How to become Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger in 2024

Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger Perform various tasks to arrange and direct individual funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of body to mortuary, interviewing family or other authorized person to arrange details, selecting pallbearers, aiding with the selection of officials for religious rites, and providing transportation for mourners.

Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger is Also Know as

In different settings, Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger is titled as

  • Funeral Arrangement Director
  • Funeral Arranger
  • Funeral Counselor
  • Funeral Director
  • Funeral Location Manager
  • Funeral Pre-Need Consultant
  • Funeral Prearrangement Counselor
  • Licensed Funeral Director
  • Licensed Mortician
  • Mortician

Education and Training of Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

Training Required for Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger in different industries are

What Do Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger do?

  • Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.
  • Obtain information needed to complete legal documents, such as death certificates or burial permits.
  • Oversee the preparation and care of the remains of people who have died.
  • Contact cemeteries to schedule the opening and closing of graves.
  • Provide information on funeral service options, products, or merchandise, and maintain a casket display area.
  • Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.
  • Close caskets and lead funeral corteges to churches or burial sites.
  • Arrange for clergy members to perform needed services.
  • Provide or arrange transportation between sites for the remains, mourners, pallbearers, clergy, or flowers.
  • Perform embalming duties, as necessary.
  • Direct preparations and shipment of bodies for out-of-state burial.
  • Discuss and negotiate prearranged funerals with clients.
  • Inform survivors of benefits for which they may be eligible.
  • Maintain financial records, order merchandise, or prepare accounts.
  • Plan placement of caskets at funeral sites or place or adjust lights, fixtures, or floral displays.
  • Arrange for pallbearers or inform pallbearers or honorary groups of their duties.
  • Receive or usher people to their seats for services.
  • Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services.
  • Manage funeral home operations, including the hiring, training, or supervision of embalmers, funeral attendants, or other staff.
  • Clean funeral home facilities and grounds.
  • Participate in community activities for funeral home promotion or other purposes.
  • Remove deceased remains from place of death.

Qualities of Good Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

  • Adult trocars
  • Air brushes
  • Aneurysm needles
  • Angular forceps
  • Arm and hand positioners
  • Axillary drain tubes
  • Barber scissors
  • Bistoury knives
  • Blending brushes
  • Body bags
  • Body positioners
  • Calvarium clamps
  • Carotid tubes
  • Casket lifters
  • Centrifugal force pumps
  • Cosmetic brushes
  • Curved arterial tubes
  • Curved Kelly forceps
  • Curved suture needles
  • Cuticle scissors
  • Desktop computers
  • Electric mortuary aspirators
  • Embalming bulb syringes
  • Embalming fluid pumps
  • Embalming injector needles
  • Embalming machines
  • Embalming syringes
  • Embalming vein drainage tubing
  • Emergency eye wash stations
  • Extremity positioners
  • Eye suture scissors
  • Femoral drain tubes
  • Fixation forceps
  • Gravity injectors
  • Hairpin injectors
  • Head blocks
  • Head rests
  • Highlighting brushes
  • Hydraulic body lifts
  • Hydro-electric aspirators
  • Hypodermic needles
  • Iliac drain tubes
  • Infant arterial tubes
  • Infant trocars
  • Iris scissors
  • Jugular drain tubes
  • Laptop computers
  • Lining brushes
  • Lister bandage scissors
  • Lower body positioners
  • Mayo scissors
  • Mortuary lifts
  • Nasal tube aspirators
  • Non-clogging post aspirators
  • Paint sprayers
  • Personal computers
  • Powder dusting brushes
  • Protective hoods
  • Protective medical face masks
  • Protective medical gloves
  • Protective shoe covers
  • Refrigerated body storage cabinets
  • Ring cutters
  • Safety coveralls
  • Safety goggles
  • Spring forceps
  • Steam autoclaves
  • Stippling brushes
  • Straight arterial tubes
  • Straight Kelly forceps
  • Straight surgical scissors
  • Stryker saws
  • Surgical razors
  • Surgical scalpels
  • Suture needle holders
  • Thumb forceps
  • Tinting brushes
  • Trocar sterilizers
  • Tube occluding forceps

Technology Skills required for Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arranger

  • Belmar & Associates Mortware
  • Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
  • Custom Data Systems Sterling Management Software
  • FPA Software MACCS
  • FuneralKiosk
  • HMIS Advantage
  • iCIMS Talent Cloud software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Salesforce software
  • Twin Tier Technologies MIMS
  • Web browser software