Do funeral homes make money off death certificates when the survivor orders them?

All they are doing is printing it up and putting their raised seal on it, so for $20 each, yes, they’re making money off of them.

I could see having two original copies but I can’t see the logic of having 10.

She just did what they told her to do.
I thought certificates, marriage, birth, death etc, had to come from the state.

I tried to copy a link but it wasn’t working.
The DC said it was a certified copy from the Office of Vital Statistical in Topeka KS.
The funeral home didn’t print them.

Also @jca2, they are legal documents. Only government entities, like the Office of Vital Statistics, located in the state’s capitals can send them out.
I had to send one to the Social Security office, along with my official marriage certificate.

Of course they did. Funeral homes will bill you to death

And they saw Gena coming from a mile away.

I’m going to call Topeka today.

@Dutchess_III The funeral home types up the death certificate and they issue it initially, then they file it with the state. The funeral home gets the information about the deceased from the family and from the pathologist.

Well, I talked to them. It’s $20 per copy. So no profit there.

@jca2 yes. The funeral home sends the information they gather to the state.
The key is certified. Only the state can generate certified copies. The funeral home can not.
We got the copies a couple of weeks after the funeral.
It is a legal document.
The name of the funeral home is no where on it.

Yes, it’s a legal document, @Dutchess_III.

And the funeral homes can not generate legal documents.

I don’t understand why you’re going on, @Dutchess_III.

Death certificates are submitted by the funeral parlor. See #2 in this link:

https://www.funeralbasics.org/beginners-guide-death-certificates/

More information about where one can obtain a death certificate:
https://www.funerals360.com/blog/funeral-planning/death-certificates/

Since you already have one and it was obtained by the funeral parlor, I don’t understand what your point is, why you continue to argue about it.

The information is obtained by the funeral parlor and typed up by the funeral parlor, in conjunction with the family and the pathologist, and submitted to the state.

Kansas: Completed by the funeral director:
n Kansas, death certificates are completed by a physician or coroner, and the funeral director.

Taken from here: https://legacero.com/blog/how-to-get-a-death-certificate-in-kansas/

I’m reacting to your comment above: ”All they are doing is printing it up and putting their raised seal on it, so for $20 each, yes, they’re making money off of them.”

No, they don’t print them off. They send the info collected to the state and the state certifies them and sends the requested number of copies to the funeral home who then forwards them to whoever asked for them.

No there is no raised seal on the copies we get. Maybe there is one on what they send to the state. Kind of like an oath.

No they don’t make money. The state charges $20 for each copy and they pass that cost on to the family.

@Dutchess_III If you knew the answer, which is that the state charges $20 and the funeral parlor charges $20, thereby making no money, for what reason did you ask this question? Was it just to argue?

I didn’t know the answer until I called the state today.
They are just notorious for squeezing every bit of money out of the grieving family that they can.
I bet the “viewing” was their idea, and that was almost half the cost of the funeral.
I’ve been to 6 ceremonies for people who were cremated. Not one had an actual viewing. Just an urn standing in.
I’m sure they recoup that death certificate money elsewhere in the whole deal.

I don’t know, but it looks like you have the answer now. I can tell you we were advised to get many more than we did, I think we ordered 5 in the end. My sister would remember. We were cheap about it.

Fretting about $200 in a $6000 bill seems a little silly to me. And often you need multiple death certificates for things like life insurance, Social Security, etc.

It was my $6,000 @janbb. She got suckered and I had to pay for it.
She got 9 and shoved them in a drawer because she had no use for them.
I got 1. Until she brought me the ones she had.
It’s been 3 months and I’ve used 2 of them. And they will send them back.
And actually I’m fretting over about $3,000 of it.

I wonder why they’re so bent on having people order so many @JLeslie? What did they tell you and your sister?

@Dutchess_III I wasn’t there, but the basic message was you’re going to need them and you don’t want to run out and have to order more.

My sister knew that for most companies you have to present an original, but then the place you are presenting it to is supposed to make a copy and return the original, so she didn’t buy as many as they suggested.

I only had a problem with one place that the woman working there insisted she needed to keep the original. I don’t even remember where.

I’m calling again tomorrow and find out what it takes to get copies directly from the state after it’s been certified.
I’ve only had to give certified copies to Social Security and they said they’d send it back.
I’m taking one to the DMVu in person. Bet they make a copy and give the original back (per a Jelly thread I read not too long ago.)
If all I’m out is some time and convenience, that’s worth $180 to me.

I have never had to deal with this ever before. I’m learning.

My Dad died back in the stone age when stock certificates were physical pieces of paper.
had to mail a death certificate to each company so I could change the name on that specific stock certificate. I needed the multiple copies. (I think I ordered 10.)