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Funeral planning, in plain words

Leave clear instructions before grief takes over

Write down your wishes, ask sharper questions, and hand your family a folder they can actually find.

Funeral Rule

Sound on — Wilbur Headley explains everything in 4 minutes

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1 Books · 106 Pages · 11 Chapters · 2 Methods · 3 Tables · 4 Checklists · 3 Glossary terms

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106Pages
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When ordinary paperwork becomes a family argument

After a death, clear instructions can matter more than confident opinions. A few written choices and a findable folder give the people at the arrangement table somewhere practical to begin.

  • A dresser holds the funeral papers, but nobody knows which drawer to open while relatives wait for answers.
  • The first phone call sends a family straight to a funeral home before anyone asks about prices, authority, or existing plans.
  • Package language blurs the difference between a required charge, a cemetery rule, and an item the family can decline.
  • Siblings disagree over burial, cremation, or a parent’s wishes while paperwork and a bill grow harder to sort through.
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The numbers, in plain sight

The numbers, in plain sight

Funeral Rule

A traditional funeral with viewing and burial (national median, not counting cemetery costs)NFDA 2023 General Price List Study
$8,300
A burial vault (a rule at many cemeteries, not a state law)NFDA 2023 General Price List Study
$1,695
A metal burial casket (national median)NFDA 2023 General Price List Study
$2,500
The complete offer
$17
Get the handbook $17

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The book

What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family

What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family

The book / 01

What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family

The Plainspoken Funeral Planning Handbook

A useful plan is not a perfect ceremony. It is a clear page, a few current questions, and a handoff your family can find.

This 106-page handbook in 11 chapters begins where families actually begin: with the first phone call, a missing folder, and a room full of decisions. Wilbur explains how to record wishes without confusing a plan with a contract; how the Funeral Rule, a General Price List, and an itemized statement can help you ask better questions; and how to separate a cemetery requirement from a funeral-home suggestion. Chapters on caskets, vaults, embalming, cremation, and prepaid plans include scripts, comparisons, checklists, and a contract anatomy. The final chapters turn those lessons into a findable family folder and a first-48-hours handoff. It is written for older adults and the people who may speak for them when grief makes ordinary paperwork hard to manage.

Selected chapters

  1. Plan Before Grief Makes the Decisions
  2. The First Call Should Not Choose the Funeral Home
  3. Your Price List Is a Consumer Tool
  4. At the Arrangement Table, Use Plain Words
  5. Caskets, Vaults, and Embalming Without the Sales Fog
  6. Cremation Has Choices Too
  7. Prepaid Plans: Read What Is Really Guaranteed
  8. Write the Plan Your Family Can Use

106 · PDF + EPUB

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Selected chapters

Three places to begin

You can read straight through, or open the chapter that matches the job in front of you. Each entry point turns a difficult conversation into a page, a question, or a handoff.

  1. Plan Before Grief Makes the Decisions

    Write down your preferred disposition, the people to call, faith or cultural practices, and where the important papers are kept. Then separate a wish sheet from a financial contract.

  2. At the Arrangement Table, Use Plain Words

    Practice asking for the General Price List, identifying what is required, declining what you do not want, and taking the written choices home before signing.

  3. Hand This to Your Family

    Use the first-48-hours handoff to name who should be called, what should not be rushed, which papers to locate, and how to leave room for grieving.

Get the handbook $17

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Look inside

See the work before you buy

Open a page and read Wilbur's account of a funeral plan found too late in a dresser drawer. The previews also show his plain treatment of the first call, price questions, written wishes, and the difference between planning ahead and prepaying ahead.

1 Books · 106 Pages · 11 Chapters · 2 Methods · 3 Tables · 4 Checklists · 3 Glossary terms

Page 5 — Plan Before Grief Makes the Decisions
Page 5 — Plan Before Grief Makes the Decisions ↗
Page 13 — The First Call Should Not Choose the Funeral Home
Page 13 — The First Call Should Not Choose the Funeral Home ↗
Page 22 — Your Price List Is a Consumer Tool
Page 22 — Your Price List Is a Consumer Tool ↗
Page 31 — At the Arrangement Table, Use Plain Words
Page 31 — At the Arrangement Table, Use Plain Words ↗
Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

What you get

The complete offer

You receive one 106-page digital handbook in PDF and EPUB formats. It contains 11 chapters, 3 tables, 4 checklists, 2 methods, and 3 glossary terms.

