Paul Paradis: Founder & Editor
Founder of Funeral Cost Analyzer · Based in Boston, Massachusetts · Last reviewed:
Paul Paradis founded the Funeral Cost & Burial Expense Analyzer after losing multiple family members and people close to him. The site is a one-person editorial project (independent, not affiliated with any funeral home or insurance company) created to help families understand funeral costs, compare options, and make informed decisions without pressure.
A Message from Paul Paradis, Founder
Hello, my name is Paul Paradis.
If you’re here because you’ve recently lost someone you love, or you’re trying to prepare for something you never wanted to think about, I want to start by saying I’m truly sorry. Loss is one of the hardest things we go through as human beings, and there’s no guidebook for how to handle it—especially when everything is happening all at once.
Over the years, I’ve lost multiple family members and people close to me. I know what it feels like to be grieving while also being forced to make decisions you’re not emotionally ready for. In the middle of that pain, you’re suddenly faced with questions about funeral arrangements, costs, services, and logistics—things that feel overwhelming, confusing, and, at times, unfair.
This site was created because of those experiences.
I realized how difficult it is to find clear, honest, and straightforward information about funeral costs and options. Prices can vary widely depending on where you live, and the lack of transparency makes it even harder during a time when you’re already dealing with enough.
My goal with Funeral Cost Analyzer is simple: to help people understand their options, avoid unnecessary financial strain, and make informed decisions during one of the most difficult moments in life.
This site is not here to pressure you, sell to you, or take advantage of your situation. It exists to give you clarity—so you can move forward at your own pace, with a better understanding of what to expect and how to work through the process.
We provide educational guides, cost breakdowns, and tools designed to help you compare options and find services that fit your needs and your budget. The AI tools available on the site are meant to assist you in organizing information and exploring possibilities—but they are not a replacement for real-world professionals or personal judgment.
Everything here is built with one intention: to make a difficult time just a little bit easier.
If this site helps you feel even slightly more informed, less overwhelmed, or more in control of your decisions, then it has done its job.
Wishing you peace, strength, and comfort during this time.
Role at Funeral Cost Analyzer
As Founder & Editor, Paul is the sole author and editorial voice for the site. He personally researches, writes, reviews, and updates every page (including cost data, consumer-rights explanations, and planning guides), and personally handles reader corrections within a 48–72-hour target response window. There is no team, no staff, and no funeral-industry partner behind the site. For major data reports, Paul engages independent external fact-checkers on a project basis to verify numeric claims; this site does not list or invent additional named reviewers. The full editorial process is documented on the Editorial Standards & Methodology page.
Research discipline and sources consulted
Every cost figure and consumer-rights statement on this site is traced back to primary, publicly available sources. Paul's working research stack, which readers can verify themselves, includes:
- NFDA 2023 General Price List Study and NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report (member-funeral-home survey data).
- CANA 2024 Annual Statistics Report (cremation rates and disposition by state).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI for funeral services (series
CUUR0000SEGD02), for inflation roll-forward. - CDC / National Center for Health Statistics (mortality and disposition baselines).
- FTC Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453) and state funeral/cemetery regulatory boards.
- Sampled local funeral-home General Price Lists across metros, used to validate regional ranges.
- Funeral Consumers Alliance price studies and local affiliate pricing data.
- SSA rules on the lump-sum death benefit; VA rules on burial and plot allowances; NAIC guidance on final-expense and burial insurance products.
Years running this project
Paul founded the Funeral Cost & Burial Expense Analyzer in 2025 and has operated it continuously since as its sole editor. The site reflects ongoing, year-over-year research into funeral-industry pricing, consumer rights, and end-of-life benefits rather than a one-time publication.
Recent work on this site
The public changelog records what that work has looked like in practice. In October 2026 Paul reconciled the national medians on every page to the NFDA 2023 General Price List Study ($8,300 with viewing and burial, $6,280 with viewing and cremation), updated the VA burial and plot allowances to the October 1, 2026 rates, and re-checked price-trend statements against BLS CPI data through August 2026. Later that month he rewrote about 90 short FAQ answers on the state funeral, burial and cremation guides so each one cites that state’s own statute or agency, and corrected the Nearby States links so they list the states that actually share a border.
Two habits carry through all of it. Before a headline cost figure, state median or insurance rate goes up, Paul re-derives the number from the primary source a second time, separately from the first draft. Every core cost page, state page and insurance page comes back up for re-checking on a rolling quarterly cycle. Corrections sent to the site go to him directly, with a target of 48–72 hours to acknowledge them, and confirmed fixes are logged on the changelog.
Work you can check
Paul’s credentials for this site are the work itself, and all of it is public:
- The National Funeral Cost Index, its printable PDF edition and the methodology behind it.
- The state hubs for cremation and burial, with each state’s waiting period, regulator and statute cited.
- The cremation vs burial calculator and the cost comparison worksheet.
- The guide to VA burial benefits, updated to the VA’s October 1, 2026 allowance rates.
- The site’s full public version history, where every correction and update is recorded with its date, and a plain-language update log.
Credentials and limitations
Paul's background for this work is research method rather than a professional license. As Founder & Editor, he researches, writes, reviews and updates every page himself, and he traces each cost figure and consumer-rights statement to primary, publicly available sources: NFDA price and cremation studies, CANA cremation statistics, the BLS consumer price index for funeral services, CDC mortality data, the FTC Funeral Rule and state regulatory boards, sampled General Price Lists, and Funeral Consumers Alliance price studies. He runs the site as an independent, one-person editorial project that is not affiliated with any funeral home or insurance company, with no team, no staff and no funeral-industry partner behind it.
The site does not provide personalized financial, legal, medical, or funeral-director advice, does not arrange funeral services, does not quote prices, does not match families to providers, and does not sell insurance products.
Everything on this site is written as general consumer education from publicly available regulatory and industry sources. For licensed advice, contact a licensed professional in your state: a licensed funeral director for arrangements, a licensed attorney for estate/probate questions, a licensed insurance producer for coverage, or a CFP/CPA/physician for the matters in their scope.
Areas of focus
- Transparent funeral pricing and regional cost variation
- Consumer rights under the FTC Funeral Rule
- Payment assistance programs, veteran benefits, and Social Security death benefits
- Affordable alternatives: direct cremation, green burial, home funerals, and body donation
- Planning resources and checklists for grieving families
Contact
Questions, corrections, advertising inquiries, or business opportunities can be sent through the contact page or directly to contact@funeralcostanalyzer.com. For content corrections, use that same address and include the page URL so the fix can be checked quickly.