Wisconsin Funeral Costs: Prices, Rules and Help Paying

Wisconsin has no official average funeral price. The NFDA's 2023 national medians were $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial and $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation, and what you pay depends on the funeral home you use. If the person who died was on Medicaid or SSI, the Wisconsin Funeral and Cemetery Aids Program can pay a funeral home up to $1,500 and a cemetery or crematory up to $1,000.

How much does a funeral cost in Wisconsin?

The NFDA medians leave out the cemetery plot, the opening and closing fee and the marker. No verified Wisconsin-wide price survey turned up in our research, so treat any "Wisconsin average" you see online with caution. The Funeral Consumers Alliance has affiliates for the Fox Valley and Greater Milwaukee that keep local price information for members.

Direct cremation, with no viewing or service, is the lowest-cost option at most funeral homes; see what direct cremation is. The price differs by provider, which is why comparing written lists matters.

How do you compare Wisconsin funeral homes?

The FTC Funeral Rule gives you the same rights in every state:

• Funeral homes must give you prices over the phone without asking for your name or address.
• You are entitled to a General Price List to keep and an itemized statement of what you are buying.
• You can pick individual items instead of a package. The basic services fee is the one charge you cannot decline.
• A funeral home cannot refuse a casket or urn you bought elsewhere or charge you a fee to handle it.

Call at least three homes and ask for the total for the exact service you want. See how to read a General Price List.

What costs extra?

The funeral home's price usually leaves out the cemetery plot, the opening and closing fee, any grave liner and the marker. Cash advance items, meaning money the funeral home pays to others on your behalf, can include certified death certificates, the obituary, flowers and payments to clergy or musicians. Cremation may also need a release from the coroner or medical examiner. Ask the funeral home whether that applies and whether a fee for it appears on the bill.

Is embalming required?

The FTC says no state requires embalming for every death, and you can choose direct cremation or immediate burial without it. Many funeral homes require embalming for an open-casket public viewing as their own policy. If you want a viewing without embalming, ask about a private family viewing with refrigeration. See embalming and the law.

Who decides about the funeral?

Wisconsin offers a state form called the Authorization for Final Disposition, form F-00086. It lets you name the person who will make decisions about burial or cremation after your death. The Department of Health Services says the form is based on Wisconsin Statutes chapter 154 and must be completed in full and signed to be valid, and the form itself has the signing instructions. The form is also available in several other languages, including Spanish and Hmong.

If there is no form, the funeral home will ask who the legal next of kin is. Disagreements between relatives can hold up arrangements and extend storage charges, so a signed form is worth having. It sits alongside your advance directive and living will.

Can the state help pay? The Funeral and Cemetery Aids Program

The Wisconsin Funeral and Cemetery Aids Program (WFCAP) helps pay funeral, cemetery and crematory providers for people who were enrolled in certain public programs. The Department of Health Services lists these programs as qualifying:

• BadgerCare Plus
• Wisconsin Works (W-2)
• Medicaid for the elderly, blind or disabled
• Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver
• Family Care
• Tuberculosis-related Medicaid
• Katie Beckett Medicaid
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

The person who died may also qualify if they were Medicaid-eligible at death without being enrolled. In that case the decedent's representative or family must apply for a posthumous eligibility decision.

The program pays up to $1,500 for funeral expenses and up to $1,000 for cemetery and crematory expenses. Only the service provider submits the application, on form F-10141, so tell the funeral director at the start that you want to use the program and ask how it affects your total. The state program contact is 888-859-0611. See Medicaid funeral assistance for how these programs fit together.

Death certificates in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Vital Records Office charges $20 for the first certified copy and $3 for each additional copy of the same record. You can order through VitalChek (about five business days), by mail (about ten business days after receipt), or through your county Register of Deeds. The Milwaukee City Health Office and the Southwest Suburban Health Department (West Allis and Greenfield) also issue certificates. State law limits who can get a certified copy, and you need valid ID. See how many death certificates you need.

Other ways to cover the cost

• Social Security. A one-time $255 death payment is available to certain survivors.
• Veterans. A VA national cemetery provides a gravesite, opening and closing, and a headstone or marker at no cost to eligible veterans. For a private cemetery, the VA burial allowance is up to $1,002 for a non-service-connected death on or after October 1, 2025 (up to $1,032 for deaths on or after October 1, 2026), plus an equal plot allowance. See veterans burial benefits.
• Life insurance and the estate. Ask the funeral home whether it accepts an assignment of benefits from an insurer.
• If money is tight. Our guide on what to do if you cannot afford a funeral covers county help, crowdfunding and payment plans.

If something goes wrong

Wisconsin funeral directors are licensed by the Department of Safety and Professional Services under chapter 445 of the Wisconsin Statutes. You can check a license or file a complaint with that department, which lists 608-266-2112 as its phone number.

What to do next

1. Ask three funeral homes for a General Price List and compare the same service.
2. If the person was on Medicaid, BadgerCare Plus or SSI, tell the funeral director you want to apply for WFCAP before you sign.
3. Find out whether a signed Authorization for Final Disposition exists.
4. Order the death certificates you need at $20 for the first copy and $3 for each extra.