The short answer
There is no single rule that assigns it. In most cases, generally speaking, no federal law or FMCSA rule requires an employer or carrier to arrange — or pay — to bring a deceased employee home, unless a contract or a union collective bargaining agreement says so. Workers’ compensation, where it applies, pays money to the family; it does not bring anyone home.
So in practice, what happens depends on what was decided before the day arrived. If the employer steps up, the company improvises arrangements and absorbs the cost. If nothing was arranged in advance, the employee’s family usually ends up making the arrangements — and paying for them — from hundreds of miles away, at the worst moment of their lives.
That gap is why this is worth arranging ahead of time, by the employer or by the employee. There is a membership built for exactly this situation, and it costs $350, once.
What typically happens today
Picture the common version. A long-haul driver, a field technician, a traveling salesperson, a worker on rotation — someone dies far from home, on the job or simply while away for it. The employer gets the call first, because the employer knows where the person was.
Then the improvisation starts. Someone at the company calls the family, and very quickly the conversation reaches a question nobody can answer from a policy manual: how do we get him home? A funeral home has to be found in the town where the death happened. Someone has to arrange preparation and transport across state lines. Death certificates have to be obtained from the state where the death occurred. Each of those is a phone call, a decision, and a bill — and the bills can reach up to $11,000 within the United States, and more than $40,000 if the death happens in another country, on top of the regular funeral costs back home.
Some employers pay all of it without blinking, and some cover the arrangements as well as the cost. Others cannot, or do not — and there is generally no rule making them. Some families are helped by nonprofit organizations that exist for situations like this. And many families simply handle it themselves, by phone, in a place they have never been, while they are grieving. Our guide to what it costs to bring a loved one home breaks down where that money goes.
Where workers’ compensation fits — and where it stops
Employers and families often assume workers’ compensation handles this. It helps, but not in the way people expect. Where it applies, workers’ compensation death benefits are generally a cash benefit paid to the employee’s dependents, and in many states there is also a burial allowance, which varies by state. Both are money. Neither one finds the funeral home, prepares the remains, or arranges the journey home — and neither arrives on the timeline of the first forty-eight hours, when those decisions have to be made.
Life insurance has the same shape, whether it is a policy through work or one the employee bought personally: it pays a benefit to the family, and the family can certainly spend some of it on transport. But the arranging — the calls, the funeral home in a strange town, the transport, the documentation — still lands on the family, at the worst time. Money is not the same as arrangements. That distinction is the whole of this problem.
The arranged-ahead answer
Return Assured℠ membership exists for this one situation, and it is worth being precise about what it is: it is not insurance. It is a lifetime membership — one payment of $350, once, for life — with benefits provided through APASI, which has provided travel assurance since 1994.
If a member passes away more than 75 miles from their legal residence — the place they have lived for 180 or more days in the 12 months before death — the family’s job becomes one call to APASI, at the time of death, and anyone acting on the family’s behalf can make that call. APASI then locates a licensed sending funeral home, transports your loved one to it, prepares the remains for burial or cremation, arranges the transport home, and handles the documentation, including procuring death certificates and, for deaths overseas, consular services. For covered repatriation there are no caps on expense and no out-of-pocket costs for the family.
A membership is the individual’s own. It can be arranged two ways: an employer can fund the one-time $350 for its people, or an employee can enroll individually — and either way it belongs to the employee for life, through every job that follows. Our For Employers page lays out both options for owners and HR leads, and our Long-Haul Drivers and Business Travelers pages speak to the people doing the traveling.
Three conditions matter, stated plainly: APASI must be contacted at the time of death, or benefits cannot be provided. Services a family arranges on its own cannot be reimbursed, because all services must be provided through APASI. And family transportation is not included — the membership brings the member home, not the family. Members receive a certificate and two wallet ID cards, and the membership can be cancelled within 30 days of signing for a full refund. Full detail is on our What is Return Assured? page.
Getting started is a short pre-enrollment form — no payment is taken on this website. After you submit it, we will contact you to confirm your details, have the application signed, and collect the one-time $350 fee.
A death far from home will always be a family’s worst day. Whether it is also a scramble of phone calls, funeral homes, and five-figure bills is a decision that can be made now, in an ordinary week, for $350 — by an employer who wants its people looked after, or by a worker who wants it handled either way.
Common questions
Is an employer required to bring an employee home if they die while traveling for work?
In most cases, no — generally, no federal law or FMCSA rule requires an employer or carrier to arrange or pay for it, unless a contract or a union collective bargaining agreement says otherwise; many union agreements do include such provisions. Because nothing general assigns the duty, what actually happens today varies widely, from employers covering everything to families handling it themselves.
Does workers’ compensation pay to bring an employee home?
Not in the way most people mean. Where it applies, workers’ compensation death benefits are generally a cash benefit for dependents and, in many states, a burial allowance that varies by state. That money can be used toward costs, but it does not arrange the funeral home at the place of death, the preparation, or the transport home — the family still has to organise those.
How much can it cost a family if nothing was arranged?
Bringing a loved one home can cost up to $11,000 within the United States and more than $40,000 if the death happens in another country, on top of the regular funeral costs back home. Without an arrangement in place, those costs — and the phone calls and decisions behind them — fall to the family or the estate.
Can an employer arrange this protection for its team?
Yes, two ways. The employer can fund the one-time $350 membership for each participating employee, or it can simply make the membership available and let employees enroll individually. Either way the membership is the employee’s own, for life — each employee signs their own application, and the membership stays with them if they change jobs. Our For Employers page explains both models.
What happens if an employee with a membership dies far from home?
The family — or anyone acting on their behalf — makes one call to APASI at the time of death. APASI locates a licensed sending funeral home, transports the member to it, prepares the remains for burial or cremation, arranges the transport home, and handles the documentation, including death certificates and, overseas, consular services. For covered repatriation there are no caps on expense and no out-of-pocket costs for the family. More questions are answered on our FAQ page.
More questions: journeysecure.com/faq
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