Last updated 2026-08-19
TL;DR
Delaware does not issue a home funeral license. Families caring for their own dead generally do not need a funeral director license. Selling funeral services to others does. Death certificates and disposition permits still run through the Delaware death-records office, and a funeral director often files them. Confirm the current paper path with that office and the Board of Funeral Services before you act.
Do you need a license for a home funeral in Delaware?
No. Delaware does not issue a home funeral license, and a family that cares for its own dead is not asked to hold a funeral director license.
The license on the books is for people who practice funeral services for the public. Title 24, Chapter 31 creates the Board of Funeral Services and treats unlicensed practice as a commercial problem, not a kitchen-table problem. [1] The statute states, "The primary objective of the Board of Funeral Services, to which all other objectives and purposes are secondary, is to protect the general public." [1] That sentence is about people who sell funeral work. It is not a ban on washing and sitting with your parent in a spare room in Dover or Georgetown.
People mix up two permissions. One is the right to be the family. The other is the right to run a trade. Delaware's funeral chapter is a trade statute. [1] The application forms on the Division of Professional Regulation site are trade forms. [3] If you are not sending an invoice to another household, you are not the board's licensing customer.
If you plan to charge other families, or hold yourself out as the person who will run their funeral, stop. That is licensed work. You would apply through the Division of Professional Regulation, and you would usually need a licensed funeral establishment too. [2][3] Confirm the current license classes and any intern path on the board's new-license page. Fees move. I will not invent one.
A lot of national blogs collapse this into "Delaware is a funeral-director state" and then stop. That is lazy. The honest split is simple. No special home funeral Delaware license for your own dead. Yes a real license if you turn it into a business. Yes a paper path that still often runs through a funeral home, because death-records systems are built for funeral homes. [7][9]
License is the wrong first question if someone just died. Filing is the first question.
How much does a home funeral cost in Delaware?
A family-led home funeral in Delaware can land in the low hundreds if you already hold a cemetery right and you only pay for certificates, ice, and a simple covering. It can also climb into the low thousands once a crematory fee, a cemetery opening charge, or a funeral home cash advance hits the invoice. Nobody publishes a clean Delaware home-funeral average. I would not trust anyone who pretends they do.
The comparison set is the commercial funeral. The 2023 NFDA General Price List Study put the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial at $8,300. [6] The same study put the median funeral with cremation at $6,280. [6] The FTC still tells families a traditional funeral including a casket and vault "costs about $8,000," with extras pushing many funerals "well over $10,000." [5]
Those figures are national medians, not a Wilmington price list. Ask the funeral home in front of you for its General Price List. The FTC Funeral Rule "makes it possible for you to choose only those goods and services you want or need and to pay only for those you select." [4]
What I would actually spend money on: certified copies of the death certificate (that is a state fee, confirm it with the Delaware death-records office), the crematory or cemetery's own invoice, dry ice or a rental cooling unit if the vigil lasts more than a day, and a funeral home's minimum professional service if you need them to file. [9] What I would not buy: a sealer casket for a home vigil you already plan to end in cremation. That is a waste.
| Line item | Who sets the price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Certified death certificate | Delaware death-records office | Confirm the current fee. Do not use an old blog number. [9] |
| Funeral home minimum / filing help | That home's GPL | The FTC Rule lets you buy only what you select. [4] |
| Direct cremation | Funeral home or crematory | Often the biggest check if you skip earth burial. |
| Cemetery opening and closing | The cemetery | Separate from a plot you may already own. |
| Cooling, shroud, plain wood box | You | Shop ice and fabric, not a boutique kit. |
| National median full burial funeral | NFDA, 2023 | $8,300, for comparison only. [6] |
If you want another state's family-cost picture, read Home funeral cost in Vermont and Home funeral cost in Arizona. Delaware will not match either market.
How long does a home funeral take in Delaware?
Most home funerals in Delaware take two to four days from death to burial or cremation if the death is expected, the physician will sign, and the crematory or cemetery has a slot. Some wrap in 24 hours. Some stretch a week when the Division of Forensic Science holds the body or a relative is still in the air.
There is no board clock that says a home vigil must end on night two. Cooling is what buys you time. Without embalming, I would plan on a one to three day window and keep the room cold. If someone promises you a week at room temperature, they are not being kind. They are being sloppy.
Paper adds time. A death certificate has to be completed before final disposition. Title 16, Chapter 31 is the death-registration statute. [7] The Delaware death-records office can tell you the current filing deadline and whether a next of kin can complete an electronic record without a funeral director login. [9] I will not invent a processing time. Those change with staffing and with the electronic system.
