This list is a research starting point, not an endorsement. Otherside Life doesn't yet have a formal vetted-partner relationship with the businesses below — they're real, currently-operating funeral homes serving the Los Angeles area, researched directly from each business's own website. Confirm licensing, current pricing, and availability directly with any business before booking, the same way you would with any vendor you find on your own.
If you're working with an Otherside Life account coordinator, they can also help vet and coordinate with a specific option from this list, or a different one you already have in mind.
| Funeral Home | Area | Best For | Worth Knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armstrong, Garcia, & McKenzie Mortuary | Long Beach and a historic LA location | A 1903 family mortuary with published itemized pricing | — |
| Clarity Funerals & Cremation | East Hollywood, serving LA, Orange, and Riverside Counties | On-site green burial and human composting options | Green burial costs $6,000+ |
| Hollywood Forever Funeral Home | Hollywood | Multicultural, multilingual service on a historic 62-acre cemetery | — |
| Friends Funeral Home (Venice chapel) | Venice, with additional locations in Santa Monica, South Gate, Long Beach, and Altadena | Highly personalized, non-traditional ceremonies and home wakes | 35-mile transport radius cap |
| Angelus Funeral Home | Crenshaw area | A century of continuous family ownership in Crenshaw | — |
| Utter-McKinley San Fernando Mission Mortuary | Mission Hills, San Fernando Valley | One of the last family-owned mortuaries in the Valley | — |
Hollywood & Central LA
Clarity Funerals & Cremation
Area: East Hollywood, serving LA, Orange, and Riverside Counties
Best for: On-site green burial and human composting options
Why hire them: Family-owned with its own on-site crematory rather than outsourcing, publishes transparent itemized pricing with no hidden fees, and is one of the few on this list offering both green/natural burial and terramation (human composting) as standard options.
What they do: Simple and witness cremation, simple/immediate burial, natural/green burial through a partner cemetery (no embalming, metal caskets, or concrete vaults), terramation, and 24/7 phone support.
What they don't do / limitations: Caskets aren't displayed at their LA arrangement office — they're special-ordered at time of need. Natural burial costs more than cremation; total costs are unlikely to be under $6,000.
Hollywood Forever Funeral Home
Area: Hollywood
Best for: Multicultural, multilingual service on a historic 62-acre cemetery
Why hire them: Locally owned with decades of experience, set on a 62-acre historic cemetery with an on-site crematory next to the main chapel, and strong multicultural capacity — services in Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions, with staff speaking Spanish, Thai, Russian, Hindi, and Armenian.
What they do: On-site cremation, garden crypt/mausoleum burial, traditional ground burial, day and evening visitation, video tribute or Zoom broadcast of services, in-house monument design, obituary placement assistance, and an on-site flower shop.
Westside
Friends Funeral Home (Venice chapel)
Area: Venice, with additional locations in Santa Monica, South Gate, Long Beach, and Altadena
Best for: Highly personalized, non-traditional ceremonies and home wakes
Why hire them: Founded by a former hospice volunteer who personally accompanied roughly 200 dying people through their transitions, built specifically to allow more personalization than a traditional funeral home — home wakes, cultural and religious ceremonies, and fully custom celebrations, all with itemized published pricing.
What they do: Direct burial, home wake with viewing, direct and witness cremation, Hindu ceremony coordination, custom end-of-life celebrations, ship-outs for out-of-state or international transport, and 24/7 Spanish-language phone support.
What they don't do / limitations: Transportation of remains is capped at a 35-mile radius and 220 lbs before extra charges apply; the crematory used for viewing/witness cremation is their Long Beach facility, not the Venice chapel itself.
South LA & Long Beach
Armstrong, Garcia, & McKenzie Mortuary
Area: Long Beach and a historic LA location
Best for: A 1903 family mortuary with published itemized pricing
Why hire them: Family-founded in 1903 and run for generations, with two locations, a fully itemized published price list, and 24/7 availability.
What they do: Traditional funeral packages, graveside service without embalming, immediate burial, burial at sea, direct and witnessed cremation, embalming, visitation, transportation, forwarding/receiving remains, and veterans services.
Angelus Funeral Home
Area: Crenshaw area
Best for: A century of continuous family ownership in Crenshaw
Why hire them: Family-owned continuously since 1925, described on their own site as one of the oldest family-operated mortuaries in the community. Separately, Wikipedia notes the 1925 founding made it the first Black-owned business incorporated in California, and its original 1934 building was later named a historic landmark — that specific building has since been converted to housing, while the business itself continues operating today.
What they do: Direct cremation, memorial cremation with chapel service, cremation with viewing, traditional burial with chapel or church service, immediate/graveside burial, embalming, transportation (casket coach, limousine, flower van), and pre-need planning.
San Fernando Valley
Utter-McKinley San Fernando Mission Mortuary
Area: Mission Hills, San Fernando Valley
Best for: One of the last family-owned mortuaries in the Valley
Why hire them: Family-owned since 1934, one of the few family-owned funeral homes still operating in the Valley today, built around the founder's original mission of “the finest possible funeral service at the lowest possible price.”
What they do: Burial and graveside services, cremation with scattering options (including sea and space scattering), casket selection, veterans services, pre-need planning, and package plans offering a discount off list price when a casket is purchased through them.
Before you call
Every entry here was pulled from the business's own website. Business hours, pricing, and availability change — confirm directly before you commit to anything, and don't hesitate to ask about experience with end-of-life situations specifically if it isn't already clear from their site.
Getting started
If you'd rather not coordinate this yourself, an Otherside Life account coordinator can — see how a coordinator helps with Funeral for what that actually looks like, or talk to a coordinator directly about your specific situation.