Questions Families Ask

Your loved one is transported into our care, sheltered in refrigeration while the permits are filed, cremated by a local certified specialist, and the cremated remains are returned to you in person. There is no viewing, no ceremony at a funeral home, and no casket bought for a single afternoon. What it does not mean is doing without a farewell: most families we serve hold a memorial in a church, a garden or a living room, in their own time, without paying a facility to host it.

We suggest ordering between six and ten certified original copies. Most agencies will accept a photocopy, and where they do we recommend giving them one and keeping your certified originals in reserve. Some institutions, typically banks, life insurers, pension administrators and anything involving a property or vehicle title, will insist on a certified original and will not return it. We order the copies at the time of filing rather than making you go back to the county health department later, and more can be requested at any time.

No casket, no. Florida law does require a rigid, combustible alternative container for the cremation itself, and that container is charged separately from our service fee rather than included in it. We tell you its cost on your written price, and it is a fraction of what a casket costs. Embalming is not required for a direct cremation at all; refrigeration serves the purpose and is included. If you are told a casket or embalming is legally required for a cremation with no viewing, that is not correct, and it is worth asking why it was said.

Yes. TSA permits cremated remains in carry-on baggage, but the container has to be scannable by X-ray, which rules out solid metal and dense stone urns. We provide a scannable temporary container with every arrangement, along with the certified copy of the death certificate and the crematory certificate that airlines and foreign customs officers ask to see. If you are flying internationally, tell us the destination and we will confirm what that country requires on arrival before you travel.

An honorably discharged veteran is eligible for inurnment in a national cemetery at no cost to the family, which includes the columbarium niche or gravesite, the marker, a burial flag, perpetual care and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. A spouse and dependent children are generally eligible alongside them. Cremated remains are inurned with the same honors as a casketed burial. We will need the DD-214 or equivalent discharge paperwork, and we handle the filing with the cemetery on your behalf.

No. A power of attorney becomes void at the moment of death, which surprises many families who assumed it would carry them through. Authority passes instead to whoever Florida law recognizes, generally in order: a person named in a signed pre-need designation, the surviving spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. If the person in that role is out of state or out of the country, they can still sign electronically. We confirm who needs to authorize what on the first call so nothing stalls.

There is a one-time lump-sum payment of $255, paid to a surviving spouse who was living with the deceased, or to a spouse or dependent child who was already eligible for benefits on that record. It is a modest amount and it does not offset funeral costs, but it is worth claiming. A surviving spouse or minor child may also qualify for ongoing survivor benefits, which is the far more significant entitlement. We report the death to Social Security as part of the filing and can point you to the right forms.

There is no cost to call and no obligation, and calling early costs you nothing but gives us time. Florida requires that a body be embalmed or refrigerated within a set window after death, so the practical first step is bringing your loved one into our care, which does not commit you to anything else. Decisions about the urn and the memorial can follow once the family has had time to talk. If you are calling from another state or country, we can begin transport during the call and gather the rest afterward.

Three charges are passed through to you at cost, and we would rather you read them here than discover them later. Certified copies of the death certificate, at the county rate. The alternative cremation container Florida law requires for the cremation itself. And a medical examiner fee, which some Florida counties charge to authorise a cremation and others do not. Separately, there are things we simply do not sell: an urn or keepsake beyond the temporary container included with every arrangement, any cemetery, columbarium or scattering charge at a final resting place, and a memorial service, which we are happy to refer you for. Everything that applies to your case is itemized on your written price before you authorize anything.

No. Authorizations are signed electronically and every arrangement can be made by telephone and email, whichever state or country you are calling from. A large share of the families we serve are not in Florida at all: they are the son in New Jersey, the daughter in Bogotá, the brother in London. Nothing about the process requires you to get on a plane.

Florida requires a mandatory waiting period before a cremation may take place, and the medical examiner must authorize it, so most cremations happen within three to seven days of the first call. The variable is how quickly the death certificate is signed by the attending physician and authorized, not anything on our side. We will tell you honestly where your case stands rather than give you a date we cannot keep.

It is the question families most want to ask and most hesitate to. A numbered stainless-steel identification disc accompanies your loved one from the moment they come into our care, through the cremation, and into the container that is returned to you. Identification is confirmed at each transfer, and the paperwork records every step. You are welcome to ask to see that record.

Yes, and most families do. Choosing direct cremation simply separates the cremation from the ceremony, which means the ceremony can be whatever and whenever your family wants: a Mass, a graveside committal after inurnment, a gathering at home next month when everyone can travel. You are not paying us for a room, so you are free to hold it wherever it belongs.

They may be interred in a cemetery plot, placed in a columbarium niche, inurned in a national cemetery if your loved one was a veteran, kept at home, divided among family in keepsakes, or scattered. Scattering at sea is permitted under federal rules beyond three nautical miles, and Florida has no general prohibition on scattering on private land with the owner’s permission. If your family’s faith has a view on this, tell us and we will work to it.

Not through this company: we are cremation only. Our sister company, Legacy Mortuary Shipping, is a licensed Florida funeral establishment that handles exactly that, including the consular paperwork and the airline. It is the same family and the same telephone standards. Call us either way and we will put you with the right side of the house rather than leave you to work it out.

Yes. Our staff answers in English and Spanish, at any hour, and this entire site is published in both languages. Where a family speaks neither, we arrange interpretation rather than asking a grieving relative to translate for everyone else.