Hospitals will push for a rapid release to a funeral home because that is their workflow. You can say no and still move at a decent speed. The slow part is almost never the washing. The slow part is a physician who does not return the cause-of-death call, or a crematory that is closed Sunday. Build those lags into the plan.
If the death is reportable, the Division of Forensic Science can add days you cannot bargain with. [8][10] Do not schedule a Saturday cemetery service until you know the body is actually releasable. Crematory backlogs are local. Call the crematory, not a national blog.
What license does Delaware issue if you want to work with other families?
Delaware licenses funeral directors and funeral establishments through the Board of Funeral Services, under the Division of Professional Regulation. [2][3] It does not license home funeral guides, death midwives, or family death-care educators as a substitute for that director license.
If your plan is to advertise home funeral Delaware packages, wash bodies for a fee, or file everything for strangers, you are in licensed territory. Read 24 Del. C. Chapter 31 and 24 DE Admin. Code 3100 before you print a business card. [1][2] The admin code is the practical document. Establishment standards live there.
I would not try to dodge this with a consulting-only website. Boards read websites. If you want the credential, use the board's new-license instructions, sit whatever exam they currently require, and confirm intern hours with them, not with a podcast. [3] Confirm today's fee schedule on that same board site. I am not going to guess it.
Other states draw the line in different ink. Home funeral license in Washington and home funeral license in Arizona are not Delaware. Do not import their exemptions.
Can you keep someone at home after death without a funeral director?
Yes, in the ordinary expected-death case, a family can keep the body at home for a short vigil without hiring a funeral director to stand in the hallway. Nothing in the funeral-services chapter requires a licensee to be physically present in your house. [1]
That is not the same as no funeral director will be involved. Removal from a hospital, nursing home, or hospice often runs through a funeral home because the facility's release desk is built that way. Argue with the facility in writing before the death if you want a home release. Do it after the fact and you will lose a day to their policy, not to the statute.
Hospice can help. A nurse who has already been in the house can handle pronouncement under the rules that apply to that hospice. Expected death at home is the cleanest fact pattern. A collapse in a parking lot is not.
Keep the room cool. Use dry ice or a portable cooling unit. Limit who handles fluids if you do not have training. This is family care, not a prep room. If that sentence bothers you, hire a funeral home for the body and keep the memorial at home. That hybrid is sane.
Who files the death certificate and the disposition papers?
In real Delaware practice, a funeral director usually files the death certificate and obtains the papers the crematory or cemetery will demand. The legal home for that process is Title 16, Chapter 31, plus whatever electronic death-registration system the Delaware death-records office is running this year. [7][9]
I am not going to tell you that you can just file it yourself because a 2014 forum post said so. Electronic systems lock accounts to funeral establishments. Ask the Delaware death-records office, by name, whether a next of kin can be the filer on the current system. Get the answer in writing if you can.
Cemeteries and crematories will not take a body on a handshake. They want a permit. That permit is why families who want a home funeral still write a check to a funeral home for minimum services. The FTC Rule still applies to that check. You may refuse the casket, the chapel, and the printed prayer cards. [4][11]
Certified copies are a separate errand. You will want several for banks and life insurance. Order them from the Delaware death-records office and confirm today's fee on their death-records page. [9] CDC's death-registration program treats the death certificate as the permanent legal record of the fact of death, which is why banks and insurers keep asking for it. [12]
If you are the sort of person who wants the statutes printed and tabbed before a hospice intake, that is the one place I point people to the Home-Funeral Legality Kit on /start. It is a $149 one-time packet. It is not legal advice. HomeFuneralPath is an independent publisher, not a law firm and not a funeral home.
When does Delaware's medical examiner step in?
When the death is not a routine attended death. Title 29, Chapter 47 puts certain deaths with the Division of Forensic Science. [8] Violence, suicide, suspicion, a person who was not under a doctor's care, and deaths that fall under state investigation leave the family living room and enter a state process. [8][10]
Call 911 if the death is sudden and unattended. Do not move the body to start the home funeral before someone official says you may. That is how families get themselves into a very bad morning.
Once Forensic Science has jurisdiction, your timeline is their timeline. They examine, they release, or they do not. I would not promise relatives a Thursday vigil until the release is real.
Attended hospice deaths rarely go this way. That is one reason people who want a home funeral work with hospice early. An expected death with a physician already in the chart is the path that actually stays in the house.
What papers should you gather before someone dies?
Gather the facts the death certificate will ask for, plus the documents a crematory or cemetery will want. You want the person's legal name, date and place of birth, Social Security number, parents' names including the mother's birth name, veteran status, and the next-of-kin phone tree. You want the cemetery deed or the cremation authorization the crematory actually uses.
