If my parents passed away in another state, how would they be transported home to where they want to buried?

This reminds me of a family story. My cousin died in Minnesota. His service was to be in South Dakota. As others have said, the cost of transporting a body can be very prohibitive if the deceased leaves no funds. His brother decided he could transport the body himself. I don't know what kind of arrangements he made, or if he got proper permissions, but off he went with the casket in the back of his van. As so often happens in the Midwest, blizzard conditions prevailed. Occasionally the road disappeared in a white-out. Slipping and sliding on icy spots added interest. More than once the van narrowly missed going into a ditch. The trip took more than twice as long as usual, with my cousin trying to come up with an explanation for the casket in case he needed a tow truck or other help. (This was before cell phones, too.) But they made it! Unfortunately many relatives were unable to make the funeral because of that same storm.

My cousin says it was a fitting last journey with his brother -- one last crazy adventure together. He is quite the storyteller and his recounting of this event has entertained many a family gathering.

Mary, I'm not advising this approach for you! Your question just reminded me of this poignant family story and I wanted to share.

Their estate (or their family) would pay for transportation back to their home state. Funeral homes can help you arrange this. It is not cheap.

Best thing would be cremation. Then they ship them to you.

I am one of their executors, so I'd be the person to arrange for this. They want to be buried and already have plots.

You use a funeral home in FLA. They set up shipping to the funeral home u have selected. I think there is paper work that needs to be done to take the body from one state to another. This is going to be expensive. Especially if you have viewings at both funeral homes. Even if cremated u can use the plots.

marymoyer31, both my parents passed away while living on the east coast, and both wanted to be buried in the family plot out in the mid-west.

The funeral home here on the east coast arranged everything. Plus I already had the name of the funeral home out in the mid-west, gave them a heads-up, and between the two funeral homes they arranged everything. It went very smoothly.

I had a viewing here on the east coast, a Mass, then the casket was taken back to the funeral home to be placed in a shipping container which was required by the airline. The funeral home made all the arrangements. And they let me know when the connection was made by the other funeral home.

On the other end, the other funeral home needs to drive to the airport to pick up the shipping container then to arrange the funeral, and burial. Then the cost of the headstone later on.

Here is the sticker shock. You are paying for two funerals homes... the caskets... the airline shipping... cost of pickup by the second funeral home, etc. Are you sitting down? It cost $15k for my Dad, and $15k for my Mom. The tombstone was extra. This cost can very from area to area, and the cost of the shipping and pickup. My folks already had their plot.

My parents were against cremation, so the funeral home had to prepare them each for two viewings [one here, one mid-west], thus each funeral service had to be scheduled very quickly.

I will be in this situation, too, but a 4 hour drive in-state from current residence to the hometown burial plot. Time to start setting aside extra money.