Guide

Funeral costs: who pays, and what if the money is not there

Checked on 05.11.2026

Translated from German. Where anything differs, the German text counts: Deutsche Fassung

The undertaker's invoice arrives in the first weeks, often addressed to whoever called first. Whether that person is left with it depends on three questions the law answers separately: Who must arrange the funeral? Who placed the order? Who bears the cost in the end?

Three questions, three answers

• Who must arrange the funeral? The funeral laws of the federal states decide. The closest relatives are obliged in a fixed order, usually the spouse or civil partner first, then the children, then parents and siblings. This duty does not depend on whether one inherits.
• Who owes the undertaker? Whoever signed the order. The undertaker holds its contracting party to it.
• Who bears the cost in the end? The heirs: "The heir bears the costs of the funeral of the deceased" (§ 1968 BGB). Whoever ordered and paid without being the sole heir can claim reimbursement from the estate.

What is included

The costs of a funeral appropriate to the deceased's station in life are borne: undertaker, coffin or urn, grave, service, headstone, notices. Tending the grave in the years after is, on the widely held view, not included unless the deceased provided otherwise.

If the inheritance is rejected

Whoever rejects the inheritance is not an heir and does not bear the costs under § 1968 BGB. The duty to arrange the funeral under state law remains, however: the municipality can claim the costs of a funeral it arranged from the obliged relatives, even if they rejected the inheritance. More in Rejecting an inheritance.

If the money is not there

The necessary costs of a funeral are covered by the social welfare office insofar as the obliged persons cannot reasonably be expected to bear them (§ 74 SGB XII). The income and assets of the obliged persons count, and what can be obtained from the estate. A simple, dignified funeral is covered. The obliged person applies to the social welfare office, ideally before placing orders that go beyond that.

What helps

• A written quote before the order, with every item. A lot is promised in the first conversation.
• Look for provisions: a funeral insurance, a prepaid funeral contract, a trust account. Often something is among the papers.
• Ask the bank. Many banks pay the funeral invoice directly from the deceased's account, on presentation of the invoice and the death certificate, even before the certificate of inheritance.
• Keep every invoice and record who paid it. Co-heirs settle up by it later.