If there is a will, find it. If there is a prepaid funeral contract, find that too. A prepaid contract can lock you into a funeral home you did not plan to call. Read it before you describe a home funeral to the rest of the family.
Write down the attending physician or hospice medical director. The cause-of-death block needs a medical signer. No signer, no certificate, no disposition. [7][12]
I would also write a one-page family plan. Who washes. Who calls the physician. Who calls the crematory. Who does not post photos. Grief makes people sloppy. A page on the fridge is not morbid. It is useful.
Compare the tone of how to start a home funeral in California if you want a longer pre-death checklist from a different legal world. California is not Delaware.
Can you bury a body on private property in Delaware?
Do not assume yes. Delaware is small, heavily zoned, and short on romantic homestead acreage. I have not seen a statewide statute that hands families a clean right to backyard burial. Treat this as a county land-use question plus a death-records question, not as folklore.
Call the planning or zoning office in New Castle County, Kent County, or Sussex County, depending on the land. Ask whether that county has a health or cemetery rule on private interment. Ask the Delaware death-records office what disposition types they will actually permit on the current form. [9]
If any of those offices hesitate, use an established cemetery. A plot and an opening fee are cheaper than disinterring someone because a neighbor complained.
Home burial is where national you-have-the-right essays go to die. If you want a state that talks about family disposition in a different way, read home funeral license in Colorado as a comparison, then come back and call your Delaware county anyway.
Home funeral or funeral home, what actually changes in Delaware?
The body can stay in the house. The memorial can happen in the house. Embalming can be skipped. That is the real change.
The legal fact of death still becomes a Delaware death certificate. [7] The cemetery or crematory still wants a permit. A licensee still often files. The Board of Funeral Services still exists to police people who sell funeral services. [1][2]
So the fork is not regulated versus unregulated. The fork is how much of the labor and the markup you keep in the family.
I would use a funeral home for filing and for the crematory slot, and I would do the washing, sitting, and service myself. That is the hybrid I think wastes the least money and the least nerve. Full independence is a fine goal. It is a rough first project if the electronic filing door is shut.
If you are comparing board cultures, Home funeral board in Alabama is a different animal. So is home funeral license in Alaska.
How do you confirm the current board rules before you act?
You read the statute, you read the admin code, then you call the two offices that can say no.
Board of Funeral Services, Division of Professional Regulation, for anything that looks like practice or a business. [2][3] Delaware death-records office, Division of Public Health, for the death certificate, permits, and certified copies. [9] Division of Forensic Science if the death is reportable. [8][10]
Print 24 Del. C. Chapter 31 and 24 DE Admin. Code 3100 the same day. [1][2] Print Title 16, Chapter 31. [7] Keep the PDFs, not a screenshot of a Facebook comment. If a clerk tells you something that contradicts the code, ask which section they are using. Good clerks will name it. Bad advice evaporates when you ask for a citation.
Confirm fees with those offices. Confirm whether a family filer can use the electronic system. Confirm whether the crematory you called will accept a family-delivered body. Get names and dates on the call sheet.
Do not treat this article as a permit. It is a map. Maps go stale. The code pages stay current longer than a blog.
What would you actually do for a death at home in Delaware?
I would not apply for a funeral license. I would not open a prep room. I would call hospice early, type the one-page plan, and ask a nearby funeral home for its General Price List under the Funeral Rule. [4][11]
I would ask, straight out, what they charge to file the certificate and deliver to the crematory, and I would decline everything else. I would keep the person at home if the death is expected and the house can be kept cold. I would skip embalming. I would order extra death certificates from the death-records office, not from a reseller if I can help it. [9]
If a relative wanted to turn this into a paid home-funeral trade, I would send them to the board's new-license page and wish them a long exam season. [3]
For the statute stack in one place, use the packet at /start if you want it printed. Or print Title 24, Chapter 31 and Title 16, Chapter 31 yourself. [1][7] Free is fine. Guessing is not.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a license for home funeral in Delaware?
No. Delaware does not issue a home funeral license. A family caring for its own dead generally does not need a funeral director license. A person who wants to sell funeral services to other families needs a Delaware funeral director license and usually a funeral establishment license. Confirm both paths with the Board of Funeral Services before you advertise anything.
How much does home funeral cost in Delaware?
A family-led home funeral can cost a few hundred dollars if you only pay certificates, cooling, and a simple covering, or a few thousand once crematory or cemetery invoices appear. There is no official Delaware home-funeral average. The 2023 NFDA median for a funeral with viewing and burial is $8,300, which is the commercial comparison, not your required bill.
How long does home funeral take in Delaware?
