re: Does louisiana have a law on who gets to make funeral arrangements?

If your dad is the executor, he must enter succession, get a death certificate, and pay all debts if sufficient funds exist. If the deceased didn't have a burial policy or did not add your father to his existing bank accounts before his death, the first step is to hire a lawyer to get financial access to his accounts. To be the executor you have to put up some of your own security to be held until succession is closed. It's usually a reduced amount (a few hundred) unless the estate is large.

It's no fun. Usually executors get a fee for the headaches.

Louisiana law states, in order to cremate a funeral home establishment must get the Authorizing Agent to consent/sign and identify human remain to move forward with:

Cremation

1) Spouce
2) All Adult Children
3) Parents
4) All Adult Siblings
5) All those in the next kindred
6) Court Order

Unless the decedent has a written notrized declaration declaring who he/she wanted to represent them as there authorizing agent.

Burial
1) Spouce
2) Majority of Adult Children
3) Parents
4) Majority of Adult Siblings
5) Majority of those in the next kindred
6) Court Order

A friend of mine from college passed away earlier this year and his family was from State Line, MS. I went to the wake but not the funeral, and thank goodness I didn't because I would have been really upset about where they buried him...his mom's backyard! Several of his paul bearers were also friends of mine and they were pretty disturbed about it. Said they had to carry his casket across a drainage ditch to get to the backyard.

It's a new thing. I tried to let them know ...