Short answer
Check the licence first — funeral directors need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 801 Australian funeral directors in this directory, only 15.1% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 10% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Funeral Directors handle funerals, cremations, burials, transfers, viewings and the paperwork around a death. This is what to check before you make arrangements on the worst day, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Funeral Directors are licensed for some work and not others
Funeral directors are largely unlicensed in Australia; the regulation sits on the handling of the deceased under state public health rules, and in some states on prepaid funeral funds. What you can check is membership of the Australian Funeral Directors Association, which binds members to a code of ethics, and an itemised price list, which every funeral director should give you before you commit.
There is no national licence. The AFDA publishes its member list; your state's consumer affairs body publishes the rules on prepaid funerals and the cooling-off period that applies.
What 801 Australian funeral directors actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For funeral directors:
| What we checked | Funeral Directors | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 15.1% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 65.9% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 10% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 77.9% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 91.4% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 20 | 39 |
What goes wrong with funeral directors
- A package price that hides what is optional and what is a third-party fee
- Prepaid funeral money not held in a regulated fund
- Decisions pressed on you in the first hours, when you are least able to compare
What to ask before the work starts
- Can I have an itemised price list, separating your fees from third-party charges?
- Are you a member of the Australian Funeral Directors Association?
- If prepaid, where is the money held and what happens if the business closes?
A funeral director who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median funeral director in this directory has 20 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the funeral directors are
Melbourne (59), Sydney (51), Brisbane (36), Adelaide (25), Perth (24), Manly (23). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best funeral director in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do funeral directors need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. Funeral directors are largely unlicensed in Australia; the regulation sits on the handling of the deceased under state public health rules, and in some states on prepaid funeral funds. What you can check is membership of the Australian Funeral Directors Association, which binds members to a code of ethics, and an itemised price list, which every funeral director should give you before you commit.
- How do I check a funeral director's licence?
- There is no national licence. The AFDA publishes its member list; your state's consumer affairs body publishes the rules on prepaid funerals and the cooling-off period that applies.
- What percentage of Australian funeral directors have a verifiable ABN?
- 15.1% of the 801 funeral directors in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a funeral director have?
- The median funeral director here has 20. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare funeral directors near you
801 funeral directors, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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