Plan on two to four days from death to burial or cremation when the death is expected and the physician will sign. Some families finish in 24 hours. Cooling, not a statute, sets how long a body can stay at home without embalming. Medical examiner cases and crematory schedules can add days. Confirm filing deadlines with the Delaware death-records office.
Can I file a Delaware death certificate myself?
Ask the Delaware death-records office before you assume yes. Title 16, Chapter 31 governs death registration, but Delaware's electronic system is built for funeral establishments. In practice a funeral director usually files. A next-of-kin filing may or may not be available on the current system. Get that answer from the office, in writing if you can.
Does Delaware allow burial on private land?
Do not count on it. There is no clean statewide backyard-burial right I would rely on. Zoning, county health rules, and the disposition type on the death-records form all matter. Call the county planning office and the Delaware death-records office before you promise anyone a home burial. An established cemetery is the safer default.
Is embalming required for a home funeral in Delaware?
Not as a general family-care rule. Federal law does not require embalming, and Delaware does not use embalming as the on-switch for keeping someone at home for a short, cooled vigil. Refrigeration or dry ice is what actually matters. Interstate shipment and long delays are different facts. Confirm any special case with the funeral home or the death-records office.
What if the death in Delaware is unexpected?
Call 911 and do not start a home funeral. Unattended, violent, or suspicious deaths go to the Division of Forensic Science under Title 29, Chapter 47. Your vigil clock does not start until the body is released. Hospice-attended expected deaths are the fact pattern that actually stays in the house.
Can I transport a body in my own car in Delaware?
Do not load a body and drive based on a national blog. Cemeteries and crematories want a permit, and some facilities will not accept a family delivery. Ask the Delaware death-records office what the current removal and transit rules are, then ask the receiving cemetery or crematory what they will take. Get both answers before you move anyone.
Who can authorize cremation in Delaware?
Crematories follow a next-of-kin or authorizing-agent order, plus their own form. The person with legal authority is not always the person who washed the body. Find the crematory's authorization form before death and see whose signature they want. If relatives disagree, a funeral home will not guess for you, and a home funeral will not override that fight.
Does the FTC Funeral Rule apply if I only want papers filed?
Yes, if you are buying any goods or services from a funeral home. The Funeral Rule requires an itemized General Price List and lets you select only what you want. You can buy filing help and a crematory delivery and decline the casket, chapel, and printed cards. Ask for the GPL in person and keep it.
Can a death doula replace a funeral director in Delaware?
No, not for licensed funeral practice. A doula or guide can sit with a family, help plan a vigil, and keep the room organized. They cannot lawfully stand in for a funeral director if the work is the practice of funeral services for the public. Filing access, establishment rules, and the Board of Funeral Services still sit where the statute put them.
Where do I confirm current Delaware funeral license fees?
On the Division of Professional Regulation Board of Funeral Services pages, not in an article. Fees, exam steps, and intern hours change. The new-license and exams pages are the live documents. Call the board if the PDF and the clerk disagree. I will not quote a fee I cannot see on today's schedule.
Sources
- Delaware Code, Title 24, Chapter 31, Subchapter I (Board of Funeral Services): Delaware regulates commercial funeral services through Title 24, Chapter 31 and does not create a home funeral license class.
- Delaware Administrative Code, Title 24, 3100 Board of Funeral Services: Board rules set licensure, establishment, and practice standards for funeral services in Delaware.
- Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, Funeral Services new license page: Funeral director licensure applications run through DPR; current classes and fees must be confirmed with the board.
- Federal Trade Commission, FTC Funeral Rule (consumer page): Families may choose only the funeral goods and services they want and pay only for those they select.
- Federal Trade Commission, Shopping for Funeral Services: A traditional funeral including a casket and vault costs about $8,000, and many funerals run well over $10,000.
- National Funeral Directors Association, Statistics: The 2023 NFDA General Price List Study reported a national median of $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial and $6,280 for a funeral with cremation.
- Delaware Code, Title 16, Chapter 31, Subchapter II (death registration): Death registration and related death-event filing in Delaware are governed by Title 16, Chapter 31.
- Delaware Code, Title 29, Chapter 47 (Division of Forensic Science): Certain deaths are assigned to state forensic investigation rather than routine family or funeral-home handling.
- Delaware Division of Public Health, death-records office: The Delaware death-records office is the filing and certified-copy office for Delaware death records; current fees must be confirmed there.
- Delaware Division of Forensic Science: The Division of Forensic Science handles medical-examiner work on deaths that fall under state investigation.
- Federal Trade Commission, Complying with the Funeral Rule: Funeral homes must give a General Price List to anyone who asks in person about funeral goods, services, or prices.
- CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Mortality data: The death certificate is the permanent legal record of the fact of death used for disposition and later legal claims.