Funeral disbursements
The third party fees a funeral director pays on your behalf, which no firm sets and no firm can discount.
What this covers
The standardised price list splits the funeral director's own charges from the money they hand to somebody else. That second group is the disbursements: the cremation or burial fee, the officiant, and medical fees where they apply.
They matter for comparison rather than negotiation. A firm cannot compete on a cremation fee, so two quotes that differ on disbursements usually describe different crematoria rather than different value. Ask whether the figures are confirmed or an allowance, because an allowance that falls short appears on the final invoice rather than in the comparison you made.
Common questions
- Can I pay the disbursements directly rather than through the funeral director?
- Usually yes, and some families prefer to. It makes no difference to the total, but it makes the funeral director's own fee visible on its own, which is the figure worth comparing between firms.
- Are disbursements included in the published price?
- They are listed on the standardised price list but shown separately from the funeral director's charges, which is exactly why the format was mandated. A headline price that excludes them is not a lower price.
Related
Part of funeral costs. Every figure on this site comes from the published fee dataset.