Home > North Carolina > New Hanover County
Final Expense Insurance in New Hanover County, NC — Coverage for Wilmington and the Cape Fear Coast
In New Hanover County—from Wilmington to Carolina Beach—funeral costs can rise quickly, often ranging from $2,000 for simple cremation to $8,000–$12,000+ for full burial services. Without a plan, families are left making fast, emotional decisions and covering unexpected expenses. Final expense life insurance helps lock in affordable monthly rates, provides fast payouts (often within days), and ensures your loved ones aren’t burdened with debt or confusion. Most local families choose $7,500–$15,000 in coverage based on their needs, health, and budget, with options available even without medical exams.
Living along the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic shoreline gives New Hanover County families a distinct rhythm — historic downtown Wilmington, the boardwalks at Carolina Beach, and the quiet stretches of Wrightsville Beach and Kure Beach all shape what life here looks like. When it comes time to plan for end-of-life expenses, that local rhythm matters too, because funeral and burial costs in this corner of southeastern North Carolina don’t follow national averages. Final expense insurance gives Wilmington-area residents a straightforward way to lock in coverage for funeral services, burial or cremation, and other final costs without burdening the people they leave behind. The calculator below estimates what a service in New Hanover County is likely to run, so you can size a policy that actually fits.
Funeral and Cremation Costs in New Hanover County, NC
Funeral pricing in the Wilmington area sits close to North Carolina’s statewide averages, with some variation between the larger funeral homes serving Wilmington proper and the smaller providers in surrounding communities. The figures below reflect typical price ranges for New Hanover County families based on data from the NFDA’s General Price List Study, Funeralocity, US Funerals Online, and published price lists from Wilmington-area providers. Every funeral home is required by the FTC Funeral Rule to give you an itemized General Price List on request, and prices in this county can vary by several thousand dollars between providers for the same service.
| Service Type | Typical Cost in New Hanover County |
|---|---|
| Traditional funeral with viewing and burial | $7,500 – $10,500 |
| Funeral with cremation and memorial service | $5,500 – $7,500 |
| Direct cremation (no service) | $995 – $2,200 |
| Direct burial (no viewing or ceremony) | $2,500 – $5,000 |
| Aquamation (water cremation, available in Wilmington) | $1,995 – $2,500 |
| Green or natural burial | $3,000 – $8,000+ |
The single biggest cost driver in a traditional funeral is the casket, which can run anywhere from under $1,000 for a basic model to $10,000 or more for premium hardwood or metal. The next biggest line items are typically the funeral home’s basic services fee, embalming, the burial vault required by most local cemeteries, and the cemetery plot itself. None of those cemetery costs are included in the pricing ranges above — burial plots in New Hanover County cemeteries usually add $1,500 to $5,000 on top, and a headstone or monument adds another $1,000 to $3,000.
Cremation continues to be the more common choice for Wilmington-area families, mirroring the statewide trend where the cremation rate has now passed 60 percent. Wilmington is also one of only three cities in North Carolina with a licensed aquamation provider, giving residents a water-based alternative to flame cremation that some families prefer for environmental reasons. Veterans living in New Hanover County should know that the Wilmington VA national cemetery is currently closed for new interments, so eligible veterans seeking burial in a national cemetery typically use Salisbury National Cemetery instead.
A small whole life policy through Palmetto Mutual is built to absorb costs in this exact range. A $10,000 to $15,000 final expense policy covers a traditional service comfortably for most New Hanover County families, while a $5,000 to $8,000 policy is usually enough for cremation with a memorial. The death benefit pays out within days, goes directly to your beneficiary, and can be used for whatever final costs come up — funeral home charges, cemetery fees, the headstone, or anything else.
Funeral Homes Serving New Hanover County, NC
Most funeral homes serving New Hanover County are based in Wilmington, with chapels and crematories spread across the city’s main corridors — Market Street downtown, South College Road heading toward Monkey Junction, and Shipyard Boulevard near the medical district. Several of these firms have served Wilmington families for more than a century, while a newer group of cremation-focused providers has opened over the past two decades to meet the rising demand for simple, affordable arrangements. Every funeral home listed below is currently operating and licensed by the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service.
Full-service funeral homes in Wilmington
| Funeral Home | Notes |
|---|---|
| Andrews Mortuary & Crematory — Market Street Chapel | Locally operated since 1850; serves all of New Hanover County and surrounding areas |
| Andrews Mortuary & Crematory — Valley Chapel | South Wilmington chapel on South College Road; opened 1987 |
| Wilmington Funeral & Cremation | Located on 41st Street; full funeral, memorial, and cremation services |
| Coble Funeral & Cremation Service at Greenlawn Memorial Park | On Shipyard Boulevard adjacent to Greenlawn Memorial Park; allows funeral and burial at one site |
| Quinn-McGowen Funeral Home — Wilmington | Located on Willow Woods Drive |
| John H. Shaw’s Son Funeral Home | On Red Cross Street; the oldest African American firm in Wilmington and one of the oldest African American businesses in North Carolina, Jh shaw funeral home serving the community since 1895 |
| Adkins-Drain Funeral Service | On South 8th Street; family-operated for over fifty years |
Cremation-focused providers
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Cremation Service | Serving New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties since 2009 |
| Coastal Cremations | Located on Jacksonville Street; direct cremation, memorial, and full funeral services |
| Tranquility Cremation by Aquamation | North Carolina’s first funeral home provider of human aquamation and the first complete aquamation facility in the U.S.; Water-not-fire located on Delaney Avenue |
The beach communities of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Wrightsville Beach do not have funeral homes within their town limits — families on Pleasure Island and Harbor Island typically work with Wilmington-based providers, which makes choosing a funeral home along the College Road or Market Street corridor a practical decision for residents on either side of the Cape Fear bridges. The Andrews Hampstead Chapel on US 17 also serves families in northern New Hanover County who live near the Pender County line, since the highway corridor links those neighborhoods more directly than driving back into Wilmington.
When you compare funeral homes in New Hanover County, federal law gives you the right to ask for an itemized General Price List, and there is no obligation to purchase a package. Final expense insurance from Palmetto Mutual makes that comparison less stressful — your beneficiary receives the death benefit in cash and can use it at any licensed funeral home in Wilmington or anywhere else, whether that means a traditional service through Andrews or Coble, a simple cremation through Atlantic or Coastal, or aquamation through Tranquility.
Cemeteries and Burial Grounds in New Hanover County, NC
Burial options in New Hanover County range from large perpetual-care memorial parks on the south and east sides of Wilmington to historic 19th-century cemeteries that have served the city since before the Civil War. Most modern burials happen at the memorial parks, which sell plots, mausoleum crypts, columbarium niches, and cremation gardens. The historic cemeteries remain in operation for families with existing plots, and a few — including Pine Forest — still accept new interments through their nonprofit boards.
Perpetual care memorial parks
| Cemetery | Notes |
|---|---|
| Greenlawn Memorial Park | Established in 1901, a non-denominational cemetery offering ground burial, mausoleum, and cremation options; final resting place for over 155,000 individuals including more than 6,000 veterans; County Office located on Shipyard Boulevard adjacent to Coble Funeral & Cremation Service |
| Oleander Memorial Gardens | Established in 1967 on Bradley Drive; approximately 40 acres including a 2-acre lake, with live oak trees draped in Spanish moss; Dignity Memorial offers traditional burial, mausoleum, and cremation memorialization |
| Calvary Memorial Cemetery | A family-owned historic cemetery in the northern part of Wilmington; offers pre-need services, burials, and cemetery maintenance |
Historic and municipal cemeteries
| Cemetery | Notes |
|---|---|
| Oakdale Cemetery | Wilmington’s first municipal burial ground, established in 1852 as the first rural cemetery in North Carolina; includes a Hebrew section, Confederate mass grave from the Battle of Fort Fisher, and the burials of Gov. Edward B. Dudley, George Davis, and Henry Bacon, architect of the Lincoln Memorial; North Carolina Division of State History located off Market Street at 15th |
| Bellevue Cemetery | Established 1872 on Princess Place Drive; over 6,600 memorial records on file |
| Pine Forest Cemetery | A pre-Civil War African American burial ground located at the north end of N. 16th Street; the City of Wilmington allocated 15 acres for the cemetery in 1860, and the Pine Forest Cemetery Corporation took ownership in 1870; Find a Grave continues to operate as a non-profit corporation in the state of North Carolina |
| Oak Grove Cemetery | Established in 1870; by 1891 it already contained 2,000 graves, nine-tenths of which held the remains of African Americans; Louis T Moore located in the 16th and 17th Street area |
Veterans and military burial
Wilmington National Cemetery on Market Street is one of North Carolina’s four VA national cemeteries, but Raleigh, New Bern, and Wilmington are now closed for new interments. Eligible veterans living in New Hanover County who want burial in a national cemetery typically use Salisbury National Cemetery, which still has space for both casketed and cremated remains. The state-run Coastal Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Jacksonville (Onslow County) is another option for many local veterans, and any of the perpetual-care parks above will set aside space for full military honors with proper coordination.
Older church and abandoned cemeteries
Beyond the named cemeteries above, New Hanover County has a rich history that contains hundreds of historical, cultural, and archaeological sites, including approximately 30 abandoned cemeteries, with some located deep in the woods while others are visible from the road, dating back to the late 1700s. Most are no longer accepting new burials, but families with deep local roots sometimes still maintain small private plots on family land, particularly in the more rural pockets of Castle Hayne, Murraysville, and the area along Sidbury Road. North Carolina law permits home burial on private property if the site is at least 300 feet from any public water supply and the burial is at least 18 inches deep, though the county zoning department should be consulted first.
Cemetery costs are not included in the funeral home pricing covered earlier on this page. A burial plot in a New Hanover County perpetual-care cemetery typically runs $1,500 to $5,000, an opening-and-closing fee adds another $1,000 to $1,500, a vault is generally required at $1,200 to $3,000, and a headstone or monument adds $1,000 to $3,000 more. Those costs add up quickly, which is one reason a final expense policy from Palmetto Mutual is sized to cover both the funeral home charges and the cemetery fees together — a single death benefit that goes directly to your beneficiary, with no restrictions on which Wilmington-area cemetery they choose.
Communities We Serve in New Hanover County, NC
New Hanover County is one of the smallest counties in North Carolina by land area but one of the most densely populated, packed onto a peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean. The county has only four incorporated towns — Wilmington plus the three beach communities — and the rest of the population lives in unincorporated CDPs and neighborhoods that sprawl across the county along the major highway corridors. Whether your address is downtown Wilmington, the north end of Pleasure Island, the rural pockets near the Pender County line, or a subdivision off Military Cutoff Road, our final expense and burial insurance coverage applies countywide.
Incorporated towns
| Town | Notes |
|---|---|
| Wilmington | County seat and the ninth-largest city in North Carolina; spans most of the county including the historic downtown along the Cape Fear River |
| Wrightsville Beach | Barrier island town connected to the mainland by drawbridges; includes Harbor Island and Shell Island |
| Carolina Beach | Pleasure Island town on the southern end of New Hanover County; absorbed Wilmington Beach in 2000 |
| Kure Beach | Smallest of the three beach towns; sits between Carolina Beach and Fort Fisher |
Unincorporated communities and CDPs
| Community | General location |
|---|---|
| Castle Hayne | Northern New Hanover County, just off I-140 and US 117 |
| Wrightsboro | North of Wilmington along NC 132 and US 117 corridor |
| Skippers Corner | Far northern county near the Pender County line |
| Murraysville | North-central Wilmington area near Gordon Road |
| Ogden | North Wilmington along Military Cutoff and US 17 |
| Porters Neck | Far north end of the county off US 17 toward Hampstead |
| Northchase | North Wilmington off North College Road |
| Bayshore | North Wilmington with boat ramp access on Pages Creek |
| Kings Grant | North-central Wilmington near North College Road |
| Kirkland | North Wilmington area |
| Hightsville | Older neighborhood within central Wilmington |
| Seagate | East Wilmington along Oleander Drive heading toward Wrightsville Beach |
| Masonboro | Southeast Wilmington along Masonboro Sound |
| Myrtle Grove | South Wilmington along Carolina Beach Road |
| Monkey Junction | Major intersection of Carolina Beach Road and South College Road in south Wilmington |
| Silver Lake | South Wilmington off Carolina Beach Road |
| Sea Breeze | Far southern county near the Snows Cut bridge |
Physical ZIP codes in New Hanover County
The ZIP codes below are the residential and mixed-use ZIPs that cover physical addresses in the county. We have excluded Wilmington’s PO Box-only ZIPs (28402, 28404, 28406, 28407, 28408) and the unique-entity ZIP 28410, since none of those represent residential communities.
| ZIP | Primary city/area | Communities served |
|---|---|---|
| 28401 | Wilmington | Downtown, Cape Fear River frontage, Carolina Place, Hightsville |
| 28403 | Wilmington | Mid-city, UNCW area, partial Wrightsville Beach mainland |
| 28405 | Wilmington | Mayfaire, Landfall, Ogden, Murraysville, Wrightsboro, Northchase, Kings Grant |
| 28409 | Wilmington | Myrtle Grove, Sea Breeze, Masonboro |
| 28411 | Wilmington | Porters Neck, Ogden, Bayshore, Scotts Hill area |
| 28412 | Wilmington | South Wilmington, Silver Lake, Myrtle Grove, Monkey Junction |
| 28428 | Carolina Beach | Carolina Beach, Wilmington Beach |
| 28429 | Castle Hayne | Castle Hayne, Wrightsboro, Skippers Corner |
| 28449 | Kure Beach | Kure Beach, Fort Fisher area |
| 28480 | Wrightsville Beach | Wrightsville Beach, Harbor Island, Shell Island |
Major roads and corridors
New Hanover County’s geography is shaped by a handful of arterial routes that almost everyone in the county uses on a daily basis. Interstate 40 reaches its eastern terminus in Wilmington after running across North Carolina from Raleigh and the Triangle. US 17 enters from Brunswick County across the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, becomes Market Street through downtown, and continues north toward Hampstead and Jacksonville. US 421 and US 76 share the bridge crossings into and out of the county. NC 132 (College Road) runs the length of the peninsula north-to-south and connects most of Wilmington’s commercial corridors. Military Cutoff Road links the Mayfaire and Landfall areas to Porters Neck via the newer Military Cutoff Bypass. Carolina Beach Road (US 421 South) is the main route from south Wilmington down to Pleasure Island, crossing Snows Cut to reach Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. Oleander Drive, Shipyard Boulevard, and Eastwood Road are the primary east-west routes through the city, and River Road follows the western edge of the county along the Cape Fear River south of downtown.
Final expense insurance from Palmetto Mutual is available to residents at any New Hanover County address — whether you live in a beachside condo on North Lumina Avenue in Wrightsville Beach, a historic home in downtown Wilmington’s 28401 corridor, a subdivision in the 28411 expansion north of Ogden, or out toward Castle Hayne in 28429. Coverage decisions are based on age and basic health questions, not your ZIP code, and the death benefit pays directly to your named beneficiary regardless of which Wilmington-area funeral home or cemetery they ultimately choose.
About the Author
Dvir Mosche is an award-winning independent insurance agent and the founder of Palmetto Mutual, a trusted insurance brokerage specializing in Final Expense Life Insurance. Since entering the industry in 2017, he has been recognized multiple times as a top agent for his dedication to educating and assisting seniors in finding the proper coverage. His mission is to simplify the process, provide honest and personalized guidance, and ensure that every client gets coverage they can depend on for life.