What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family

Your order

What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family

$17

106-page digital book in PDF and EPUB formats

1 Books · 106 Pages · 11 Chapters · 2 Methods · 3 Tables · 4 Checklists · 3 Glossary terms

  • What the Funeral Home Won't Tell Your Family · 106 · PDF + EPUB
  • Instant digital download. Right after checkout you get the PDF and EPUB by email, ready to read on any phone, tablet or computer, or to print at home and keep with your papers.
Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

Wilbur Headley

From the author

A funeral director who has answered the phone

I live and work in a small Ohio town, in the funeral home that still bears my grandfather's name. I am a third-generation funeral director. For 38 years I have answered our overnight phone and personally buried approximately 6,000 people, nearly all here. My wife jokes that I come home smelling like chemicals and roses.

I have sold caskets, reviewed other funeral homes' bills, and sat between estranged siblings while they tried to make arrangements. I have waited in my car while a family spent time with someone who had died, and I have followed the religious practices of families from many faiths. I was once called the worst salesman in three counties. I took it as a compliment.

— Wilbur Headley

Get the handbook $17

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30-day money-back guarantee

Read it and put it to use. If it is not right for you, request your refund within 30 days.

30-day money-back guarantee. If the book isn't for you, email within 30 days of purchase and you'll get every dollar back, no questions asked. You keep the book either way.

No questions asked

Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

This is for you if

Who I wrote this for

This is for you if

  • You want to put your funeral wishes, contacts, and papers in a folder your family can actually locate.
  • You are helping an older adult compare arrangements, understand a price list, or review a prepaid plan.
Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

What you can work toward

What you can work toward

AI-generated illustrations of potential readers.

Put your wishes where people can find them

Use the planning pages to record burial or cremation preferences, service wishes, people to call, faith practices, and the location of important papers.

AI-generated illustrations of potential readers.

Ask better questions at the arrangement table

Use Wilbur's scripts to request prices, distinguish required from optional charges, compare funeral homes, and take an itemized statement home.

AI-generated illustrations of potential readers.

Give your family a calmer first 48 hours

Build a readable handoff for the first call, existing documents, decision-maker, cemetery or crematory details, and the decisions that can wait.

AI-generated illustrations of potential readers.

Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

Ask Wilbur

Questions

How is the book organized?

Under the federal Funeral Rule, consumers have rights concerning price information and the ability to select only the goods and services they want, though state law and special circumstances can change the details.

Do I need funeral-planning experience to use this book?

No. It starts with ordinary decisions: where to put the papers, who should be called, what to ask for by phone, and how to write down wishes without arranging every detail at once.

What does the book cover?

It covers the first call after a death, the Funeral Rule and price lists, arrangement-meeting language, caskets, vaults, embalming, cremation, prepaid plans, family folders, and the first 48 hours.

Does it explain the Funeral Rule?

Yes. It explains that under the Funeral Rule, consumers have rights concerning price information and the ability to select only the goods and services they want, though state law and special circumstances can change the details.

What formats are included?

The book is available as PDF and EPUB editions.

How long is the book?

It is 106 pages across 11 chapters, with practical tables, checklists, scripts, comparisons, and planning pages.

How is the book delivered?

It is an instant digital download. After checkout, the PDF and EPUB are sent by email within minutes, ready to read on a phone, tablet, or computer.

How does the money-back guarantee work?

The seller offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Email within 30 days of purchase and receive every dollar back, no questions asked; you keep the book either way.

Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription

Put the next decision on paper

You do not need to become a funeral expert. Start with the page your family will need, make it findable, and let the book help you ask plain questions.

Get the handbook $17

Within minutes of purchase · 30-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked · One payment, no subscription