A funeral director, also known as a mortician or an undertaker, is responsible for coordinating funeral rites for families and caring for the bodies of the deceased. Most funeral directors are also trained and licensed embalmers, who replace biological fluids with preservatives to prepare the body for burial. Except for Colorado, all states in the United States require funeral directors to be licensed, though the specific requirements for a funeral director license vary depending on the state in which the director works. To obtain a funeral director license, all states require a high school diploma, and most — with the exception of Alabama and Hawaii — require two years of study at a mortuary school or an associate’s degree, completion of a formal apprenticeship, and passing a written examination. A funeral director may also be required to be trained and licensed as an embalmer in some states.
Although many people in the industry are trained and licensed as both funeral directors and embalmers, the two jobs have very different responsibilities. Sales, event coordination, and legal documentation are all things that funeral directors do in front of the public. Embalmers, on the other hand, work in a private setting and have received specialized training in human anatomy. Some states offer both embalmer and funeral director licenses, each with its own set of requirements. Others require a person in the field to hold both types of licenses, while a few states only offer a mortuary science license that covers both specializations.
As a result, all states do not require an individual to graduate from a mortuary school in order to obtain a funeral director license. However, most states require one to two years of this vocation-specific educational preparation, and those that do not require at least some college credits if not an associate’s degree in the arts. Alabama and Hawaii are the exceptions to this rule, as previously stated.
To obtain a funeral director license in the United States, all states require a supervised apprenticeship period. The length of this requirement varies by state and can last anywhere from six months to three years. An apprentice observes and assists in all aspects of a funeral director’s duties during this time, including casket sales, funeral planning with the family, funeral service coordination, and coordination of the legal documents that must be filed in the event of a death.
Depending on the state of practice, obtaining a funeral director license may necessitate passing a national licensure examination or “boards.” To obtain a mortuary science license in states that combine the roles of funeral director and embalmer, an individual must pass a test. Finally, more than 75% of states require annual continuing education (CE) credits in order to keep a funeral director’s license active.