financial advice, or act on an individual estate.

The guide

Each step, in the order it happens

Registering a death
The deadline, who can do it, what to take, and how many certificates to buy.
Tell Us Once
One conversation that notifies most of government, instead of twenty separate letters.
Choosing a funeral director
How to compare firms in fifteen minutes, what to ask, and what you can refuse.
Burial or cremation
The one decision that changes the cost most — and what each option actually involves.
Planning the service
Who leads it, what goes in it, how to write a eulogy, and how long you actually have.
What to do with ashes
Where you may scatter, what needs permission, and why there is no hurry at all.
Help with funeral costs
Every route to help paying for a funeral, and the deadlines that catch people out.
Probate and paperwork
What probate is, when you need it, what it costs, and everyone else who has to be told.

If you are in the first day or two, start with what happens when someone dies instead — it covers the hours before any of this begins.

Two to three weeks is normal
Most UK funerals happen ten days to three weeks after the death. Longer if a coroner is involved, and longer again around Christmas and bank holidays. There is no rush and no prize for speed.
Register first, book second
A crematorium or burial authority cannot proceed without the registrar's authority — the green form — or the coroner's equivalent. Registering the death is what unlocks everything else.
Whoever signs, pays
The person who signs the funeral director's contract is personally liable for the bill, recoverable from the estate afterwards. It matters who signs, and it is worth a moment's thought before anybody does.

Questions people ask us most

What is the order of things?

Verify the death, certify the cause, register the death, get the green form, instruct a funeral director, choose burial or cremation, book a date, plan the service, hold the funeral, receive the ashes if cremated, then deal with the estate. The last part takes the longest by a very wide margin.

How soon does the funeral have to happen?

There is no legal deadline in the UK for a funeral, only for registering the death. Ten days to three weeks is typical, driven mostly by crematorium availability and by how long it takes people to travel. Certain faiths require burial within a day or two, and funeral directors, registrars and coroners all have arrangements for handling that quickly — say so at the first call.

Who has the right to decide about the funeral?

In practice the executor named in the will, or if there is no will the person entitled to administer the estate — usually the closest surviving relative. Their decision prevails in law even over the wishes of the person who died, which surprises people: funeral wishes in a will are not legally binding anywhere in the UK. Where families disagree seriously, the funeral director will not proceed until it is resolved, and a court can decide, though that is rare and slow.

Do I need a funeral director at all?

No law requires one. Families do arrange funerals entirely themselves, and crematoria and cemeteries have procedures for dealing directly with the public. It is genuinely harder work than it sounds — the paperwork, the timing, the physical handling — but it is lawful, it is much cheaper, and the people who do it rarely regret it.

Can I have the funeral somewhere other than a crematorium chapel or a church?

Yes. A service can be held anywhere the owner permits — a village hall, a rugby club, a garden, a woodland burial ground, the family home. What is fixed is the burial or cremation itself, which has to happen at a lawful place. Many families now hold a short committal at the crematorium and the real gathering somewhere else entirely, and it is usually the better funeral.

You do not have to work this out in one sitting

Very little has to be done on the first day, and almost nothing has to be decided tonight. Start with the step-by-step guide, and if you need a person rather than a page, the helplines are free and answered by people who do this every day.

Start with the first steps Where to get help