Funeral Director (Mortician) job description

Most funerals are arranged within 24 to 72 hours of a death, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and the funeral director is the person holding that schedule together. The job runs from the first call and the removal of the body to the family meeting, the paperwork behind a death certificate, and the service itself, whether it ends in a burial, an entombment, or a cremation. BLS reports funeral directors, morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers on one line. Its median was $55,010 in May 2025. One in ten earned less than $33,350, and one in ten more than $88,620.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

O*NET rates two tasks almost equally as the most important: overseeing the care of the remains, and gathering what a death certificate or burial permit requires. Embalming comes next for directors who do their own. Then comes the family conversation about obituary wording, the casket, and the services, with counsel and comfort along the way. Directors remove remains from the place of death, book the opening and closing of a grave with the cemetery, and close the casket before leading the cortege. An out-of-state burial means arranging shipment of the body. Prearranged funerals, merchandise orders, and financial records fill the rest of the week.

Common Skills and Technologies

Active listening and social perceptiveness tie for first on O*NET's skill list, which suits a job that begins with a family in shock. Service orientation, speaking, and coordination come next, then time management, since the Handbook notes a director may run more than one funeral on the same day. Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint appear in the job ads O*NET has studied, and Salesforce turns up where a firm tracks families in a customer relationship system.

Education, Training, and Career Path

This is O*NET Job Zone Three. Asked what the job requires, about 73 percent of O*NET's respondents named an associate's degree, about 15 percent a high school diploma, and about 11 percent a bachelor's degree. The Handbook's path runs through an accredited funeral service or mortuary science program, 1 to 3 years of supervised training under a licensed director, and a state or national board exam, and most applicants must be 21. Every state but Colorado licenses the work now, and Colorado's new licensing law takes full effect January 1, 2027. Working in two states means holding two licenses, and several years as a director is the usual way into management.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 39-4031.00 Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/39-4031.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 39-4031, https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Funeral Service Occupations, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/funeral-service-occupations.htm. The Colorado Sun, https://coloradosun.com/2025/09/15/colorado-funeral-home/.