Funeral homes: the price list and what else the law guarantees you

This is the law regulating who may provide funeral services in Puerto Rico and under what conditions. It covers funeral homes and their facilities, embalmers, caskets, wakes, cemeteries, crematoriums and the transfer of bodies within and outside the jurisdiction. For someone hiring, what matters is that two different agencies enforce it: the Department of Health regulates the trade and maintains the registry, and the Department of Consumer Affairs is the one that approves the regulation on the price list and sanctions non-compliance with a fine, under Article 18 of Act 5-1973. In regulating, the law directs DACO to take into account the content of the Federal Trade Commission’s "Funeral Rule".

Anyone contracting funeral goods or services in Puerto Rico. There is no application, income requirement or prior procedure: these are obligations the law imposes on the establishment and that you can demand at the counter. For the disposition of fetal remains before twenty (20) weeks, Article 4.07 — added by Act 42-2026 — requires that the special certificate for their registration and disposition issued under Article 8 of the Demographic Registry Act accompany the request.

• That the establishment be duly registered: one that is not may not practice or request authorization to bury, embalm, cremate, transfer or receive a body.Verified against the official source
• For fetal remains before twenty (20) weeks: the special certificate for their registration and disposition issued under Article 8 of the Demographic Registry Act.Verified against the official source

• The list or schedule of the costs or prices of each good and service, which the funeral home is obliged to provide to every client.
• The written notice about the rental casket, if you will use one: it must be given to you before signing any agreement.

1. 1

   Step 1: Ask for the price list, and know they owe it to you

   Article 4.05 admits no nuance: every business or establishment engaged in providing funeral goods and services shall provide every client a list or schedule of the costs or prices of each of the goods and services it offers. It is each good and each service, not a closed package. If they refuse it or only offer you a total, that is a violation DACO sanctions with a fine under Article 18 of Act 5-1973.

2. 2

   Step 2: Verify they are registered

   The Department of Health maintains an electronic registry of all funeral homes, crematoriums, funeral directors and embalmers operating in Puerto Rico. The stated purpose is to have reliable data to oversee them and ensure services are provided by those duly authorized. The consequence is direct: any of them not duly registered may not practice or request any authorization to bury, embalm, cremate, transfer or receive a body out of or into Puerto Rico.

3. 3

   Step 3: If the casket is a rental, they must tell you before signing

   Reusing caskets is prohibited, with one exception: rental caskets manufactured to insert alternative cremation containers, in line with the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule. When one of those is used, the funeral agent or director must notify you in writing that the casket you are renting was designed to be reused and may have been used before, and that notice shall be given before signing any agreement. The law adds safeguards: every part that comes into contact with the deceased and the lining is discarded along with the alternative container; a new alternative container must be used each time; a record of rental casket use is kept available for agency review; and when the casket becomes contaminated, stained or cannot be properly sanitized, it must be discarded.

4. 4

   Step 4: Count the wake’s hours

   The wake, provided the body is embalmed, may last up to seventy-two (72) hours after embalming. When for justified reasons it is necessary or convenient to extend it, authorization from the Secretary of Health is required or, failing that, an order from a competent division of the Court of First Instance. If there is no embalming, the viewing may take place provided it occurs before twenty-four (24) hours have elapsed since the death, and in that case an embalmer authorized by the Board must perform the corresponding procedure. The viewing itself is not subject to specific forms or manners and has no limitations, except where health, morals or public order are affected.

5. 5

   Step 5: Know the disposition goes through an authorized funeral home

   The final disposition of human remains, whether by burial, cremation or transfer outside the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico or any other method of disposing of a body, shall be channeled through a funeral home duly authorized by the state and federal laws that apply to it. And if the body has not been embalmed and will be buried directly in a cemetery, it must be placed inside a closed casket or box and not exposed to the public.

6. 6

   Step 6: Gestational loss before twenty weeks

   This is the newest part of the law and worth knowing. Article 4.07, added by Act 42-2026, authorizes funeral homes to receive fetal remains from gestational losses before twenty (20) weeks, provided the special certificate for their registration and disposition issued under Article 8 of the Demographic Registry Act accompanies them. The parents may choose burial in an authorized cemetery, cremation under current regulation, or any other method authorized by the Department of Health. And the law closes it with a prohibition: the funeral home may not refuse to provide this service solely on account of the gestational term of the remains, provided the requirements are met.

There is no application to file: these are obligations demanded at the establishment itself. To claim over the price list, the forum is the Department of Consumer Affairs, which approves the regulation on Article 4.05 and sanctions its violation with a fine under Article 18 of Act 5-1973. For matters of the trade, licenses, embalmers, transfers and the registry, the forum is the Department of Health, which the law charges with amending the necessary regulations and administrative orders. Matters of cemetery siting and facilities correspond to the Permits Management Office.

• Accepting only a total: the law requires giving you the cost list for each good and each service.
• Thinking you must ask for the price list: the law says it is provided to every client.
• Signing for a rental casket without the written notice, which must be delivered before signing.
• Contracting with a funeral home, crematorium, funeral director or embalmer that is not registered.
• Assuming the wake can last indefinitely: it is 72 hours from embalming, and extending it requires authorization.
• Planning a viewing without embalming more than 24 hours after the death.
• Believing the funeral home may refuse a gestational loss before 20 weeks because of the gestational term.
• Taking a price complaint to the Department of Health, when DACO sanctions that part.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico

  Salud

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Health

  Salud

  www.salud.pr.gov

• DACO services

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov